I was wondering is anyone had advice on my situation and what to do. I just recently tried to cross the border and asked to stay for 5 months. I asked to stay 3 months this past summer had no issues. I left at the end of the summer and went back to work in the states. ( I am a US citizen and my husband is Canadian Citizen) My husband and I decided since the family class sponsorship should be done soon I should just wait the remainder of the time with him. The border agent this time deemed me as criminally inadmissible to Canada even though I do not have a conviction on my record. I was arrested for a shoplifting incident in the state of New Hampshire in 2012. My case was a placed on a file without a finding. So I was neither found guilty or not guilty. There was no conviction, just an arrest and a charge. He said I have to apply for rehabilitation before entering Canada again and my whole sponsorship will be denied. I wanted to get advice if that is true or not? I don't understand if there was no conviction why do I need to prove rehabilitation? I am now worried that since he deemed me as inadmissible right at the end process of my sponsorship how that will be affected and what I should do. I do not have any other charges or arrests and it will be 7 years this upcoming year since the incident. I want to be able to see my husband asap as this border agent ruined our holiday plans. If you could please point me in the right direction or provide some guidance. I have made the attempt to contact some immigration lawyers for answers, but maybe someone had a similar experience to this. My husband thinks I should take all the paperwork I have now and plead my case to another border agent, but I am not sure if I want to risk that. I have been coming and going to Canada for 3 years with no issues and never been in trouble. Someone please advise.
Criminial Inadmissibility/ Family Class Sponorship
- Thread starter j.schwering123
- Start date
Placed on file without a finding means "Placed on file without a finding: A legal term used to describe the disposition or outcome of a case. It means you maintain your innocence or continue your not-guilty status for a period of time conditioned upon good behavior and possibly some other conditions. Once the period of time is completed and you have followed the conditions, the case is usually dismissed. Even though the case is dismissed, the arrest, charge, and disposition of placed on file without a finding still remain documented on your record." I was not convicted for the initial charge.
Nope. It was at sears $72 worth of goods so the state didn't bother pursuing me. No prior arrests or charges before the shoplifting incident or since the shoplifting incident, which was almost 7 years ago at this point. I was shocked when the border agent turned me around. He said I need to prove rehabilitation. But if there's no conviction why would I have to do that?
Here is what happened.
When you go in Canada as a tourist, there are no detailed criminal checks made. So unless there is an outstanding international warrant, they do not know your detailed criminal history.
But you have started spousal sponsorship at certain point of time. I can only assume that around the summer time, it was just after the paperwork had been sent out so they did not do checking with USA yet.
However in between it was done and suddenly your criminal history is visible. So that is the reason why you were stopped this time.
Make your rehabilitation application on the closest border crossing where such thing is possible. It is much faster than to do that by sending by post.
Good luck
When you go in Canada as a tourist, there are no detailed criminal checks made. So unless there is an outstanding international warrant, they do not know your detailed criminal history.
But you have started spousal sponsorship at certain point of time. I can only assume that around the summer time, it was just after the paperwork had been sent out so they did not do checking with USA yet.
However in between it was done and suddenly your criminal history is visible. So that is the reason why you were stopped this time.
Make your rehabilitation application on the closest border crossing where such thing is possible. It is much faster than to do that by sending by post.
Good luck
You are admissible. You only need to obtain certified court documents of your case disposition and you will be just fine.
NCIC check is made for Americans traveling into Canada. The case was probably visible from the start but since there was no final disposition it was up to the border agent to decide. Without a court document proving the disposition of the case the border agent is free to assume the traveler was convicted on that case and deny them entry.
Pending applications don't affect admissibility until they are completed.