Dismissed misdemeanor, need to report on visitor extension app?

[NMBCMD]

CLose to 5 years ago in the US me and my friend got pulled over and we had some marijuana on us and the cops found it. We were charged with a petty misdemeanor and the judge dismissed the charges and we had to do community service.

Im working on common law requirements with my canadian GF in order to be sponsored for PR. I have to apply to extend my visitor status in order to reach 12 months of communal living.

My question is do i need to say "yes" to the criminal background question on the visitor extension app? Ive read some conflicting things on other posts about this. Since the charges were dismissed and I completed the community service would i still need to say yes or would it be better to just say no since no conviction.

If i did say yes and explained would that greatly hurt my chances of getting approved? Or would saying no and them finding it hurt more? And if i was not approved would that hurt my chances with future applications? By the time they process my app we'll have reached the 12 month mark and we could just apply for PR while i go back to the states

 

[Landagirl]

Honesty is the best option cause if they found out it could hurt you more and keep you out ofCanada for a while. They may never find out, but the risk isn't worth it. You can always do up a letter and explain it all and hopefully it isn't an issue and appreciate that you are an honest person. Just my 2 cents though.

 

[NMBCMD]

Honesty is the best option cause if they found out it could hurt you more and keep you out ofCanada for a while. They may never find out, but the risk isn't worth it. You can always do up a letter and explain it all and hopefully it isn't an issue and appreciate that you are an honest person. Just my 2 cents though.

Ya i think you might be right. Its just annoying worrying about it. Id love for it to just not have to come up. Especially cuz it was the dumbest most petty of offenses and the charges were dismissed.

 

[scylla]

CLose to 5 years ago in the US me and my friend got pulled over and we had some marijuana on us and the cops found it. We were charged with a petty misdemeanor and the judge dismissed the charges and we had to do community service.

Im working on common law requirements with my canadian GF in order to be sponsored for PR. I have to apply to extend my visitor status in order to reach 12 months of communal living.

My question is do i need to say "yes" to the criminal background question on the visitor extension app? Ive read some conflicting things on other posts about this. Since the charges were dismissed and I completed the community service would i still need to say yes or would it be better to just say no since no conviction.

If i did say yes and explained would that greatly hurt my chances of getting approved? Or would saying no and them finding it hurt more? And if i was not approved would that hurt my chances with future applications? By the time they process my app we'll have reached the 12 month mark and we could just apply for PR while i go back to the states

Are you sure it was dismissed? Dismissed means you were found not guilty and there was no penalty given. If you had to serve community service, this isn't a full dismissal - it must fall under a different class. You should definitely declare it.

 

[NMBCMD]

Are you sure it was dismissed? Dismissed means you were found not guilty and there was no penalty given. If you had to serve community service, this isn't a full dismissal - it must fall under a different class. You should definitely declare it.

Okay thats really good to know. They said to us that it was dismissed and thats the term they used but i guess if we were given community service.

When i declare it do i need to have some sort of proof or will it pop up in their criminal check? I have definitely lost my documentation of the event over the years.

Will this make my app take longer to process? And is there a chance I could be denied extension status and subsequently PR down the road?

 

[Landagirl]

Okay thats really good to know. They said to us that it was dismissed and thats the term they used but i guess if we were given community service.

When i declare it do i need to have some sort of proof or will it pop up in their criminal check? I have definitely lost my documentation of the event over the years.

Will this make my app take longer to process? And is there a chance I could be denied extension status and subsequently PR down the road?

I am sure it will pop up if you did community service. I wonder if you can get a copy of your charge and their so called dismissal from the court records? It may take a bit longer but if you have copies of it from the court house you could include them with your application.