Inland Spousal Sponsorship: Assistance and Advice

[Kevin4097]

Hello,

I am a 30 year old US citizen, I recently married my gf of 4 years last December, 2020, she is a 27 yr old canadian citizen. We have been on/ off living together these past 4 years within the constraints of immigration regulations, she has been living in the USA with me at my parents ( due to covid 19 ) since Dec 7th, 2019 ( with a trip to Canada for 7 days within that time period). We applied for a visitor visa extension for her to stay in the USA while the world figured out Covid and how we could proceed with our lives. We now intend to fly to YYZ in february, quarantine at her dads house and apply for inland sponsorship and an OWP for me. I have a DUI in California from Dec, 2009, which has not been 10 years from the end of the 3 year probation thus not deemed rehabilitated, but I have had the conviction expunged under penal code 1203.4, which from my research is recognized as a canadian pardon and deemed to have never occurred, thereby making me admissable, according to the CIC Manual, in various ENF sections.

My questions are:
A) I assume I will indicate that I have a criminal conviction on form IMM5569 under question 4 (a) and jail time for 4( j ) with a written explanation of the conviction, dates, sentencing, and expungement information below. Is this correct? Should I include a brief character summary at the end explaining my commitment to living an honest and law abiding life since? Or would I include a character summary elsewhere in supporting evidence? Should I link the summary to this question? I'll be including all relevant court documents for the DUI, Expungement, a written letter describing me and my achievements/ work history since the DUI etc.

I have spoken with 3 lawyers, and I really think I can complete the application on my own, however I would like a document review. Yet every lawyer I speak with says it's compicated and I should hire them to take full control of the application and pay the 5-8k CAD for this service. This DUI is my only conviction/ any unlawful act in my life, what are your thoughts on me representing the information clearly and completing the application on our own (with the aid of a document review for ~$1800 USD).

B) On Form 5669, question 6) Should I enter travel history of all places traveled, Or only places I've lived longer than 6 months? Also, Should I enter Canada as my current place of residence being that I am technically "Visiting" at my Partners canadian residence? Or would I indicate my house in california?
-On form 5406, Do I enter my girlfriends address as my present address
-on form 5562, do I leave the TO( yyyy,mm,dd) section blank if I am still in Canada at the time of applying as my most recent travel out of country?


Any help is appreciated, it's been a pain in the butt to get answers, and every Lawyer I ask to bill me for questions and document review simply says I should have a consultation, over and over, which afterwards they want full representation. I understand the path, I just have specific questions ya know!? !? Why do I have to pay 300- 500 CAD for a 30 min-1 hr consultation when I have very specific questions that should take less than 5 minutes.

 

[scylla]

Hello,

I am a 30 year old US citizen, I recently married my gf of 4 years last December, 2020, she is a 27 yr old canadian citizen. We have been on/ off living together these past 4 years within the constraints of immigration regulations, she has been living in the USA with me at my parents ( due to covid 19 ) since Dec 7th, 2019 ( with a trip to Canada for 7 days within that time period). We applied for a visitor visa extension for her to stay in the USA while the world figured out Covid and how we could proceed with our lives. We now intend to fly to YYZ in february, quarantine at her dads house and apply for inland sponsorship and an OWP for me. I have a DUI in California from Dec, 2009, which has not been 10 years from the end of the 3 year probation thus not deemed rehabilitated, but I have had the conviction expunged under penal code 1203.4, which from my research is recognized as a canadian pardon and deemed to have never occurred, thereby making me admissable, according to the CIC Manual, in various ENF sections.

My questions are:
A) I assume I will indicate that I have a criminal conviction on form IMM5569 under question 4 (a) and jail time for 4( j ) with a written explanation of the conviction, dates, sentencing, and expungement information below. Is this correct? Should I include a brief character summary at the end explaining my commitment to living an honest and law abiding life since? Or would I include a character summary elsewhere in supporting evidence? Should I link the summary to this question? I'll be including all relevant court documents for the DUI, Expungement, a written letter describing me and my achievements/ work history since the DUI etc.

I have spoken with 3 lawyers, and I really think I can complete the application on my own, however I would like a document review. Yet every lawyer I speak with says it's compicated and I should hire them to take full control of the application and pay the 5-8k CAD for this service. This DUI is my only conviction/ any unlawful act in my life, what are your thoughts on me representing the information clearly and completing the application on our own (with the aid of a document review for ~$1800 USD).

B) On Form 5669, question 6) Should I enter travel history of all places traveled, Or only places I've lived longer than 6 months? Also, Should I enter Canada as my current place of residence being that I am technically "Visiting" at my Partners canadian residence? Or would I indicate my house in california?
-On form 5406, Do I enter my girlfriends address as my present address
-on form 5562, do I leave the TO( yyyy,mm,dd) section blank if I am still in Canada at the time of applying as my most recent travel out of country?


Any help is appreciated, it's been a pain in the butt to get answers, and every Lawyer I ask to bill me for questions and document review simply says I should have a consultation, over and over, which afterwards they want full representation. I understand the path, I just have specific questions ya know!? !? Why do I have to pay 300- 500 CAD for a 30 min-1 hr consultation when I have very specific questions that should take less than 5 minutes.

Can you clarify your dates? When did you complete the 3 year probation? In order to enter Canada, you must either either be deemed rehabilitation or have applied for rehabilitation and have had your application approved.

 

[Kevin4097]

Can you clarify your dates? When did you complete the 3 year probation? In order to enter Canada, you must either either be deemed rehabilitation or have applied for rehabilitation and have had your application approved.

I am not deemed rehabilitated as the conviction was Dec, 2009, 3 years probation would put my sentence completion at Dec, 2012, thereby deemed rehabilitated in Dec, 2022. However, The 2 lawyers and 2 professional consultants I have spoken with have told me that because the conviction was expunged PC 1203.4, and shows the case dismissed/ plea retracted. This was confirmed in the CIC Manual as stated:

A conviction does not exist in the following situations:
· the conviction is set aside on appeal;
· the court grants an absolute or conditional discharge as provided for in the Criminal Code;
· the person is granted a pardon in a foreign jurisdiction and the pardon is recognized as equivalent to a Canadian record suspension.

As well:
To assist officers in determining whether a conviction has occurred in the United States (U.S.), the following table provides some commonly used terminology in the U.S. along with the relative Canadian interpretation. All officers should use these interpretations so that the various provisions of the Act may be applied both consistently and universally.
Expunged Not a conviction. Expunged means to strike out; obliterate; mark for deletion; to efface completely; deemed to have never occurred.

Some say an expunged DUI still isn't admissible, due to the "committing an act" provision, where despite having no conviction, the act itself is still considered an offence in Canadian law. Once again as per the manual:
The “committing an act” inadmissibility provisions would generally not be applied in the following scenarios: · in most cases, when authorities in the foreign jurisdiction indicate they would not lay a charge or make known to an officer their decision or intent to drop the charges;
· the trial is concluded and no conviction results (for example, acquittal, discharge, deferral);
· the person admits to committing the act but has received a record suspension or the record is expunged;
· the act was committed in Canada.

Wouldn't that suffice to say I am admissable, and the process should be relatively straight forward as an inland spousal sponsorship? My more pertinent question is whether I indicate it as a conviction to the question in form IMM 5669, and how to go about wording it appropriately.

 

[scylla]

I am not deemed rehabilitated as the conviction was Dec, 2009, 3 years probation would put my sentence completion at Dec, 2012, thereby deemed rehabilitated in Dec, 2022. However, The 2 lawyers and 2 professional consultants I have spoken with have told me that because the conviction was expunged PC 1203.4, and shows the case dismissed/ plea retracted. This was confirmed in the CIC Manual as stated:



Wouldn't that suffice to say I am admissable, and the process should be relatively straight forward as an inland spousal sponsorship? My more pertinent question is whether I indicate it as a conviction to the question in form IMM 5669, and how to go about wording it appropriately.

Sorry - I missed the expungement bit. Yes, then you should be OK from an admissibility perspective.

Yes - you need to mention this in your inland application and then provide the details and paperwork around the expungement.