interview for criminality: wht to expect?

[waiting.....]

hello friends/experts!

my dad (principal applicant) was arrested in 1995 (more than 17 yrs now) with 20 other people n was in jail for abt a month. only 2 out of 20 were convicted under attempt to murder n rest all were acquitted including my dad. court judgement says tht "other people- including my dad" were just included bcoz they belonged to opposite party/village. Now, VO is suspicious of criminality n wants to interview my dad to find out if he may be inadmissible to canada under IRPA 36 (1)(c). however i found this on cic website under FAQ's:

Question: I was charged with a crime in another country and found not guilty. Can I enter Canada?

Answer: Yes, as long as you are not inadmissible for any other reason. When a court in any country decides that you are not guilty of committing a crime, you are not criminally inadmissible for that crime and you can likely enter and stay in Canada.

we attached court judgement with the forms and the two PCCs we submitted were all clear with nothing against him. my dad is living in the the same village since his birth. tht was the only one case registered against him, nothing before or after tht. so my questions are:

1) is there anything tht we can do before the interview??
2) wht kind of questions can he expect in the interview?
3) my mom n sister r dependent. r they going to be interviewed as well?
4) wht is the timeline for parents sponsorship cases with interview? in the acknowledgement letter it says it could be 44 months, which seems too long. anybody had interview b4 (for any reason) n aftr hw many months did u get the interview call or letter?
its already 5.5 yrs since i applied n case is new delhi for last 24 months, waiting for another two years seems very tough.

ur advice is of extreme value to me. please share ur suggestions and experiences.

 

[truesmile]

Since your Dad is the one that was charged, likely he is only one they are very eager to interview. At this interview, all of the circumstances of your Dad's life, past and present will be examined. He has the right to bring a legal representative to the interview and any supporting documentation or evidence which you or he thinks will demonstrate why his permanent resident status should not denied.

Good luck. I'm not sure how many of those from 'personal experience' of this sort will come to the surface here.

 

[waiting.....]

Since your Dad is the one that was charged, likely he is only one they are very eager to interview. At this interview, all of the circumstances of your Dad's life, past and present will be examined. He has the right to bring a legal representative to the interview and any supporting documentation or evidence which you or he thinks will demonstrate why his permanent resident status should not denied.

Good luck. I'm not sure how many of those from 'personal experience' of this sort will come to the surface here.

thank u very much for ur response truesmile!
But as I mentioned earlier, accor to FAQ on cic website u cannot b inadmissible if court found u not guilty of crime. My dad was not found guilty so no convictions.N hw does the 10 yr rehablitation period works? Please explain if u can. Will appreciate tht.

 

[frankinto]

thank u very much for ur response truesmile!
But as I mentioned earlier, accor to FAQ on cic website u cannot b inadmissible if court found u not guilty of crime. My dad was not found guilty so no convictions.N hw does the 10 yr rehablitation period works? Please explain if u can. Will appreciate tht.

Normally it should be ok, but the VO has a lot of leeway; he is not held to the normal standard of proof. He or she has to be satisfied that no crime occurred.

The 10 year period means that in the case of serious criminality (according to the opinion of CIC), a person is eligible to apply for criminal rehabilitation 10 years after their sentence and/or probation period has been completed. This application is complex and can take several years to process; after it is granted, the person becomes eligible to apply for permanent residence. So in your case, in the unlikely event that your dad needs this rehabilitation, he would be able to apply for it immediately since more than 10 years have elapsed. But again, an interview should be enough to make it clear that he wasn't involved.

 

[Fencesitter]

Attempted murder? What are the details?

This is a very serious charge, so I would guess the VO will grill him...

FS

 

[waiting.....]

i never thought it wud b this hard all i found fm the immigration manuals n guides was for crimes wen u r convicted n nthng wen acquitted, how many times u did the crime n hw long it has been since serving ur convictions. doesnt it matter tht he was charged only once in his more than 50 yrs life? and Acquitted?? and 17 yrs to tht incidence (and again- found not guilty!).

Gud thing tht i shared it over here and can help my dad prepare for the interview. but i m more worried now because:
1) my dad doesnt speak or understand english. so he wud need a translator for interview.
2) the TRUTH is: he was not even involved in that. wen he heard abt the gun shots, he went to see wht happened n got arrested on the way (i hope he had known at that time tht he wud b filling for canadian immigration...so stayed out ). i dont knw if VO will listen to his side of story (the truth) or wud feel tht he just manipulating the things to get away :'(
please keep sharing ur view and helping me!!

 

[waiting.....]

Attempted murder? What are the details?

This is a very serious charge, so I would guess the VO will grill him...

FS

ohh no ....not attempted murder for my dad! he was found not guilty of the charges against him and hence ACQUITTED by the court.

THE ISSUE: was abt water canal outlet. a family frm my village wanted to close it bcoz it was damaging their crops while another family fm neighboring village wanted it open bcoz it irrigated their fields (or vice-versa, i m not sure of the exact details but general story is like this.) so on this particular day, wen one side tried to open the canal, the other came in n tried to stop them. so they had a fight and somebody fired the gun. police came in and arrested who so ever they found. so in total 20 (0r 23) people were arrested frm my village side (including my dad). i dont knw frm the other village. so later, the person(s- 2) who fired the gun were convicted under attempt to murder while all others were found not guilty. AND, as i told earlier, my dad just got arrested on the way to the place of actual incidence. so please suggest if this cud b explained in a better way?