Old Criminal Record

[mizzdanish]

Hey all, I have a question im hopoing i can get some answers to, my husband has a criminal record from 12 years ago, he received a fine and the fine is not yet paid in full. He was sent back to Grenada 13 months ago and now we are coming up to 4 months since our application for sponsorship has passed stage one approval, we didnt include a criminal record check from Grenada with our application because we wanted to get that fine paid first. Is this going to effect me sponsoring him even though its 12 years old? He was also charged in Canada in 2010 but those charges he was aquitted on.

 

[chakrab]

you will need to include a police clearance certificate and then hope for the best after that. the officer will try to match the offense with canadian laws and determine the severity.

 

[chinaman]

You filed your application in Oct 2013 and stage one approved already. So fast....
of coz I am not sure about the ans, but I think is a real good topic for us to follow.

 

[bartjones]

Hey all, I have a question im hopoing i can get some answers to, my husband has a criminal record from 12 years ago, he received a fine and the fine is not yet paid in full. He was sent back to Grenada 13 months ago and now we are coming up to 4 months since our application for sponsorship has passed stage one approval, we didnt include a criminal record check from Grenada with our application because we wanted to get that fine paid first. Is this going to effect me sponsoring him even though its 12 years old? He was also charged in Canada in 2010 but those charges he was aquitted on.

It's difficult to say without knowing the offence he committed, but IMO you are likely to have a serious problem. The foreign criminal conviction probably renders him inadmissible to Canada. Assuming his offence in Grenada was a minor one and the equivalent offence in Canada is also minor, your husband would be eligible for "deemed rehabilitation" if he met certain conditions. One of those conditions is that at least 10 years have elapsed since the day after the completion of the imposed sentence [see Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations s. 18(2) (ii)]. Since the sentence in this case was a fine which remains unpaid, he would not appear to have completed the imposed sentence and would therefore not be eligible for deemed rehabilitation.

You will want to get that fine paid ASAP. The sooner he pays it, the sooner the clock will begin ticking for rehabilitation. CIC will most certainly request a criminal background check from Grenada and when they see his conviction their next request will be for the court documents underlying that conviction and proof of when he paid the fine. I just finished going through this process with my wife who had an old DUI conviction from her home country.

Since criminality issues are always serious issues in an immigration application, you would be well advised to consult an immigration lawyer to see what your best options are.

 

[chakrab]

You filed your application in Oct 2013 and stage one approved already. So fast....
of coz I am not sure about the ans, but I think is a real good topic for us to follow.

for outland sponsorship, step 1 takes around a month

 

[taffy7]

It's difficult to say without knowing the offence he committed, but IMO you are likely to have a serious problem. The foreign criminal conviction probably renders him inadmissible to Canada. Assuming his offence in Grenada was a minor one and the equivalent offence in Canada is also minor, your husband would be eligible for "deemed rehabilitation" if he met certain conditions. One of those conditions is that at least 10 years have elapsed since the day after the completion of the imposed sentence [see Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations s. 18(2) (ii)]. Since the sentence in this case was a fine which remains unpaid, he would not appear to have completed the imposed sentence and would therefore not be eligible for deemed rehabilitation.

You will want to get that fine paid ASAP. The sooner he pays it, the sooner the clock will begin ticking for rehabilitation. CIC will most certainly request a criminal background check from Grenada and when they see his conviction their next request will be for the court documents underlying that conviction and proof of when he paid the fine. I just finished going through this process with my wife who had an old DUI conviction from her home country.

Since criminality issues are always serious issues in an immigration application, you would be well advised to consult an immigration lawyer to see what your best options are.

Did you wife's DUI come up on her police check .. just wondering how long ago it was ...

 

[bartjones]

Did you wife's DUI come up on her police check .. just wondering how long ago it was ...

It was from September 2008. When we did the criminal background check in Korea at the time we submitted her application, the DUI conviction did not show up. But that was only because the police hadn't searched all three of the criminal records databases Korea maintains. We had no idea that was the case until CIC Manila informed us of that in August 2013 and requested a further complete check. It's a very common mistake for Korean applicants to make because the incomplete check will indicate that the police checked "All Criminal History and Investigative Records". Sounds very thorough, but in fact it's incomplete.

The complete check did disclose the DUI. We sent that off to Manila in September 2013. In December 2013 they then requested the court order and court record underlying her conviction as well as the certificate showing when the fine was paid. Luckily, by then, 5 years had passed since the payment of the fine and completion of her license suspension and she was eligible to apply for criminal rehabilitation. Criminal Rehabilitation was granted last week and she's now home free in terms of criminality issues.

The problem the OP has is that the fine has never been paid, so the 5 years you need to be able to apply for rehabilitation, or 10 years you need to be deemed rehabilitated hasn't even begun to run.

It would be helpful to know what his conviction was for. It may be that there is no equivalent criminal offence in Canada, in which case he would be fine.

 

[mizzdanish]

Hey thanks for all your replys. The offense here was a pretty serious one, we spoke with a lawyer yesterday (im in Grenada at the moment) and he says there was something (not a passed law) saying after 10 years this crime cant be used against you, but like you all said he hasnt paid the fine so it might be a problem, we have a child together so im certainly worried that she is going to grow without her father

 

[zardoz]

You should be aware that regardless of how a country deals with "expired" convictions, Canada has it's own rules for immigration purposes and does not recognise "expiration" in other jurisdictions. Therefore, even if an conviction is no longer visible, it must still be declared to CIC when making the application.

 

[mizzdanish]

For sure I get that, its obvious we have to include the record check, we were just trying to get the fine paid before sending it in,

 

[bartjones]

Hey thanks for all your replys. The offense here was a pretty serious one, we spoke with a lawyer yesterday (im in Grenada at the moment) and he says there was something (not a passed law) saying after 10 years this crime cant be used against you, but like you all said he hasnt paid the fine so it might be a problem, we have a child together so im certainly worried that she is going to grow without her father

Don't give up on it. Your application may be refused but given the age of the conviction and the fact that you have a child together, you might have a chance on appeal based on H&C grounds. As I said earlier, when you get back to Canada go see a good immigration lawyer. Criminality issues like this are complicated and a lawyer will be able to give you a better idea what your options are and what you should do.