Border Crossings After a Criminal Conviction

One of our several offices is located in Windsor, Ontario. And that, of course, is a border city. So we represent a lot of clients who might get convicted of a criminal charge, and they want to enter the United States. So the first question is, am I allowed to cross into the border after my criminal conviction? Well, the answer depends on a lot of factors and it boils down to the type of charge you have. So when you go up to the border, you know, they have, the border guards have access to our CPIC system. That’s the Canadian police computer system with your criminal record right on it. So you’ll want to be first of all very truthful with them. If they ask you have a criminal record, and there’s certain crimes that you’re not allowed to cross.  So if you go online, you’ll see that basically immigration system in the US and law could change anytime but this is as of today, and this is in early 2023 or early March, a lot could change at any time, of course. But as of today, the Immigration Act in the states divides criminal records into crimes of moral turpitude or non-moral turpitude. So in other words, serious crimes involving your character versus not character. And supposedly, if you read that Act carefully, you’ll see online as well. Things like a DUI, impaired driving are supposed to be non-moral turpitude, you’re supposedly able to cross with those and most of our clients are able to cross with those no problem.  Assault, simple assaults and other crime, non-moral turpitude. Whereas more serious crimes involving your character dishonesty, like drug offenses and major violence offenses like assault bodily harm, crimes of dishonesty, like theft and drug cases, and things like these, these are considered more serious crimes of moral turpitude. You’re going to get refused and you can enter.  I wouldn’t necessarily even try to enter with those crimes. Now, the problem with the border that we tell, first of all, we’re not immigration experts, I’m just going by what I read, I have consulted with many immigration lawyers and experts on both sides. So I know more than that what I led on when I’m talking but obviously we’re represent hundreds of these types of clients in Windsor over the years. The problem with the border is occasionally a border guard will make a mistake. So you’ll go there. You’ve got a DUI conviction, and tell him that, him or her that and they refuse you they’ve made a mistake. You should be able to clear that up. It’s a bit of effort. But you should be able to do that. But that’s a very unfortunate situation. It happens rarely, but you’re, you know, you’re there’s a law and then there’s a border guard you’re facing. So it’s that’s very important, but you know if you’re charged for the crime of moral turpitude, and that’s one of the laundry list of crimes you’ll see online, such as sexual assault, I wouldn’t even necessarily attempt you crossing into the states. And by God, if you get refused ever at the States do not ever attempt to cross again, and to get cleared, that cleared up. And we the way you can clear it up you can potentially get what’s called a waiver. It’s a lot of paperwork. You could hire a lawyer to do that or do it yourself. It’s a bit complicated, but you can do it yourself with some effort, you could find the forms online. So that’s it, clients, I cautiously tell them that you should be able to cross if it’s non moral turpitude, don’t even attempt to cross the US border with if it’s moral turpitude, and then I hope the border guard never makes a mistake, because that’s a frustrating thing, especially if it holidays set to go to the States. So as I mentioned, we have many offices in Ontario. We have offices in Toronto, Windsor, Kitchener, London, we handle all the cities in all in between. In fact, we’ll go travel all throughout Ontario for  more serious matters such as sexual assault. For example, you can call our Toronto sexual assault lawyers, we have experts to serve you, and we’ll get you some free good advice and give you a quote for our services.