Your past criminal record in a foreign country—even if considerable time has passed—can prevent you from being allowed into Canada.
Under Canadian law, any non-citizen can be denied entry on account of criminal inadmissibility.
If you’re eligible, there are ways you may be able to overcome criminal inadmissibility, depending on a variety of factors, such as the time elapsed since your sentence was completed and the severity of the crime(s).
This article will cover
- How Canadian authorities classify and assess criminal inadmissibility;
- Offence classification based on severity;
- Options available to you for overcoming criminal inadmissibility;
- The consequences you may face for being criminally inadmissible; and
- The types of offences that may make you inadmissible to Canada.
How Canada assesses criminal inadmissibility
Unless you’re a Canadian citizen, you may be found “criminally inadmissible,” and denied entry into Canada due to your past criminal history.
To result in criminal inadmissibility, an offence must have been a crime in the jurisdiction in which it took place, and must correspond to an equivalent offence under Canadian law.
As a non-citizen, you can be found criminally inadmissible to Canada on account of
- Having committed an offence, (regardless of whether you were charged or convicted for that offence);
- Having been charged with an offence, (even if you were not prosecuted or convicted for that offence);
- Being under pending charges for an offence, (regardless of whether you committed that offence or not); or
- Having been convicted of an offence.
