CRIMINAL REHABILITATION and PERMANENT RESIDENCE APPLICATIONS

[Sunset0505]

Hi!

I am in a similar situation. It has been extremely stressful. My Boyfriend had two misdemeanor D.U.I's within a few months about 8 years ago now. We tried to have him come up for the first time in December, did not go so well...So now we are putting together an application for Criminal Rehabilitation and seeing that you can submit it to a Port of Entry is fantastic News. I live in Vancouver and he lives North of Seattle. I even called the CBSA office and she said all ports of entry should offer immigration services and accept the application if we go during business hours at a port of entry. However their website offices say differently and they have been recently updated. Has anyone had experience submitting an application on the West Coast? We are just waiting for his national FBI certificate and then to fill out a few things and the application is ready to go. I am extremely nervous as there is a lot riding on this. If anyone can offer tips or experience with submission of their applications it would be extremely helpful, thanks in advance!
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Our Journey started in 2004, when they refused my husband...that was when they had the tiny little office at Peace Arch!...long story short...TRP application 2009, which was a rehab at the time, was not approved until 2012 and good until Sept 2015...Submitted PR application in April 2014...in May 2015 we had not heard ANYTHING from CIC so submitted another Rehab application just in Case...sent it to NYC cause we live in VA...In the summer of 2015 CIC LA, which is where our PR application went in July 2014, requested a Rehab application...we told them it was in NYC and thanks goodness NYC transferred it to CIC LA....LA CIC thought it'd be a good idea to request an interview, yes we had been together for 11.5 years and married 10 years...yes we are 4 hours from NYC but had to fly to LA in NOV 2015...At the interview we were advised that if the Medical had been review she would have handed us the approved PR but it was not reviewed until two days after the interview.....while all this was going on CIC changed the size of the photos so we had to courier the new sized photos to LA...once that was rec'd we rec'd the Approved PR and Rehab in hand on 23DEC2015...Advise...Do everything they say, CIC requested a photo copy of a page from a Maryland law book from 1986, not certified or anything just a photo copy, our lawyer laughed,...request case notes each month after they receive the application, that was how we found out that our application sat on someone's desk or whatever for 9 months without anyone touching it..and wait....

 

[J3N05]

Oh my goodness that sounds so long and dreadful. So I am wrong to hope this can be processed within a month or two. If my boyfriend had any charges before 18 that will show up on state and fbi certificate too right, I'm not sure if he did....but same applies to that for the application? And I printed off State certificate off the internet, would a notarized copy really be any different from a printed one?

 

[VatoQChopeful]

Oh my goodness that sounds so long and dreadful. So I am wrong to hope this can be processed within a month or two. If my boyfriend had any charges before 18 that will show up on state and fbi certificate too right, I'm not sure if he did....but same applies to that for the application? And I printed off State certificate off the internet, would a notarized copy really be any different from a printed one?

Since he had two DUI's I'm not sure that he would be eligible to apply at a port of entry. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/inadmissibility/rehabilitation.asp#a2

This page says you can only have 1 conviction total to be eligible to apply at a port of entry.

Also, I had to get my state criminal history from the state police department, couldn't just print one from the internet. As far as the juvenile record, I'm not sure if they will take it into account or not. I guess it would depend on the charge.

 

[VatoQChopeful]

Oh my goodness that sounds so long and dreadful. So I am wrong to hope this can be processed within a month or two. If my boyfriend had any charges before 18 that will show up on state and fbi certificate too right, I'm not sure if he did....but same applies to that for the application? And I printed off State certificate off the internet, would a notarized copy really be any different from a printed one?

Also, make sure there has been a minimum of 5 years since he has completed all of his sentence for both convictions (any jail time, probation, classes, community service, and/or fines paid).
(i.e. 1 year probation from August 28, 2008 - August 27, 2009 would make you eligible to apply after August 28, 2014.)

 

[J3N05]

Hi,

Thanks for the tip about notarized copies....However he isn't applying for deemed rehabilitation, he is applying for criminal rehabilitation, so when I spoke with a CBSA officer she said it would be accepted at any port of entry. Hopefully she did not confuse the two.... :

And it has been 7 years since the last D.U.I

 

[VatoQChopeful]

Hi,

Thanks for the tip about notarized copies....However he isn't applying for deemed rehabilitation, he is applying for criminal rehabilitation, so when I spoke with a CBSA officer she said it would be accepted at any port of entry. Hopefully she did not confuse the two.... :

And it has been 7 years since the last D.U.I

He would be "deemed" rehabilitated if he was approved for criminal rehabilitation. Also, just make sure the dates are from the conviction date, but from the last day of his sentence. A lot of people get the dates mistaken.

Good luck to you! I hope everything works out!!

 

[lastflightout]

has anyone dealt with errors on their application? I put down a time frame(already past...didn't realize how long the process takes) were I was going to be travelling to Canada but need additional days in the future. From my understanding and hope is that the multiple entry visa that they give will be sufficient. BTW...my app is for a trp since I don't qualify for criminal rehabilitation.

 

[Sunset0505]

He would be "deemed" rehabilitated if he was approved for criminal rehabilitation. Also, just make sure the dates are from the conviction date, but from the last day of his sentence. A lot of people get the dates mistaken.

Good luck to you! I hope everything works out!!

FYI my hubby was over 11 years and they also wanted info from 1986...CIC can pick what if into they want and what they don't want...if you read the fine print in the "act" everything is up to the discretion of the agent...I personally think they had us go through all that we did as a test...I am not kidding....it was the how bad do you want it test..As for my hubby's TRP it was good for three years and had unlimited entries...we had to go into the building or off to the side each time but i was never a problem once he had his TRP...

 

[J3N05]

He would be "deemed" rehabilitated if he was approved for criminal rehabilitation. Also, just make sure the dates are from the conviction date, but from the last day of his sentence. A lot of people get the dates mistaken.

Good luck to you! I hope everything works out!!

Thanks! So if he was sentenced to for example 35 days in jail, it says below days suspended 30, which i think means he only spent 5 days in jail, so would it be after the 5 days he served? or after the full sentence...that part sort of confuses me.

 

[J3N05]

FYI my hubby was over 11 years and they also wanted info from 1986...CIC can pick what if into they want and what they don't want...if you read the fine print in the "act" everything is up to the discretion of the agent...I personally think they had us go through all that we did as a test...I am not kidding....it was the how bad do you want it test..As for my hubby's TRP it was good for three years and had unlimited entries...we had to go into the building or off to the side each time but i was never a problem once he had his TRP...

Ahh I see, a test, really, do you think that if he didn't get approved for rehabiliation you would apply for the TRP?

 

[Sunset0505]

Ahh I see, a test, really, do you think that if he didn't get approved for rehabiliation you would apply for the TRP?

We had a TRP when we applied..TRP and Rehab are not related when we first applied it was the same thing..

 

[J3N05]

has anyone dealt with errors on their application? I put down a time frame(already past...didn't realize how long the process takes) were I was going to be travelling to Canada but need additional days in the future. From my understanding and hope is that the multiple entry visa that they give will be sufficient. BTW...my app is for a trp since I don't qualify for criminal rehabilitation.

I read that if there are any missing documents, or no translation for any paperwork it could get sent back to you which will make the process take longer. I will have to triple and quadruple check our application, make sure all those t's are crossed and i's are dotted.

 

[Sunset0505]

has anyone dealt with errors on their application? I put down a time frame(already past...didn't realize how long the process takes) were I was going to be travelling to Canada but need additional days in the future. From my understanding and hope is that the multiple entry visa that they give will be sufficient. BTW...my app is for a trp since I don't qualify for criminal rehabilitation.

We didn't have a choice on that length of time we wanted a TRP for...CIC gave us three years with multi entries....but when they said jump we asked how high...they kept asking for more paper work and more paper work and we did what they asked...

 

[J3N05]

So I am going this week or next with my boyfriend to the border to submit his application for rehabilitation. If anyone has submitted it this way, can you tell me what to expect? Will they allow me in the room while he submits everything? Will they question us? I am trying to make sure all documents are ready to go but I am still waiting on the FBI report and they received and processed the payment as of yesterday, and one more court document from a different county. If anyone can offer advice on presentation of the application package itself too would be much appreciated

Also, has everyone here who submitted their Criminal rehabilitation application only had one conviction? Sorry if that's a personal question, it's just I did ask a CBSA agent first individual rehabilitation then she said it's all criminal rehabilitation, and all ports of entry now deal with immigration cases. So she said I can take it to a port of entry. He does have a few convictions. So now I am just really worried. I do not want to take everything there to be turned away. So has anyone submitted with more than one conviction? Thanks....

 

[bartjones]

He'll just submit it at the counter. The CBSA officer will review it for completeness and, assuming it's complete, take your payment and send you on your way. They may call him back for an interview later or they may not. The additional convictions may present a problem for him. Just submit it and hope for the best.