SPONSORING SPOUSE FROM LEBANON- QUESTION ABOUT PERMANENT RECORD

[battty]

Hi everyone,
I had a question, I was wondering if anybody would be able to help me out.
I got married on December 29th 2016 but have not yet applied for my husband as he was in the Lebanese military and was "convicted" for leaving the army early and it shows on his permanent record.
I have the record officially translated if that would be any help.
All the lawyers I have called or talked to have been extremely rude and dismissive.
The conviction can be cleared off his record in September so we decided to wait until then to apply.
Does anybody have any experience with anything similar to this or know somebody who can assist me? Should we wait until September or will it not affect our application?
Thank you in advance!

 

[sama2]

Hey there,

From what it seems, I do not think his charge should be an issue.

According to what I've read, there must be an equivalent offense in Canada to the act he committed abroad and I am not sure that there is. If there is no equivalent offense in Canada, then he will be able to enter Canada no problem.

CIC typically only applies the "committed an act" provision to acts that are considered to be indictable offenses in Canada and punishable by a maximum term/imprisonment of at least 10 years. And even if you committed an act in a foreign country that would be considered a summary offense in Canada, you will still likely be able to enter Canada anyways.

However, if you haven't started filling out any documents, it might take you until September, either way, to get them all done; it is a time-consuming process.

Also, if you submit the paperwork before September, you can add a piece of paper explaining that his charges will be dismissed in September and then in September go ahead and inform CIC that a change has occurred and they will change the conviction. They will take a while to process an application and his information will not be looked at early in the process, only later after your eligibility (as the sponsor) has been approved.

I hope this helped! Keep an eye out for more responses from other people here. I know others have good information and knowledge too and will give you some answers in a day or two.

Best of luck.