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- If you have a criminal record in Canada and get a Pardon, which is now called a Record Suspension, can you travel to the United States?

- The answer depends on whether you have been refused entry to the United States before you got your Pardon or Record Suspension.

- In this context, there are two scenarios.

- Scenario #1.  You were never denied entry to the United States, and now you have your Pardon.

- And, Scenario #2.  You were denied entry to the United States before you got your Pardon.

- Let me walk you through each scenario and what it means for your travel to the United States.



Scenario #1.  You were never denied entry to the United States, and now you have your Pardon or Record Suspension.



- In this case, you should be able to travel to the United States because the United States does not know about your criminal record.

- Your Pardon removed your criminal record from the Canadian criminal records database, and the United States can’t see it.

- So the United States does not know about your criminal record, and you should be able to travel to the United States.



Scenario #2.  You were denied entry to the United States before you got your Pardon.



- In this case, you have a problem.

- You will be denied entry to the United States, even though you got a Pardon.

- The only way to travel to the United States in this situation is to get a US Entry Waiver.

- The United States and Canada have an agreement which allows the sharing of criminal record information.

- When you cross the border from Canada to the United States, you get screened by a United States Customs and Border Patrol Officer.

- These Border Patrol Officers are entrusted with border security to keep the United States safe.

- And these Officers have considerable discretion about whether to allow someone entry to the United States.

- If a Border Patrol Officer sees your criminal record by searching the criminal records database in Canada, they will refuse your entry into the United States.

- And, here’s the important point.  

- When you are refused entry to the United States, a file about your criminal record in Canada will be opened in a database in the United States.

- This database entry about your criminal record in Canada will always be accessible by United States Customs and Border Patrol Officers.

- So, your Pardon or Record Suspension granted by the Parole Board of Canada has no power in the United States.

- In other words, while your Pardon will hide your criminal record in Canada, it won’t hide it in the United States because the United States already knows about your criminal record.

- And the reason is that the fact that you have a criminal record was recorded in a United States database when you were refused entry into the United States.

- So the only way to travel freely to the United States is to get a US Entry Waiver.



https://youtu.be/rNS10U9QgQI https://www.nextlaw.ca/2022/09/11/can-you-travel-to-the-us-with-a-pardon-or-record-suspension/

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