Guides / BC criminal process

What does a criminal record mean for travelling to the United States?

A criminal record in Canada can keep you out of the United States, and that decision gets made by an American officer applying American law. Nothing a BC judge said at your sentencing binds him. Whether your record stops you at the border turns on three things: what the offence was, what maximum penalty it carried, and what sentence you received.

Clients raise the border early, often before they ask about jail. A man with a job site in Blaine. A daughter in Seattle. A contract that needs him in Bellingham twice a month. I cannot promise you anything about a foreign country's border, and a lawyer who does is selling something. What I can do is tell you how the American rules read, and make sure the way we resolve your file here does not make your problem over there worse than it has to be.

Which convictions cause trouble at the border?

Two categories do most of the damage.

The first is what US law calls a crime involving moral turpitude. There is no tidy list. The idea reaches offences built on fraud, theft, or an intent to do serious harm: fraud over, theft, possession of stolen property, assault causing bodily harm. A straightforward impaired driving conviction is generally not treated as a crime involving moral turpitude, though an aggravated one can be.

The second category is drugs, and it is harsher. A conviction under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act is its own separate ground of inadmissibility, and the forgiving exception that rescues some people with one minor conviction does not reach it.

That exception is worth setting out in full, because it decides a lot of files. For a single crime involving moral turpitude, American law will look past it when two things are true: the maximum penalty available for that offence was one year or less, and the sentence you received was six months or less. Both, not either.

Here is the wrinkle that catches British Columbians. Since the 2019 amendments to the Criminal Code, the default maximum on a summary conviction offence is two years less a day, up from six months. So a hybrid charge your lawyer worked to have the Crown elect summarily on, a result that felt like a win in Victoria provincial court, can still carry a maximum above that one year ceiling. The exception closes. The sentence you got has nothing to do with it. The maximum did the damage.

Does a record suspension or a discharge clear this up?

A record suspension does not. What most people still call a pardon is a Canadian act with Canadian effect. American law says in terms that a pardon, an amnesty, or an expungement granted by a foreign state does not remove a ground of inadmissibility. And if American officers already hold your record, which on serious matters they often do, sealing the Canadian file does not delete the copy on their side.

That lands harder than anything else in this article. It should not change your plans, because a record suspension is worth having for employment and for your own peace of mind. Do not buy one expecting it to open the border.

A withdrawal, a stay, or an acquittal is different: those leave no conviction, and with no conviction that ground does not apply to you. The arrest can still surface and prompt questions. Answer them calmly and briefly.

A discharge is more complicated, and I will not pretend otherwise. In Canada a discharge means you were found guilty and are deemed not to have been convicted. American law writes its own definition, and a finding of guilt paired with some penalty or restraint can be treated as a conviction for their purposes. A conditional discharge carrying twelve months of probation is the case I worry about. An absolute discharge sits on better ground. If your living depends on crossing, put that question to a US immigration lawyer with your paperwork in front of him. It is worth the consultation fee.

Can I get in anyway?

Often, yes, through a waiver. The application is US Form I-192, filed at a designated port of entry, usually through the online system, or through the Admissibility Review Office alongside a visa application. CBP no longer processes these waivers at Canadian preclearance, so the airport counter is gone as an option.

Plan in months rather than weeks. There is a government filing fee, the waiver is granted for a fixed period, and you renew it before it lapses. People who cross for work settle into that rhythm and it becomes routine paperwork. The first one is the slow one.

What this means while your file is open

The border consequence is set by how the charge resolves here. Which election the Crown makes. Which offence you plead to, if you plead to anything. What sentence goes on the record. Those are live questions while your file is open and dead questions after it closes.

So tell me in the first meeting if crossing matters to you. It changes what I ask the Crown for, and it sometimes changes which charge I am willing to resolve on. A client who mentions the border on the day of sentencing is a client I can no longer help with it.

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