Criminal Inadmissibility to Canada – An Overview

When a person who is a foreign national or a permanent resident of Canada is found to have committed criminal act, he or she may be deemed inadmissible to Canada. A foreign national or a permanent resident that is deemed inadmissible must leave Canada right away and is not allowed to return to or enter Canada.

In order to overcome inadmissibility and gain entry to Canada what an individual must do depend on the classification of the offence and the length of time that has elapsed since the completion of the sentence.

Following are the two main ways for a person to overcome a finding of criminal inadmissibility:

In some cases, a person who has committed a crime can be considered rehabilitated by the Canadian government and can be allowed to enter Canada.

In certain cases, if an inadmissible person’s entry into Canada deemed to be justified in the circumstance, they will be granted a temporary resident permit and allowed to enter Canada for a limited time. The validity period of Temporary Resident Permit will be between one day and three years depending upon specific circumstances of the person who applied for the temporary resident permit.

If a person belongs to a country whose citizens are required to obtain a visitor visa in order to enter Canada then that person will have to obtain this visa along with a Temporary resident permit in order to enter Canada. In addition, all the temporary resident permit holder who either want to work or study in Canada will have to obtain the proper work or study visa respectively in order to do so.