If you have committed or been convicted of a crime at any time in your life, you may be deemed criminally inadmissible. This applies to any foreign national wanting to enter Canada to travel, visit, work, live, or study.
Criminal inadmissibility applies to a wide range of crimes, including
- theft
- assault
- manslaughter
- intoxicated driving
- drug possession or trafficking
If you were convicted of a crime before the age of 18, you may still be allowed to enter Canada.
Rehabilitation
Depending on the nature of your crime, you may still be allowed into Canada. This depends on how long ago you committed the crime and how you have behaved since. If you committed a crime, but the Government of Canada believes you will not engage in future criminal activity, you are called rehabilitated.
You can be deemed rehabilitated in two ways:
- you can convince an immigration officer that you meet the legal requirements to be deemed rehabilitation (this mostly happens at a port-of-entry), or
- you can apply to be deemed rehabilitated by following the Government of Canada’s procedure.
To be deemed rehabilitated, it must be 5 years or more since you committed the crime or completed your sentence.
Note that you can not be deemed rehabilitated if the crime you committed would have a 10-year sentence or longer if you committed it in Canada.