Archives for the US entry waiver category.

It has been a long time since we won our information technology award from CIPA. Since then we haven’t stopped working hard to be the best pardon and waiver service in Canada. But since that award was granted the National Pardon Centre has certainly not been stagnant, especially not in the area of technological innovation.

We achieved RCMP accreditation making us one of the only pardon and waiver services able to offer this crucial step in the process. We have also invested in a new VOIP phone system to better handle calls between our offices.

Essentially we have done everything possible to ensure that we are at the forefront of any technology that help us better serve our clients. But I am also happy to say that we don’t jump on a band wagon just because the band is playing loudly. You will see that we are NOT on twitter; not because we dislike twitter but because there is nothing in the day to day business of doing pardons that needs to be “tweeted” (did I say that right?). Twitter is great, or can be I’m told but it is not for us. We would rather focus our energies on doing what we do best: Canadian pardons and US entry waivers. That’s what we do and we do it very well.

So give us a call if you need help. We would be happy to clear things up for you.

Every single day I come to work I can be guaranteed to hear a horror story from someone who experienced unpleasant behaviour from a United States Border Guard. This is not to suggest that they are all bad because considering the number of people crossing the border and the number of border guards there to handle the volume of traffic, obviously most of them are decent, intelligent people capable to handling their job competently and with manners intact. However, that being said I still hear stories everyday of people being mistreated at the border. This is why I couldn’t resist reposting this cartoon from the Globe and Mail today. If you have had a similar experience at the border I think you will appreciate it. And if you have been to an airport in the last ten years I think you will appreciate it even more.

January is always a busy time of year for us here at the National Pardon Centre. There are many reasons for this but one of the main reasons is that people tend to travel over the holidays. And whenever people are travelling (to American at least) the the ones with the criminal records are going to find themselves in trouble.

Unfortunately what tends to happen is that people try crossing the border for the holiday season. They are quickly rejected by a border guard doing his job and, come January, when people realize that a Canadian Pardon or US entry waiver is important, they call us.

I always tell people to stay away from the border until things are taken care of but the fact is a lot of people just aren’t aware that an old criminal record is a problem. The other thing is that a lot of people are able to travel to the States without getting caught, creating a false sense of security. And finally, a lot of people (all of us as matter of fact) have a tendency to wait until things like this catch up with us before we decide to finally take care of it.

If you have a criminal record you need to have it taken care of regardless of what may or may not have happened at the border. Even if the criminal record is not affecting your life, there is a good chance that it will in the future. But don’t wait until your holidays are ruined to finally make the decision to clear things up. Give us a call at the National Pardon Centre. We can help make sure your past is not going to come back to haunt you.

 If you have any questions relating to Criminal Records, Canadian Pardons or US Entry Waivers please feel free to email me directly at mashby@nationalpardon.org.

Happy New Year to Everyone.

Michael

January is always a busy time at the National Pardon Centre. It some cases it is because people decide that removing a criminal record is their new years resolution but in a lot of cases it is because people have tried to travel over the holidays and found themselves stuck at the US border.

Nobody wants to have their christmas / holiday plans ruined for any reason and least of all for a criminal record. Getting stuck at the border because you procrastinated on a pardon application is a tough thing to tell the kids. Unfortunately it is a story that I listen to more than a few times in the course of a typical January at work.

So what I woudl like everyone to realize is that you need to make sure your criminal record has been dealt with as soon as possible. Don’t wait until you lose a job or get caught illegally entering the United States. Just go ahead and get your pardon granted before it comes out to haunt you. Otherwise you are just making a small headache into a migraine.

And finally the last thing I would like to say is HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone! I’m calling it now, right here, today. 2009 has big things in store for us all!

Over The Road is a series of three articles written for the national trucking publication by the same name. The articles cover the issues surrounding criminal records and the United States border as they relate to Canadians who work in the trucking industry.

The other day I was talking to a nice guy about his criminal record. He was a trucker. He had been a trucker for years. He had crossed the border regularly since starting his career back in ‘82. He was an upstanding man. He was a family man. He owned a home. He owned his rig. He loved his children. He was an all around solid guy and he was actually a pleasure to talk to on the phone (I get a few of the other sort in my line of work). He also happened to have a criminal record and the week prior to our conversation he had been stopped at the US border. It was the same US border he’d been crossing for decades. Only this time they wouldn’t let him, or his truck full of goods, into the country.

“So what the heck happened” he asked me?

The thing I realized is that this guy had no idea his criminal record even existed. He just thought it was so old it must have evaporated or disappeared all on its own. He also didn’t realize that crossing the border is illegal if you have ever been arrested, which presents a particular problem to those of you whose livelihood depends on it. As far as trucking is concerned, for the long routes south in particular, a criminal record is the kiss of death. It will end a trip faster than 18 flats at once and it is actually a fairly easy problem to take care of.

If you are in a situation like this it means a few things. It means you have an active criminal record you never dealt with. It means the American border guards are aware of your criminal record. And it means you have been deemed “inadmissible” by the Department of Homeland Security or DHS. It also means you have only one option. You need an I-192 USA entry waiver and you will need one for the rest of your life so long as you want to cross into the United States of America.

As I explained to my trucker friend on line 1, an I-192 is an application made to the very department that doesn’t want you in the States. It is a long list of bureaucratic government paperwork and it takes a long time to complete. Expect the application to take anywhere from 10 – 18 months start to finish. And no, you cannot enter the United States while it is in process.

The successful completion of your application will grant you permission to cross the border for a period of 1, 2 or 5 years. It depends on a few things. It depends largely on the extent of the criminal record, the severity of the crimes committed and the length of time that has passed since you were last arrested. So, if you were just caught smuggling many kilos of contraband into Canada in the last few months there is a very good chance the Americans will refuse your application. If you haven’t been arrested since you were a kid pulling pranks there is about zero chance your application will not be granted. And it is likely to be granted for a period of 5 year, provided the paperwork is done properly of course.

You want to make sure that your application is done as well as possible because they cost in the area of $1000 - $1500 and the fee is applicable for each time you renew. I do suggest using a pardon and waiver service because they will know what needs to be done to ensure your best chance at a 5 year waiver.

I also suggest being extremely careful when choosing your service. In the past year I have seen the industry explode with about 9 new companies opening their doors all with next to zero experience and no guarantee they will be around long enough to finish your application. They all offer impossible discounts and care a lot more about securing your application fee than determining what your actual chances are of obtaining a waiver.

I signed up my trucker friend on the phone and began processing his waiver the same day. He is now a lot closer to getting back on his old long haul route but it is going to take some time to push through the bureaucracy and secure the waiver. So if you are in the same situation stop procrastinating and get things under way because a driver inadmissible at the border is not a very valuable driver. And even though it might seem expensive clearing your name is one thing I can assure you is worth the money.

I want to point out that all of the above applies if the Americans are aware of your criminal record. It would also apply if you have ever been deported from the United States. It would apply if you have ever been arrested in the United States. And it would also apply if you have ever been refused entry at the border for any reason at all, regardless of whether or not you have a criminal record. I have few dozen clients who have done no more than admit to smoking marijuana once in their life. Once you do that there is no discussion. You are not entering the United States of America.

And finally, if you have a criminal record but none of the conditions in the above paragraph apply to you there is another option for gaining entry to the States. It is a better, cheaper, faster and more affordable option. It is also permanent. So stay tuned to Over the Road and in my next article I will explain what to do with a criminal record that the Americans know nothing about.

I have been writing articles for a magazine concerned with the trucking industry called Over the Road. You might think truckers are the type to get arrested and that’s why pardons and criminal records apply to them but that would be unfair. The reason truckers are interested in the pardon system more than the average Canadian worker is because they are crossing the border on a regular basis and therefore a criminal record, if it exists, will come under heavier scrutiny for people working in the industry. So maybe truckers get arrested more often that the average Joe but I don’t think so and I certainly don’t have any evidence to support the claim or deny it.

One of the articles I wrote was about a Canadian pardon and how it affects the border when the Americans were not previously aware of the criminal record. Click here to read some of my previous articles you aren’t quite sure how that works.

One of the readers was somewhat upset at the claims made in the article because it seems that his experience contradicted the advice I was giving. He sent me an email explaining how I must retract my statements because obviously they were flawed based on his experience crossing (or not crossing) the United States border.

This is a tough situation because the advice I give is accurate but not absolute. The system is a system and it is prone to flaws and transgressions and no, you can never expect it to work 100% effectively all of the time in every situation. Life just doesn’t work that way.

But all that being said the Canadian pardon program is still a valuable program and short of the most unusual cases you can certainly count on and have confidence in the system. It gets a little trickier when you factor in the American border but even then you should be ok. You just need to know where you stand.

If you have a pardon and you want to be sure all is ok drop by your local police station and ask them to search CPIC for you. If nothing comes up your pardon worked. And if you have never been stopped at the border, deported, or had any experience that would lead you to believe the Americans are aware of your criminal record then you should be ok to cross the border too. Just don’t tell the Americans about your pardon.

Mind you, in a case like that you are breaking the law again. If all this sounds complicated don’t worry because it is.

Life is like that!

Our modern Canada pardon originates from the Royal Prerogative of Mercy- a British tradition that gave the ruling monarch the ability to exercise absolute power over persons convicted of criminal acts. Via the Letters Patent, this authority was embodied in the Governor General of Canada; our acting representative of the British Crown. (http://www.npb-cnlc.gc.ca/infocntr/policym/man_14_e.htm). Over the decades, helped along by the civil rights movements of the 1960’s and the enactment of legislation such as the Canadian Human Rights Act, the Canada pardon system has evolved into its current form. In theory, it is a nod to the fundamental goal of rehabilitation that pervades our criminal justice system. In practice, the Canada pardon provides individuals with Canadian criminal records a second chance and removes many of the barriers that are associated with having a criminal conviction.

In this day and age of routine background checks, finding employment is perhaps the greatest obstacle faced by people having Canadian criminal records. The fact of the matter is that a person who has a criminal conviction– no matter how petty and no matter how long ago it occurred – will generally be passed over by employers in favour of an applicant who has a clean record. Similarly, a Canadian criminal record prevents a person from being bonded, from performing most types of volunteer work, from adopting children, and from travelling freely to certain countries, most notably the USA. Attempting to cross the US border with a Canadian criminal record could result in vehicle seizure, incarceration, or, at the very least, will make it necessary that a person apply for special permission in order to travel there. This “special permission” is called a US entry waiver and is expensive, complicated, must be renewed every 1 or 5 years, and is not guaranteed. Once a person has been refused entry to the United States, they will require a waiver for the rest of their life.

Aside from these concrete examples of how having a Canadian criminal record can negatively affect a person’s life, we must not forget the emotional impact that being labelled a “criminal” by society can have on a person. People live with feelings of guilt, regret, and shame due to their past mistakes. Individuals with criminal records know that they aren’t “bad” people, but nonetheless have to worry about whether their spouses, relatives, children, coworkers, and neighbours will be quite so forgiving if and when the proverbial cat is let out of the bag. Fortunately, a Canada pardon can end the discrimination faced by people with Canadian criminal records. Once a pardon has been granted, a person’s criminal history is removed from public file. This means that no one can subsequently find out about a person’s past convictions unless the person in question chooses to divulge that information. Background checks will come back clean, employment opportunities will open up, and life can return to normal. We are all extremely lucky to live in a country that espouses liberal values, that believes in second chances, and that is willing to constitutionally guarantee that the rights of individuals are protected. A Canadian criminal record can have serious negative repercussions. And these repercussions tend to creep up repeatedly at the most inopportune and unexpected times. But a past conviction need not become a life sentence. There exists a simple solution to ending discrimination, stigmatization, and shame. Encourage anyone you know who needs one to seek out a Canada pardon and to clear their record of past mistakes.

If you are looking for a service to handle your Canadian pardon or US entry waiver application for you take your time and look carefully because sometime around mid 2007 a lot of new companies popped up all claiming to be “Canada’s #1 Service”.  Most of these are old paralegals trying to get into the pardon and waiver market but very few have any experience in preparing pardon or waiver applications.

Unfortunately it is clear that a number of these new services are in it for the money alone with very little concern for the client whose life often depends on the results of a successful application. You can see this from companies offering limited time specials that are not limited at all but are always available. It is the classic bait and hook technique common to sales based companies whose profits are the bottom line. I watch the industry regularly and I have never seen a true “limited time special”. The special is always available, at all times. Unfortunately, sales techniques like this often work because people fail to see the relationship between “cost” and “value”. Usually the sale is offset by the additional charges written in fine print.

If you would like to see the pardon and waiver industry’s number 1 scam click the link in the next paragraph. I can only hope no one is gullible enough to fall for this because the writer of this “website” could not even bother to do a spell and grammar check. If I didn’t think a few people actually fell for this I would find it quite amusing  

Click here to view the pardon industry’s number one SCAM! Also note that another company is actually advertising on this site. I do not know if they are affiliated but I strongly advise not using either of these websites. The advertising company plagiarized my own company’s website (National Pardon Centre) quite obviously when they opened their doors recently.

All this being said every business must make money so don’t expect to find a company willing to handle your paperwork free of charge. The fact is you made a mistake and it is your responsibility to deal with it. But with a little research you should be able to find a service that is honest and that you feel comfortable dealing with.

The following is a short list of things to think about when looking for a reliable pardon and waiver service:

• Office location: Where is the office of the company you are dealing with located? And more importantly can you visit the office and speak with a counselor in person? A company that only does business over the phone or only by internet lacks credibility.
• Fingerprinting services: The first step in a pardon or waiver application is to have your fingerprints taken. This service is either provided by the police or by an authorized fingerprinting agency. Most pardon and waiver services will outsource this step because they are unable or unwilling to take the necessary steps to obtain the credentials required to obtain fingerprints. Ask if they provide on-site fingerprinting. If not go somewhere else. Keep in mind that if you are processing an application through the mail you may have to go to your local police anyway, but the availability of this service is a good indicator of a company’s status.
• Additional charges:  Also known as “disbursement charges” these are necessary fees payable to various government agencies (National Parole Board, Local Police, Courts, etc.). Some companies will include this in the fee schedule, some will not. This is not necessarily an indicator of the reliability of a company but it is something to look out for. Some companies that offer a service at an apparently low fee will be charging you extra as the application progresses. Ask in advance so you know what you are getting into.
• Application System: When you are applying online with a company look at the information they are asking you in the system. Is the applicatin page only concerned with your name and credit card information? Or is the company actually asking for details about your criminal record? Obviously a company that asks for no details about your criminal record is probably only out to sell you a service. Be careful with these ones.

Another thing you should keep in mind is that a pardon or waiver application can be handled entirely on your own. But contrary to what some people will tell you it is far more involved than simply filling in a few forms and submitting the application with a $50 cheque to the government. There are many fees payable to various places for a variety of reasons. And each application is unique so unless you know what you are doing you can’t really be sure you are doing it right.

And finally you are going to have to be patient because no matter what service you deal with Canadian pardons and US entry waivers cannot be completed overnight. Some pardons take a few months, but in general you should plan on things taking up to a year, depending on the details of your case of course.

Good luck!