Pardons outside Canada Does Always Mean Admissable

If you have received a foreign pardon, it does not necessarily mean that you are admissible to Canada. The following factors must be taken into account:

• If the country’s legal system is based on similar foundations and values as Canada’s, the foreign legislation must be examined to determine whether the effect of the pardon is to erase a conviction or merely recognize that rehabilitation has taken place. In the latter case, the applicant is inadmissible, and an application for rehabilitation should proceed;
• in the vast majority of cases, the applicant should be able to produce a copy of the pardon;
• The UK Rehabilitation of Offenders Act automatically pardons eligible individuals without the person having to apply if the person has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of less than 30 months;
• Canadian courts are not bound by a pardon in which there is an absence of evidence as to the motivating considerations that led to the grant of a pardon by another state jurisdiction.

Also, check our site dedicated to Denied Entry to Canada and Criminal Rehabilitation