Legal opinion letter on inadmissibility to Canada

A legal opinion letter can be drafted by a Canadian immigration lawyer, setting out the details of the person’s charge along with the lawyer’s legal conclusions and/or analysis of the situation.

Anyone who has been charged but not yet convicted can take steps to avoid being refused entry to Canada. The purpose of the letter is to explain the legal issue, identify the risks and the relevant Canadian law, and explain why the person should be considered admissible to Canada.

What is a Canadian legal opinion letter?

Is there anything an individual can do to prevent a criminal conviction from making them inadmissible in the first place?

The answer is yes. One way of doing this is to use a legal opinion letter addressed to the judicial authority hearing the case.

This is a legal opinion drafted by a Canadian immigration lawyer, in which they cite the relevant provisions of Canadian law to explain the consequences that a guilty verdict would have for an individual’s ability to enter Canada.

The situations

Depending on the circumstances, the consequences of a conviction and of being refused entry can be serious. For example, someone whose job requires them to enter Canada regularly may find their livelihood threatened by a decision to refuse them entry to Canada. Likewise, an individual with family in Canada may be prevented from seeing their relatives because they are considered inadmissible.

In addition to appealing to the judge’s compassion by highlighting the consequences of a conviction, the lawyer may also propose alternative offences that would not make the individual criminally inadmissible if they were convicted. Such a change is not always possible with more serious charges, but offences such as drink-driving or reckless driving can sometimes be negotiated down so that the sentence does not result in refused entry.

For example, the above charges may be reduced to a traffic violation that does not make a person inadmissible to Canada, or the charges may even be dropped altogether in some cases. A legal opinion letter can help by setting out the options that allow this to happen and explaining any mitigating circumstances that may justify a lighter penalty.

Where appropriate, a judge may give weight to a legal opinion letter and take it into account when passing sentence. In this way, individuals with the foresight to obtain a legal opinion letter from an experienced Canadian immigration lawyer have been convicted of a lesser offence. As a result, they have avoided being considered inadmissible.

What to do if you have already been convicted

There are several ways in which a convicted individual can be classified as admissible to Canada:

Temporary Resident Permit (TRP)

Temporary Resident Permit (TRP)is a solution that can grant temporary entry to Canada to those currently considered inadmissible on criminal grounds. A TRP should only be applied for where there are significant reasons, including a business trip, a family reunion or an emergency. A TRP may be issued to an individual for a stay of up to 3 years, depending on the reason for entering Canada.

Criminal rehabilitation

Criminal rehabilitationis an application provided by the Canadian government for those who are eligible to clear their past criminal history permanently for the purposes of entering Canada. If an individual is approved for criminal rehabilitation, they are no longer considered inadmissible and will not need a temporary resident permit to enter the country.

Deemed rehabilitated

A person is deemed rehabilitated when the immigration authorities no longer consider them criminally inadmissible to Canada. This can happen once they meet certain criteria.

However, individuals who are deemed rehabilitated still encounter problems at the Canadian border or at ports of entry (POE), such as Canadian customs at US airports. Immigration officers at the Canadian border may refuse entry at their discretion. This means that if an individual is considered a security risk by these officers, even on the basis of a non-serious charge on their criminal record, they may still be refused entry.

This is why a legal opinion letter drafted by a lawyer is so important. It can help an individual who might otherwise be refused entry to be admitted to Canada. By explaining the circumstances surrounding the conviction to the immigration officer, this letter can save a traveller a great deal of trouble.

Read more about Canadian entry restrictions arising from a criminal record on the Canadian government website athere.