Sponsorship with criminal inadmissibility

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Subject: Sponsorship with criminal inadmissibility
  Hello everyone from Seoul South Korea. I have a big interesting topic to present and question to ask. Currently I am a Canadian living in Seoul South Korea. I have been here for going on 4 years. Currently I have a common law spouse who I have been living with here since September 2009. She is American, not Korean. She has been here for about 3 years. We are both on Korean E2 Visas, which are for teachers of children and adults. She teaches at an elementary school , and I teach University classes.

Nevertheless, I would like to sponsor her to come to Canada and live with me in the Autumn of this year (Sept-Nov 2011). Our relationship is genuine, and we have all the paper work for sponsorship eligibility lined up and ready to mail off to the office in Ontario.

However, this is where is gets complicated, she has has 2 DUI´s on her record. One occurred almost 10 years ago when she was 19, and just made a stupid mistake, there was no dangerous driving, no bodily harm ,and no property damage. The second occurred in the spring 2009, much to her humiliation. She was coming home from dinner with family, and an officer pulled her over for a random check (which is legal in her state of Maine), and gave her a DUI because she had drinks with her dinner (which she had totally forgot about). Once again there was no speeding/dangerous driving, no bodily harm, and no property damage. She always cooperated, and paid the fines promptly. Her licence is gone and she doesn´t intend to get it back anytime soon (She is eligible to get it back this year with restrictions, and get it back with no restrictions next year). Also, she is originally from a border town in Maine, and she can literally see Canada from her house. In the summer of 2009 we visited her hometown, and went to the border to visit my family in Nova Scotia (we didn´t know about the inadmissibility rules). They scanned her passport and her DUI from 10 years ago popped up. They took her to an isolation room, and questioned her ( I was not allowed to go with her). She obviously told them the truth and was very forthcoming and told them of the second DUI that didn´t show up on their scan.. However, she was denied entry and we were told to turn around (Thank god she lives 5 minutes from the border). They offered us no information on how she could enter Canada. Lastly, her second DUI does not appear on her criminal record, we don´t really know why (it´s been over 2 years), but the State of Maine said they don´t always appear on your criminal record if there were no aggravating circumstances, it would just appear on your driving record.

Anyway, we later learned we should have went to one of the major border crossings to get a Temporary resident permit (TRP) from a trained immigration official (the smaller crossing we went across was not equipped with immigration officers), and that with proper paper work she can get this TRP issued for up to 3 years in length (and it will allow her to get a student and open work visa if it is issued for longer than 6 months).

Nevertheless, I was wondering if anyone has any experience with these TRPs, and how difficult they are to get? My spouse has lived in Korea for 3 years, and the Korean government doesn´t care about these types of infractions, and they certainly trust her with children. She has also traveled to Brazil, China ,and Europe with no problems, in fact they almost laugh when she brings it up (like we are wasting their time with this, they are looking for violent criminals or smugglers). The immigration website is extremely vague on this matter, and I have no idea what they mean when they say TRP´s are issued on compassionate grounds (does that include us?). Also, some websites say they issue these rarely, but I have spoken to numerous lawyers who say they issue these things daily, with few being rejected. Also, I used Stats Canada and discovered they issue thousands of these TRP´s a year for much worse crimes, including armed robbery, manslaughter, sexual assault, and ´terrorist acts´!?

Thanks to anyone who has any experience with this, we are going to apply for it either way, and we would rather not use lawyers since they charge way too much, and don´t seem to offer any real advantage (in fact some lawyers told us to just try it by ourselves first).

Thanks in advance.

[24-01-2011,01:46]
[***.152.3.31]
mpottier
(in reply to: Sponsorship with criminal inadmissibility)
Suppose that her DUI from ten years back may be deemed rehabilitated, however, her second DUI conviction (license suspension that were revealed to CBSA)will be eligible for rehabilitation in the spring of 2014.

Take a look at the case in which an application for permanence residence in Canada was denied because of an impaired driving and see how serious DUI is considered in Canada´s immigration law.

http://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/en/2010/2010fc782/2010fc782.html

[24-01-2011,11:59]
[**.233.201.58]
Anonymous
(in reply to: Sponsorship with criminal inadmissibility)
Likely, she won´t be able to move in with you this fall.
The problem is the DUI in 2009. She has to be deeemed as a rehabilitated in order to apply as a Permanent Resident.

Requests for rehabilitation should be made at a visa office outside Canada. Such a request usually requires proof that at least five years have elapsed since the end of any sentence imposed (including any period of parole/probation), and that further criminal activity is unlikely.

Forget about the TRP, in your situation the chances of getting one are slim to none.

After she can apply and be deemed as rehabilitated as per Canadian law then you may sponsor her and if approved she can move in with you to Canada.

As a Canadian citizen you may sponsor her from abroad. You can even live with her either in the US or in South Korea.

It doesn´t matter if it is a DUI or if she stole a chocolate bar from a 7-11, criminal record go through the same process.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/faq-inadmissibility.asp#note2

[24-01-2011,12:07]
[***.115.153.178]
DocD
Taxwoman awaits afterward (in reply to: Sponsorship with criminal inadmissibility)
Hopefully, once you two settled in Canada (one day), be prepared that you hold all the tax receipts from the institutions where you were employed in South Korea.

Because after immigration you will face the TAXWOMAN!!

All the best! It´s a waiting game.


[24-01-2011,12:23]
[**.233.201.58]
Anonymous
(in reply to: Sponsorship with criminal inadmissibility)
To DocD, thanks for the advice, but why do you think a TRP chances are slim to none under the compassionate grounds clause.
Also, how would I live in the USA, since I am a Canadian citizen? We are common law not married.
Also, we don´t want to live in Korea forever.
Lastly to anonymous, I file my Canadian taxes every year here in Korea. Both our countries have a tax agreement, so we can´t be double taxed. So no worries.

[20-03-2011,02:58]
[***.162.46.221]
Mich
(in reply to: Sponsorship with criminal inadmissibility)
you must deal with the rehabilitation issue before you attempt any sort of TRP or sponsorship. This would not fly as a compassionate grounds clause. Every family class application would be compassionate grounds if that was the criteria.
[20-03-2011,16:37]
[**.180.238.237]
Sharon
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