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Hi, my name is Michael Niren. I'm an immigration lawyer, and founder of
VisaPlace.com. We got another question regarding immigration to Canada. In
this case, can I immigrate to Canada if I have a DUI? This is a similar
question we received about can you immigrate to Canada if I have a criminal
record, but this question was specifically about a DUI.
Now, generally speaking, a DUI will render you inadmissible. If you have a
conviction for drinking and driving, under Canadian law, that could result
in a finding of inadmissibility and you would be prevented from immigration
to Canada. However, depending on when the offense occurred,
it's possible that you could apply for what we call criminal rehabilitation.
If it happened five years ago, or the last day you served your
sentence was five years ago or longer, there's a possibility that you could
qualify for rehabilitation, which is an application that you make in addition
to your immigration application. If your offense was more recent
or if you had more than one offense, you may need a TRP, a temporary resident
permit, which is a special permit that would allow you entry
despite that you're inadmissible. So it really depends on the nature of the
offense in terms of, you know, how many, how long ago, when's the last day
you served your sentence. There's a lot of factors you have to keep
in mind to determine whether or not you'd qualify for immigration if you had
a DUI. So, the first step is to, obviously, investigate
the conviction and evaluate it. And of course, you have to first
also know, if you qualify for immigration, because even if your DUI charge
is something that can be dealt with, you may not even qualify for immigration
unless you have the credentials for that. So that's two things
that have to be taken into account. Hopefully, that gave you some idea.
And thank you and have a... [recording ends abruptly]