US Waiver for Canadians

Unlike what many of the pardon/waiver companies  (the ones that offer to help you process a US entry waiver) would have you believe, even IF you have successfully received a pardon in Canada  (or record suspension) , you are still obliged to tell the truth at a US border crossing. Remember: a Canadian pardon is not recognized by the US government. If a person attempting to enter the United States fails to disclose the existence of a criminal record, even for crimes that would not otherwise exclude them from crossing the border, they will likely be denied entry, possibly face permanent ineligibility, and/or be detained at a U.S. Department of Homeland Security enforcement facility. Let's take the quote above: if a US border officer (CBP) asks 'have you ever been convicted of a crime', you'll have to tell the truth, even if you have that pardon. So what if the CBP officer asks 'do you have a criminal record'? If you have the pardon, would saying 'no, you...

I was fortunate to receive my pardon just before our current government decided to have the Parole Board of Canada (PBC) re-introduce 'pardon' as 'record suspension' and the subsequent user fee hike from $150 to $631. Anyone who filed before the changeover took effect, was given the option of waiting in cue for the originally requested pardon, or withdrawing his or her application and submitting a new request for a record suspension. Com'on, who in their right mind would do that? Well as it turns out, this may have been a worthy strategy for some.  First, PBC made a decision to process only pardon applications for summary offences in the backlog (indictable offences are not being processed) . Second, because of the full-cost recovery model (the $631 user fee) the Board felt it more appropriate to give priority to the higher paying record suspension applications. Initially scheduled to be cleared by March 2014, the backlog of original pardon applications is mo...