Hi everyone, I will travel first time on my 1 year waiver to US. I want to know, to avoid any possible embarrassment in front of other accompanying family/friends, if immigration official generally ask about the offence or not?

I understand they may ask about where you are likely to stay, duration, purpose etc., which is of no concern.

Hi everyone, I’m preparing my U.S. entry waiver application and plan to include my granted pardon documents as evidence. I was advised to leave out one page signed by a board member mentioning a past fraud complaint (no charges filed) since it’s supposedly unnecessary and holds little weight. Has anyone here submitted partial pardon documents in similar cases? Did it help or create any issues? Any advice on whether I should include all pages or just the key ones would be appreciated!

5 year waiver. So inconsistent. Like I posted on the other thread, in October I have had waivers that were applied for (meaning they went to the border) in October 2023, November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June and now JULY. All of those clients got waivers in October 2024.

So "under 4 months to 12 months" is the spread.

5 year waiver.

Completed
Documents Shared With You
ARO Decision
Please review the documents
Status History (5)
10/24/2024, 01:00 PM EDT : Status changed to Completed
7/8/2024, 01:30 PM EDT : Status changed to Submitted to ARO
6/27/2024, 11:25 AM EDT : Status changed to Paid
6/27/2024, 11:24 AM EDT : Status changed to Signed
6/11/2024, 04:06 PM EDT : Application Created

1-year waiver. First time applying. I had a grinder with trace amounts of weed in my car when crossing the border. No criminal record.
They only approved visitor entry, I am trying to update that to include TN, L1 etc. @J Rogers, Is this usually quick and straightforward?
Also, when do you recommend I re-apply? Immediately?

Timeline
10/23/2024: Status changed to Completed
12/8/2023: Status changed to Submitted to ARO

1 year waiver. First time applying. He had a previous visa but then in 2018 he used that visa to cross as a truck driver, which was not its intended purpose. No criminal record, which is about 40% of my clients.

ARO Decision
Please review the documents
Status History (5)
10/23/2024, 09:18 AM EDT : Status changed to Completed
12/15/2023, 03:07 PM EST : Status changed to Submitted to ARO
12/11/2023, 03:48 PM EST : Status changed to Paid
12/11/2023, 03:45 PM EST : Status changed to Signed
12/7/2023, 09:59 AM EST : Application Created

My first one year waiver expired at the end if July, my current application was submitted to ARO the first week of January. Still have not heard anything. Extremely stressful.

No waivers posted yesterday or today. This is really worrisome.

@loisgh ok understood!

@Grenny1111 good luck!!

I had a pretty big case sentenced in 2014 when i was a minor , no case for 7 yrs then a discharge in 2023 (breach of probation for forgetting to give my new passport number in the same case). I just submitted my first waiver in april. Hopefully it’s gonna be approved. I CANNOT wait longer ! I used to spend my winter over there till they asked me secondary inspection.
Submitted at border april 26th 2024.
I’ve been a silent reader for a while.

@The CHI i got convicted in 2012 and 3 years probation was completed in 2016

@Loisgh your offences were in 2016 and probation was up in 2016??

@Loisgh ok thank you- sending positive vibes!! You will be ok :)

@The CHI i believe when discharge is up. Same thing happened to me. I had multiple offences in 2016. Completed probation in 2016. Applied in 2020 for a waiver and was denied due to severity of offences and not enough time to show rehabilitation. I was devastated. Reapplied in 2024 and hoping for a positive outcome.

@Michelle Thank you Michelle but when they say 5 years waiting time to apply- is that 5 years from the time the discharge is up (in my case Jan 2023) or from when the charge was handed down (Jan 2020)?

@Chi, sorry to see that your waiver was denied. Conditional Discharges can be tricky, because there is a great deal of confusion on how they work. Conditional Discharges remain on your criminal record for 3 years from the date of sentence, Period. It is not from date of probation, or done when probation is complete. So to keep it simple, an individual has a criminal record for 3 years, then it is automatically removed from CPIC by the RCMP at the 3 year date. Traveling to the USA during this time, can result in refusal, as technically you have a criminal record.

@Chi, if I understand right, you applied for a waiver, 9 months after your 3 year time-line, so in the eyes of USA, you applied for a waiver within 1 year of completion of your sentence.

Depending on your charge, USA will advise how long you will have to wait, in this case they advise 5 years.

When I have a client with a Conditional Discharge, I look at when the Conditional Discharge ended and then depending on the conviction, I will add time to when I think they will be able to apply for a waiver. I use the Pardon guidelines to help me with this.

I hope this helps others to understand Conditional Discharges.

@J Rogers when you say long record can you share some context around their charges?

@Ana thank you - I appreciate you

@appliedjuly22 @The CHI
It’s interesting to see who gets 1 vs. 5 year waivers.
I know a few folks in the exact same situation as me who applied with less time since their “incident” and got 5 years whereas I got 1 after waiting much longer to submit the app.
According to John - they assess your application holistically - the history as well as current situation - and determine whether THEY think you are likely to commit the crime again. I had a one-time offense as a teenager and am not likely to re-commit it though looking at my life and entire situation right now wasn’t convincing enough for them to give me 5 a year approval.
It honestly depends on person to person and each individual’s personal circumstances :(

There was honestly nothing I could do within my control to change what I wrote in my app besides lie which I was obviously not going to do! :-/

All you can really do is wait a bit longer and try again.

Wish you all the best @The CHI for the 2nd time around.

@Ana thank you for your thoughts