Canada DUI

Traveling to Canada this month on a cruise. One day in Canada. One person in our party has DUI from 1990. Anyone have recent experience with this? Have done internet search and seems to be ok. If conviction was more than 10 years ago person is considered rehabilitated and can enter Canada. Just seems to be differing experiences from reading the boards. So just wondering if anyone has had recent experience.

Thanks

This is one of those questions that would best be directed at a lawyer that specializes in this.

Worst case scenario, said person gets pulled to talk to immigration folks, and then is told not to get off the ship.

No - a person CAN be 'deemed rehabilitated' at the discretion of the CBSA agent. Worst case is they are forbidden to board (these days passenger list is shared with Canadian authorities just like we share info with US).

As long as this person has no other offences since the DUI, with over 25 years elapsed they are *almost* certain to be fine - that's pretty much the textbook example of a ten-year-plus clean nose = allowed in case, but the key issue is the CBSA officer you deal with. If they're having a bad day, don't like the look of you, don't actually know the relevant rules well, or any other hopefully-unlikely-but-impossible-to-measure factor, they can deny entry.

The only way to be 100% sure is to actually apply for rehabilitation (either in-person at the border, taking your chances on being admitted or turned away) or in advance by paying $200 (form, address to send to etc. are on the page I linked above, just keep reading down) but realistically given the timeframe, that's not feasible - so I would strongly advise the person concerned to get copies of relevant paperwork (the crux being proof of when sentence was completed, fine paid, etc. to prove it was over 10 years ago) in case they are asked.

This is a much debated topic on Cruise Critic. Below is a long thread on the whole DUI-Canada topic. Check it out and draw your own conclusions.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2025307

You'll find that nobody, including the CBSA, lawyers, cruise lines, internet posters etc. will ever give you a 100% straight, guaranteed answer about a situation, as each situation is different.

However, I would tend to believe that if your friend's DUI was in 1990 and they have no other issues, they will be fine to enter Canada via cruise ship and probably won't even be asked about it.

After the cruise, please come back and let the forum know what, if anything happened.

Will do

Thanks

I would have them contact or visit the nearest Canadian Embassy or consulate and get clearance http://can-am.gc.ca/offices-bureaux/index.aspx?lang=eng

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In 2012 I took a 4 nighter to Saint John with a friend who had a DUI from the 1980s. We had no issues at all and enjoyed the cruise and Saint John too.

In fact, we traveled via air to Toronto in maybe 2010, and it wasn't a problem then either.