Myself and my brothers wife entered Canada two years ago. While my DUI was 25 years ago hers was only 5 years ago in Texas.
The prosecutor stays the charge. Is that what nolle pros means in the US?
I think I was confusing your first comment with nolo contendre?
I’m not sure what “stay” means in that context. In the US, the prosecutor would move to dismiss the indictment, either with or without prejudice, and that is commonly called nolle pros. Assuming that the charge was never revived, your record would show the arrest and the dismissal of the charge.
If the prosecutor in Canada “stays” the charge, does it just hang out there forever or is there a resolution at some point?
As a practical matter, it’s done. Technically, the Crown can lift the stay at any time up to a year, but I personally don’t remember ever seeing that happen.
And we don’t have the “with prejudice” / " without prejudice" thing.
The full record that the cops and Crowns have would show a charge and a stay. If the person is ever charged with another offence and convicted, the record that goes to the Judge on sentencing would not show the charge and stay, since it’s not a conviction.
Interesting. So I guess we go back to the question of whether a charge without a conviction has any legal significance for admission to Canada. Say I was indicted for three counts of murder but the disposition says that the charges were dismissed. If it makes a difference, alternatively I was acquitted by a jury.
Would that have any significance at all for entry into Canada?
I wouldn’t think so. You’ve not been convicted. But, I don’t give advice to Canada Border Services!
That’s interesting. As I understand it, in Victoria.Australia, the record that goes to the Judge on sentencing is a court record – it show court procedures as well as results. Unlike juries, the judges are assumed to know enough to understand what convicted/pending/stayed means.
Nolle pros must be such a common term that everyone, even non-lawyers know its definition. Right? I mean, a few might not but prolly 90 to 95% of Dopers must know it.
I mean, I don’t know it but I’m pretty dumb. So this is super-nice because now I get to look it up!
Imagine if everyone defined the foreign and jargon terms they posted here. That would be awful because then I’d never get to look it up on Google.
If you look a word up it’s yours for life, if it’s defined for you you’ll forget it in a week.
One of the more interesting questions I’ve run into at the border is “have you ever been fingerprinted?” which will lead, of course, to questions about any arrests on record. I assume border agents also have the ability to look up names in the fingerprints database(s).
Canadian agents also ask “are you transporting any firearms?” Rules are a lot stricter in Canada.
My instinct would be to say that it won’t be a problem but, after seeing why my SiL has recently gone through in her international travel efforts, I’m going to say, “Assume nothing; trust no one.” I suggest calling the Canadian Consulate in your area. You should be able to get reliable information regarding your situation.
I have flown to Canada from the US about a zillion times, and I’ve never had to apply for any kind of pre-clearance online before going.
I haven’t been in about two years – is this a new thing?
The last time I travelled to Canada (by car) was in 2013. Then and all of the times prior, the border checkpoint was quick. I hand over my passport. Country of citizenship? Where do you live in the United States? Purpose of visit? How long are you staying? What hotel are you staying at? Passport handed back. Okay, off you go. Enjoy your stay. Always less than 30 seconds. But I guess I have an innocent face.
The procedure has likely changed since then.
To bring this back up, I have entered Canada with a 25 year old DUI just two years ago. As I think about it perhaps in 2015 they may have started getting new records from the states but not getting legacy convictions from the state (or certain states). My sister in-laws DUI happen in 2014, so perhaps she slid by or Texas was sharing full records.
She was worried about wanting to go to Niagara Falls from Detroit so we made a quick trip to Windsor and back. Literally just stopped long enough to take a picture of the Detroit skyline from Canada with the Canadian flags in the foreground. We got more questions coming back to the US side because they wanted to know why our trip was so short. Were we smuggling drugs? We chatted with the US border guard for about 10 minutes until he was convinced that my Texas sister in-law just wanted to say she went to Canada. Then the next day she and my brother drove onto Niagara Falls.
So to address the OP, I would still say from my actual real life experience that a 40 year old DUI most likely would not show up at the border.
Imagine if you just gave it a rest for once. How awful would that be for you?
I assume “nolle pros” is an abbreviation for “nolle prosequi”. I am not a lawyer, but I work in juvenile detention in Illinois and see a lot of court orders. “Nolle prosequi” is Latin for something like “annulled prosecution” and means the Court has decided to not prosecute a particular charge. At least, that appears to be how it is used locally.
While the post to which you replied was a little snarky, this is personal. No warning issued but be more circumspect, please.
RickJay
Moderator
Keep in mind when wondering what records Canada has access to, that law enforcement record keeping is not universal or uniform. It’s certainly much better now than in the 1970s or 1980s, but even today mistakes are made. There’s actually a lot of FBI systems that attempt to create a national “criminal record database” and in some respects they do a very good job. Since 1999, anytime someone is booked in the United States and fingerprinted, that fingerprint is supposed to eventually be uploaded with the criminal record to the FBI’s AFIS system. This same system is then used for some of the “more hardcore” employment background check systems, for example most police departments run job applicants and their fingerprints through that system, and if that person was arrested after 1999 it is highly likely the system will have record of it. There have been published reports of gaps in the system, because it does rely ultimately on record keeping and data management practices of tens of thousands of local police departments, and “fuckups happen”, but this system is fairly robust.
NCIC maintains like 12, maybe more, different databases. Based on things like probation records, warrant records, etc. A lot of these systems will have overlaps in data and overlaps with records in AFIS, but again, gaps are not unheard of, especially for older records. I personally have a misdemeanor from the early 1980s that, because of jobs I held in the military and State government I came to know years later that none of the Federal background check systems has any record of the crime, and even a state level system has no record of it. I did verify at one point that the small town court that handled the matter does have the records of it still, but apparently the data was just never transmitted elsewhere at all. It also doesn’t appear in any “electronic/automated” background checks. Those sorts of crimes are often the thing the more in depth “security clearance background check” style investigation will often uncover that other background check systems will not. This is because something that occurs with some of those background checks is they actually deliberately attempt to pull records on you from courthouses anywhere you have lived, specifically because they know this information might be out there and just not in any sort of “connected system.”
But that’s a manual process. The Canadian border agency likely will never know about those crimes, but it’s also difficult to guess if yours is in that status or not, and with a really old DUI your chances of deemed rehabilitation are extremely high, and the penalty for lying about a DUI they end up knowing about would be a ruined vacation and potentially permanent inadmissibility to Canada.
As far as I know, you CAN be excluded for a DUI. You are definitely likely to be asked, ‘Have you ever been arrested?’
From there on, it depends. On the day. On the guard. But keep in mind they’re pretty adept at detecting if you’re answering honestly or not entirely.
I believe there is a process to have the DUI removed, (or some other name?) That amounts to filing some forms and paying a fee of a few hundred dollars, waiting out the processing period. But, once you do, you’ll always be admissible moving forward.
Good Luck!
I have never been asked if I had been fingerprinted. Crossing in either direction. Where do you live? Where are you going? For how long? Have a good day.