I'm a Canadian hoping that someone can help clear something up for me.
Four years ago, I was caught taking $80 from work (in Canada). Dumb move, got
caught. Regretted it every day since. I was charged summarily (Canadian
version of a misdemeanour from what I've read) for Theft Under $5000.
The judge found me to be of good character and I was granted a conditional
discharge and completed 30 hours of community service.
When the discharge expired, I applied using this form:
http://www.police.london.ca/Forms/DestructionofCriminalRecords.htm
to have my local record purged. I received a letter last month confirming
that they had destroyed my local record. A Canadian Conditional Discharge is
automatically removed from the system after three years, so that's long gone;
a quick trip to the RCMP confirmed that a few months ago.
Now I'm in need of entry to the U.S. - April 11 of this year. I plan to cross
by land at Sarnia-Port Huron and to be there for one week.
I have asked a Canadian lawyer to pull the charging document and get me a
copy of the Criminal Code of Canada for that year, and write me a letter
stating that I'm eligible for the Petty Offence Exception:
a.) he or she committed only one crime; b.) the maximum penalty possible for
the crime did not exceed imprisonment for one year; and c.) the non citizen
seeking admission was not sentenced to a term of imprisonment longer than 6
months.
As the crown proceeded summarily, the maximum was 6 months and $2000 fine
(neither of which happened, of course)
My questions are:
a) how exactly do I bring this up with the border security? what might
happen with them?
b) if I have a discharge removed from CPIC and no local record, what exactly
can they see in there? (not that I'd withhold, I'm just curious)
c) is the person that I'm crossing with facing any problems? (we're using her
car)
d) I'm kind of freaking out over this, if you have any tips, I'd be
appreciative.
Thank you in advance for any advice you can offer.
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