I am posting this based on my own recent experience. I found it really difficult to find any reliable and/or recent experiences for information on cruising to Canada ports with a criminal history.
For reference, I have a DUI conviction in 2005, Contempt of Court in 2009, & Disturbing the Peace in 2010. I had all 3 of these misdemeanors dismissed pursuant to PC1203.4a in 2018. Of course, customs and all government agencies can still see the convictions as far as I understand. I know that it shows up when I purchase firearms.
Based on a meeting I had with an immigration attorney and information online, I was convinced I was going to be deported to the US at the end of my cruise which ended in Canada. I knew that this wouldn’t be a horrible experience. From what I understand, they do not arrest you. They simply detain you and escort you to the airport to purchase the first ticket out of Canada.
My cruise boarded in Seward, AK and all of our ports were in Alaska except for our very last port, which was Vancouver. This was a one-way cruise. I had zero issues boarding the ship, as I had expected, since I boarded in the United States. I purposely did not book excursions that went into Canadian territory at the ports for fear of being deported mid-cruise.
The night before disembarkation I received an email from AmericanAirlines to check in online, as I always had. When I entered my passport information to check-in, it immediately gave me a warning and told me that I would not be able to check-in online and would need to speak with an agent at the airport. I immediately assumed that this was the beginning of the deportation process.
Once disembarkation began the next morning, I assumed that something was going to happen. I had met and spoken to one other person with a very similar situation who cruised in 2019, however they did not have their record dismissed. And I believe one of their charges was more recent. They were detained by customs upon disembarking and deported. They were required to purchase the first available plane ticket out of Canada at their own expense. Since I knew that this was likely going to be an issue, we were planning to leave Vancouver that day after disembarkation and had our flight scheduled for 1:30 PM.
When we exited the cruise ship all we did was scan our cruise provided sea pass cards. I never showed my passport at this point. I exited without issue. We then went through a customs check point and all they did was collect those declaration papers from us. They literally didn’t even look at them. And then we hopped into a taxi to get to the airport. I was pretty surprised that nothing had happened. When we got to the airport, I was concerned that something may happen at this point as we were going through customs. Absolutely nothing happened and I boarded my American Airlines flight home without issue.
I know that there is not much consistency with how and when Canada determines inadmissibility. I wanted to share my experience and hope that it can help someone else. Of course I am not an attorney and would never say that you won’t get deported because I didn’t, I’m just sharing for reference. I don’t know why I wasn’t detected and/or deported. Everything I read online and the attorney I spoke with informed me that because of having additional convictions after a DUI conviction, it was highly likely I would be deported.
