Anyone ever heard of problems entering Canada with several old speeding tickets?

[DebInAntigua]

We heard about the Canadian Immigration laws and how even seemingly minor offenses from decades ago can haunt you and prevent you from entering Canada. 

 

I have several speeding tickets on my record from when I was young and stupid. They are all from over 18 years ago, and all about 10 to 15 max over the limit. Nothing worse than that. 

 

Has as anyone heard of situations like this causing problems crossing the Canadian border or getting on a cruise that leaves or arrives in Vancouver BC?

[Aesop081]

Speeding tickets will not give you any issues entering Canada, you'll be fine.  DUI, different story, although it's flexible with some paperwork

 

Quoting....

Under Canada’s immigration law, if you have committed or been convicted of a crime, you may not be allowed into Canada. In other words, you may be “criminally inadmissible.”

This includes both minor and serious crimes, such as:

• theft,
• assault,
• manslaughter,
• dangerous driving,
• driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and
• possession of or trafficking in drugs or controlled substances.

You can find a list of criminal offences in the Criminal Code of Canada and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

If you were convicted of a crime when you were under the age of 18, you may still be able to enter Canada.

 

 

https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyage/inadmissibility-interdiction-eng.html

Edited April 15, 2019 by Aesop081

[martincath]

Totes agree with Aesop - no fables in above info 😉

 

CRIMINAL offences are the issues - and in Canada we treat DUIs as a crime (in fact since last year, officially a Serious Crime with over 10years prison time as the maximum sentence now) not a misdemeanour. Speeding though, unless it was high enough over the limit to cross over into Dangerous Driving or you crashed into some really expensive Stuff or injured or killed a person to bring in those types of criminal charges, speeding alone does not make you a Criminal in Canadian eyes. Otherwise almost everyone in Montreal, and probably half of the rest of the country, would be in jail!!!

 

Besides, I'm pretty sure Guatemala does not have an info-sharing agreement with Canada like the US does - so unless you are specifically asked about non-criminal driving offences you don't have to tell CBSA (and even if they did ask, from what you said above it would not matter anyway).

[DebInAntigua]

13 minutes ago, martincath said:

Totes agree with Aesop - no fables in above info 😉

 

CRIMINAL offences are the issues - and in Canada we treat DUIs as a crime (in fact since last year, officially a Serious Crime with over 10years prison time as the maximum sentence now) not a misdemeanour. Speeding though, unless it was high enough over the limit to cross over into Dangerous Driving or you crashed into some really expensive Stuff or injured or killed a person to bring in those types of criminal charges, speeding alone does not make you a Criminal in Canadian eyes. Otherwise almost everyone in Montreal, and probably half of the rest of the country, would be in jail!!!

 

Besides, I'm pretty sure Guatemala does not have an info-sharing agreement with Canada like the US does - so unless you are specifically asked about non-criminal driving offences you don't have to tell CBSA (and even if they did ask, from what you said above it would not matter anyway).

We don't drive in Guatemala, we just hire a driver when needed but mostly we walk everywhere or take tuk-tuks. 🙂  My speeding tickets are from back in TN & NC USA, and none of them are bad enough to be criminal. But there are several incidents of speeding if you look back almost 20 years...

[martincath]

1 hour ago, DebInAntigua said:

We don't drive in Guatemala, we just hire a driver when needed but mostly we walk everywhere or take tuk-tuks. 🙂  My speeding tickets are from back in TN & NC USA, and none of them are bad enough to be criminal. But there are several incidents of speeding if you look back almost 20 years...

Ah, if it's US offences then they might show up - but even with offences that have actually been tracked/computerized like driving infractions usually are I'm pretty certain that unless you accumulated enough points to have your license suspended it's not going to be of any interest... and even if you managed enough minor offences to get a suspension, it's long enough ago that 'deemed rehabilitated' discretion would definitely apply.

 

You'd have to really p*ss off the CBSA person to make them want to keep you out - but if you annoy any border official enough they can find a reason to deny your entry even if you are squeaky-clean criminally-speaking, so your speeding tickets are still unlikely to make any kind of difference either way.