Hi, my wife is currently employed as a Food Service Supervisor on a work permit in Alberta and would like for myself (her husband) and our two sons( aged 11 & 8) ot join her on dependent visas. I would like to know what steps to take to apply for dependent visas for all of us and also if our sons would require study permits to attend school. I must also state that I was convicted of a criminal offence (Trafficking in Cocaine) in Florida,U.S.A in 1996 and was sentenced to 3 years as a youthful offender. I was released in 1998 and since have been a upstanding citizen and have been consistently gainfully employed. Would this affect my chances of obtaining a dependency visa and open work permit. Would I be required to do anything other than the norm because of this criminal record. Your advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

You could seek an open work permit under the provisions of Spouses of Highly Skilled Foreign Workers. An application could be processed at either a port of entry or a visa office. Your conviction is a potential problem. If you were convicted under Young Offender provisions in the USA, then there is a reasonable chance that it would not have an impact; if, however, the equivalent offence in Canada would not have been tried under the Youth Criminal Justice Act (Youth Criminal Justice Act since 2003), then you may however find yourself inadmissible.

Children of school age applying from outside of Canada would normally be required to seek study permits.

Thank you David. Your information is very helpful. I thought that after 10 years has past that a criminal record would not be an issue for being inadmissable, as long as I kept a clean record since that. Could you please clarify that. Thank you.

The 10-year principle described in the Deemed Rehabilitation Regulations is mitigated by the severity of the Canadian equivalent of the foreign offence. Without doing the research, I suspect that this offence was serious enough that these provisions would not apply. The Young Offender provisions may, however.

Thank you again David. I am really hopeful that the fact that I was sentenced as a Youthful Offender keeps me from being inadmissable, however, I read the Youth Criminal Justice Act of Canada and it stated that if the offence was done after you turned 18 you would not be eligible to be sentenced under this act. When I committed the offence in Florida, I was 19, but I was sentenced as a Youthful Offender, since in Florida you are eligible for Youthful Offender Status up until the age of 21. Since I committed the offence at age 19 does this deem me inadmissable, and if I am deemed inadmissable does this mean that i am ineligible to apply for a work permit. Thank you.

It is not possible to make this determination of inadmissibility based on the information supplied or within the scope of this forum. Your own reading of the Youth Criminal Justice Act of Canada, however, appears informative.