@J Rogers
For a guy who prides himself in having strong expertise in waivers, I think you stumbled on a grey area.
When I was younger, I happened to live in multi-storey buildings with shady tenants. Arguments between them often degenerated and lead to bogus charges being laid by police. I happened to be a victim who quickly turned into an accused.
Was charged with mischief under 5000$ and intimidation after a dispute. Lawyer wanted to rush me through the system, and so I accepted a bargain plea to the mischief charge and was handed a conditional discharge for something so silly as slamming my hand through a door because I didn't keep my cool. The physical scars and traumatising experience of being labelled a criminal for the rest of my life still haunt me.
I am still learning to deal with the consequences of a flawed system which looks to systematically criminalize ordinary people, but the true criminals are roaming freely and the police won't lay charges for lack of evidence.
@travtttt
I travelled to the US for work purposes ever since and never had a problem, so your story is intriguing.
It depends on which CBP officer you fall on, I suspect. Many simply don't care while others will flag up your name to get promotions.
Online, they seem to indicate mischief is not a crime of moral turpitude, but so isn't breaking and entering. Others say the opposite. The US justice system is so complex since each state has their own penal code, so there's lot of interpretation. Their archaic system and polarizing politics makes you question as to how this place hasn't drifted into another civil war.
Don't let any lawyer fool you. A conditional, even absolute discharge, is a criminal record for US customs. It's an admission of guilt. US immigration laws are so silly that they contradict each other. One article states that you are inadmissable if you have ever been arrested, yet there is some leeway with DUIs from CBP agents. Another article claims that if you received a sentence of less than six months imprisonment, you can enter, even if the crime was a CMT. Problem with most canadian charges, they are hybrid, carrying a 14 yr max prison sentence, so US customs will use the latter in rendering a decision. In other words, good luck. CBP agents are simply not trained to handle all these exceptions.
I was also advised that getting a file destruction removes all entries from CIPC, including fingerprints. As to how true that is, I couldn't tell you. What is seen after receiving a conditional discharge or absolute and their visibility period has elapsed, I simply have no clue.
Here's what I know, conditional discharges are sealed after 3 years upon receiving the sentence and absolute after a year. If it was before 1992, you have to get it removed yourself by writing to the RCMP. The RCMP, for some reason, doesn't remove them even after 1992 which they are required by law to do. So, again you need to go through the painful process of writing to them. Now, if US customs accessed these before, then....
The grey areas are listed above and our poor government is at their mercy. Piece of advice, how about you boycott them forever. They don't need your dollars, after all its monopoly money to them. There are plenty of other cheaper countries to.l explore before they all start following the US model, pressured by none other than their corrupt politicians.
