How to study in Canada?

How to study in Canada with an arrest on your record?

• My partner and I are moving to Canada to get our PhDs and so we have to apply for study permits (we're US citizens). The application asks if you've been arrested, and my partner has been once. How do we explain the arrest on the application, how do we ensure his study permit isn't denied because of this? Is there anything special we should include? We're both applying for the study permits online. He has already sent away to the FBI for his records, following the instructions he was given online when he answered that he had been arrested. There was no conviction, it was an ACD which is an Adjournment In Contemplation of Dismissal. This means that after 6 months, the charges were dismissed and the record expunged. It was part of the NYPD's entrapment practice called "operation lucky bag" where they put wallets and purses in public places and then arrested the people who picked them up, assuming that those people weren't going to return them. It was a misdemeanor theft charge. There was actually a class action lawsuit about it because it was such a sleazy thing, like stop and frisk - but that's another story. So, I assume that on his study permit application he needs to answer that yes, he was arrested, even though in the state of new york he is legally allowed to say he has not been arrested. I understand that arrests show up for national security level searches even when they're expunged. But we're just struggling with how to determine whether we need an immigration lawyer, whether he should just apply and explain, how you go about getting a record of a non-conviction? So many things are confusing about this... (Here's the text about what the ACD means from N.Y. Criminal Procedure Law 150.55(8): "The granting of an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal shall not be deemed to be a conviction or an admission of guilt." The law further provides: "No person shall suffer any disability or forfeiture as a result of such an order. Upon the dismissal of the accusatory instrument pursuant to this section, the arrest and prosecution shall be deemed a nullity and the defendant shall be restored, in contemplation of law, to the status he occupied before his arrest and prosecution." )

• Answer:

  I worked for CIC and CBSA but big caveat, IANYour visa adjudicator, this is not official immigration advice, and the reasoning and decision on any visa application lies with the specific adjudicator working on your application. As a general rule in (at least, Canadian) immigration, if anything is unusual in an application, you can absolutely write "please see additional pages" as your answer and add supplemental pages to the application forms to explain your situation. This is what I would do if I were you and this was my own application: I would absolutely declare that the arrest happened, either by ticking the box or writing "please see additional pages" in response to that question*. Then on that additional page, write an explanation of what happened - essentially your description of events provided in this question, that it was part of NYPD's "operation lucky bag" and what that means, that there was no conviction, record expunged etc etc. I would include the definition of ACD from N.Y. Criminal Procedure Law 150.55(8). it was an ACD which is an Adjournment In Contemplation of Dismissal. This means that after 6 months, the charges were dismissed and the record expunged Did your partner receive any official documents notifying him of this decision? Letter from NYPD? If so, copy those and include them in your packet. There was actually a class action lawsuit about it because it was such a sleazy thing, like stop and frisk - but that's another story. I would actually mention that there is a class action lawsuit in your explanation (since it speaks to the legality of the operation that led to the ACD in the first place). Print out a newspaper article or two (legit sources please!) about the lawsuit and include that in your attached pages. Ideally your explanation would incorporate references to the supplemental materials eg. "the result was Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal (please see attached definition from NY Criminal Procedure Law...) etc. --- Without knowing the rest of your partner's immigration history/ case and based solely on information in this askme question, my opinion is that it is unlikely that the study permit will be denied based solely on this specific arrest. *DO NOT LIE including lies by omission! It is a significantly larger and more permanent headache if you are found to have lied in an application and can set you up for long term immigration difficulties. You are always much better off answering a question with "please see additional info" basically communicating that you don't know if this counts so you'll share information about the situation anyway.