Many people believe that with a conditional discharge, the criminal charge goes away on its own and cannot be seen by the Americans. This is in fact not true.
We receive many calls from people with a conditional discharge for fraud, theft, drugs that get denied entry to the US. The Americans do not know what a conditional or absolute discharge means and they treat it as a criminal offence.
Once you are denied entry to the US for having a criminal offence (even though it is a discharge), you will require a US Entry Waiver (I-194, I-192) to return to the US. A US Entry Waiver is a complicated, lengthy and expensive process. Also, once a US Entry Waiver is required it is needed for life and will require re-applications each time it expires.
If you have NOT been denied entry to the US but have a conditional discharge, its a good idea to apply for a file destruction to remove your prints from the system. Once the file destruction is approved you will be safe to travel to the US without any worries about being denied entry.
Pardons Canada assists individuals to obtain file destructions to that the criminal record cannot be seen by the public including the Americans. Pardons Canada also helps individuals to obtain US Entry Waivers (I-194, I-192) which allows them to return to the US once denied entry.
