Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

crossing borders

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • crossing borders

    This is about me and an ex, no children involved.

    Does anyone here have any insight into, or experience with, whether Ontario family court bench arrest warrants are transmitted to Canadian border agent systems, or into border control systems in the USA?

    Long story short, after years of battling an ex regarding exorbitant spousal support for a career that no longer existed (and there are no children), I decided to move abroad (I have a dual nationality, the other being a country outside North America) and try a reset from literal zero. Over the years the FRO got a judge to issue a warrant to appear before the court.

    My Canadian passport was revoked by the FRO, so I travel on my foreign passport.

    Thanks in advance for any insight or reference.

    - metro

  • #2
    A quick google search shows this:

    If you have a warrant out for your arrest in Canada, driving or flying to the United States can cause you to be arrested. Due to information sharing between the two nations, the US Customs warrant check can bring up both American and Canadian warrants. Even if your warrant is only provincial wide and you are exiting the country from another province, anyone with a warrant is considered inadmissible to the US and can be denied entry to USA. Furthermore, there is a good chance that US border officials will inform the local police force in Canada of the situation, so after getting denied admittance you may get arrested at the airport or land border crossing by the RCMP or municipal police. This means, for example, that a provincial warrant in Quebec can prevent a Canadian citizen from driving into USA from Ontario.

    Even if a Canadian with a local bench warrant managed to get into the United States, they might get arrested upon returning to Canada. Remember, it is not the airlines that check to see if a person has a criminal record or warrant (you can fly domestically with a bench warrant and not run into any trouble), it is immigration officials at the border that will detect it. Canada and USA share criminal databases, allowing the Canadian border to see all US state and country-wide warrants, and the American border to see all provincial and Canada-wide warrants. If you want to travel south of the border but have an outstanding bench warrant in Canada, once you deal with your warrant it can still possible to get into the United States with a criminal record by obtaining a US Entry Waiver.
    You have a warrant for your arrest. You are a criminal in the eyes of the law. Doesn’t matter how you feel about what you owe or who the money is for, a judge determined you owed it and another one signed the warrant for your arrest.

    Comment


    • #3
      Yes, I've found that Googling as well.

      I'm not debating here the decision behind, or legitimacy of, the warrant - I accepted that and the consequences long ago. The question is technical: whether committal warrants issued by family courts in Canada are transmitted to American border control.

      Comment


      • #4
        Leaving the country is not accepting the consequences.

        Not sure you will get an answer on this forum. You should probably speak to a lawyer who specializes in criminal law or immigration law. Either way, as the US and Canada share databases, your warrant will be on file.

        Comment

        Our Divorce Forums
        Forums dedicated to helping people all across Canada get through the separation and divorce process, with discussions about legal issues, parenting issues, financial issues and more.
        Working...
        X