Naturalization, Citizenship Canadian citizen traveling to the US with a retail theft charge

Status
Not open for further replies.

traveler22

New Member
I am a canadian citizen who would like to find out about the consequences when travelling to the US in the future. 4 years ago I was down in PA on a golf trip with friends and was charged for removing a beer bottle from a bar (the charge was retail theft). Rather than going through the lengthy legal process when I returned to Canada I paid the $200 dollar US fine.

My question is that if I want to travel to the US in the future will this charge prevent me from crossing the border and if so what are my options if I do have to travel there?

Thanks.
 
It depends on the Pennsylvania law. Most classes of criminal aliens are inadmissible and would not be allowed to enter the country or receive a visa.

Theft is a crime of moral turpitude. The law makes one exception to the inadmissibility rule, that is if the alien has only one conviction with a penalty of less than 6 months in jail on a charge that could have not carried more than a year in jail. Since you only had to pay a fine you would need to find out the maximum penalty on that charge. If it is lower than a year, which it probably is, and this is your only criminal record anywhere, then you are in the clear.
 
Information on PA law re retail theft

Thanks.

How can I find out what the PA law states and should my best bet be to contact the District Justice of the township? I do have the phone number on the "Non-traffic Citation Summons" that was issued to me.
 
It looks pretty good for you. If this was your first and only conviction and it was only about the bottle of beer, it was what Pennsylvania calls a "summary offense" and therefore you would not have any problems on the immigration front.

http://members.aol.com/StatutesP3/18PA3929.html
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top