75 days applied apr 24 and received 5 year approval july 8. i did all by myself. overstay 0f 9 years and fraud charge waited out my bar

@Jazzsax1 yes they should be done at a Port of Entry that makes sense. (One that is close to the place you intend to cross) In this case Pearson is very difficult to deal with and Buffalo is easier.

@johnrogers

Thank you very much, that’s very much appreciated, I will definitely take you up on that offer if I haven’t heard anything back. My son passed as a result of a homicide and we’re all still reeling from it. In hindsight I wish I had a clearer head to have gotten the prints redone ahead of time but I was afraid they would take too long to come back. I’ll be crossing my fingers it’s not an issue. Again thank you very much for your kind offer.

That's awesome of you John!

On port paroles --- should they be done at the intended port of entry? (That's my assumption) --- or any port?

@Obie well the good news is that Niagara Falls (Buffalo) is a great place to do a Port Parole and its done by email. If we get 2 weeks from the memorial and no waiver is evident please contact us and we will help you out. No charge. I don't think as a parent anyone can understand how tough it must have been to lose a child and all of our hearts go out to you. We do not need more than 2 weeks AND if its too far in advance they will not approve it because "maybe the waiver will arrive".

It may end up being unnecessary, hopefully the waiver arrives and you can have one less thing to stress about in what must be a heart wrenching time.

As for the question you asked, TECHNICALLY it should not be a problem. (The fingerprints being close to expiring) For those of you who do the waiver yourself going forward, for about $80 something bucks, don't leave it to chance and let your prints get so close to expiring. Your risking $585 already, and the stress of a deadline, (in this case) spend the money and get new prints if you don't have room for error.

Enough of the lectures though, Obie we are all pulling for you! Good luck and let me know if you need my help.

@JohnRogers I am closest to Niagara Falls Rainbow bridge is where I handed in my waiver application. I don't believe I missed any information, I even sent in court documents from the DUI which I don't think I needed but did just incase. Hopefully my personal letter didn't suck lol. Do you think the fact that my RCMP prints where so close to expiring will be an issue and I will get notice that I need to have those redone? They where just shy of the 15 months old but where within that timeframe still

@Obie

You don't sound like someone who will have a secondary security situation, unless your application was missing information or your personal letter sucked.

You will know by September, if you don't have anything by then, a Port Parole is a real possibility. You can do a Port Parole in a week, no need to apply very far in advance. Which Port do you live closest to?

@Obie definitely if your son was so young and passed away you might have grounds on humanitarian / compassionate. I have seen some postings elsewhere where port paroles were granted based on the above, combined with the waiver application having been submitted and talking in advance to the supervisor of the port of entry to get a feel for whether they would accept. Obviously you never know (it's a one time entry) but it definitely would fall under their guidelines and has been approved before.

There is unfortunately an extra cost for these (I believe around $260 US), but at least if you apply for it you would know pretty quickly even if the waiver takes longer (or gets stuck in secondary)

@jazzsax1, yes my son was 17 and recently passed away, there is a memorial planned for him in October that I’m hoping to attend, I did put that as well in my waiver application just so they would know the time frame was short notice from when I filed it. I hadn’t thought of what you’ve suggested, it’s worth asking at the very least,

@Obie memorial as in your son passed away? My condolences. If your waiver was submitted and in process, you could also look at a Port Parole on humanitarian grounds as you might have grounds here (or might not) and depending on the port of entry you could talk to the supervisor to see if they would consider granting before you apply. Just be frank and upfront about it (waiver packet submitted XX date, waiting on reply, travel for sons memorial, etc).

Hi, @johnrogers, I had a question about secondary, what would usually cause a file to go to secondary? My record consists of 3 old assault charges an old dui which I know a waiver isn’t needed for but I have a fraud over $5,000 from 15 years ago that did require a waiver. The circumstances were not claiming income while receiving unemployment insurance. The amount was $6300 which I repaid and was on probation for 6 months. I’m wondering if I can expect to go to secondary because of this charge. I’m overly anxious about the time frame, I handed in the waiver on June 13 and I’m hoping to be able to travel to a memorial for my son in October.
Also I noticed someone post they were requested to get another rcmp print done, the prints I handed in where to expire 2 weeks after I handed in the application, do you think i should expect them to request another set from me again? I’d like to know because I would start that process now to speed up the request if asked.

@jazzsax1 I had those three on my desk and had to file them and also put them in my spreadsheet, (so I could follow up in 4 years) so I wanted to illustrate how fast homeland security was. To look up each, to write about all 3 separately would have led to 5 more questions from people trying to compare themselves to those people. And as pointed out above, no 2 people are EXACTLY alike.

So the point was simply, if you have a straight forward waiver, it should be granted in 60 days or less. 85% of clients fall in this category. Anyone can call me and ask my opinion. 416-843-1371.

Yes John, but again, we like to know more details when you say they got 5 years. It's not always a bench mark, but can often give a good idea of what CBP might be thinking.

@Rose @Jazzsax1 I posted this to point out the timeline, not the fact they were able to obtain waivers. In all these cases they handed in waivers that I fully expected to get 5 year waivers and no delays because they were simple. No sexually based offences, no trafficking and offences at least 5 years old.

You cannot take these cases and apply them exactly to your circumstances and draw exact conclusions.

Here are two surprising cases that illustrate my point.

Case#1 Client tried to get asylum in the United States in 2004. Rejected. Stayed 5 more months and then came to Canada. Only became a Canadian Citizen in 2019. Denied entry in 2019. I explained that he might also get stuck with an I-212 application, but lets only apply if asked. To complicate things, he is legally blind. I would go and pick him up at home, and bring him home when we were done, and his friends had to take him to the Rainbow Bridge. So he requires a lot of care. My prediction was a 5 year waiver. (but maybe an expensive I-212 as well) Well instead, he got a September Letter. We were thrilled for him but did not see that coming.

Case#2 Client had the following: 2005-04-01 (1) Disguise with Intent (2) Armed Robbery (3) Forcible Confinement (4)Break and Enter with Intent (I changed the month and day on the record but not the year) He applied in 2017 and in 2018 was rejected for a waiver.
We applied in 2019 and I explained although I was 80% sure he would get a waiver I would not be surprised if it was only for a year. (The offence circumstances were pretty serious) He ended up getting a 5 year waiver. (and was thrilled obviously)

In case#1 I think the fact his asylum claim was rejected but the country in question is Haiti and the fact he is now blind may have been factors, but he was very hazy on details because of his PTSD because of his time in Haiti. Now if someone from India or Pakistan (more typical of clients I get for this type of application) assume they will get a September Letter because they also had an asylum claim rejected etc, they would be wrong.

In Case#2 i was able to write a better personal letter because I could directly answer the reasons he was rejected in the first place. I actually was able to respond to every reason they had said no, and leading up to this waiver he was able to work on getting proof he was rehabilitated, mainly because we knew that was part of the issue going in.

So instead of inserting your circumstances into a case you see, remember that your situation has its own set of unique circumstances. Offence severity, length of sentence, proof of rehabilitation, time since the offence and even what documents are available are all key factors in making a waiver successful. These two examples show that despite my expertise, I am not always right, and that not all applications have the same chance of success. If I listen to YOUR circumstances, and give you my opinion, its tailored to exactly what you are telling me. That is much more accurate that trying to compare yourself to some information you see here, where you don't know ALL the facts.

I agree with @jazzsax1 a lot of us depend on information like this lol . Were they people that renewed waivers? first time applicants? @JohnRogers

"Typical" can mean anything lol. Be more specific please. :)

@Jazzsax1 They were typical waivers. Straight forward and obviously not something they needed to send to secondary security.

John were these renewals? First time? How long post conviction?

Waiver time periods.

I have 3 clients who all got their waivers in June/July.

Client 1 April 27 handed in 5 year waiver dated June 17

Client 2 Handed in May 14 5 year waiver July 3

Client 3 handed in May 16 5 year waiver July 3

All three were straight forward and under 60 days. Since fingerprints are nice and fast (2-4 weeks) unless you NEED Court documents (and in most cases you do not) you could possibly get a waiver in 3-4 months (conservatively) or even faster.

Thank you