In Canada on a student or work permit visa and charged with impaired driving: How will this impact my immigration status?

Many of our clients are students from countries such as India and China who are in Canada as students or on a work permit after graduation.

The work permit application specifically asks if the applicant has even been charged with, arrested for or committed a criminal offence in any country. Everyone who is charged for a DUI related crime in Canada would have to answer yes to that question. They were arrested and charged with driving while impaired, over 80 mgs, or failure to provide a breath sample or refusal. If you have been fingerprinted or given a date to attend for fingerprints/mugshot in the future and a court date you have been arrested and charged at a minimum.

The reason the question on the IRCC application asks whether you have been arrested, charged for or committed a criminal offence in any country is that they are trying to determine whether you are admissible to Canada and if your application should be approved or not. If you are charged with (given a court date) an impaired driving offence in Canada this must be disclosed on your application. It may also lead to you being deported and refused future entry into Canada depending on the end result of your case.

Canada also shares their police database information with some other countries and regions such as the USA, the UK, the EU, and Australia. Being charged with or convicted for impaired driving in Canada may lead to lifelong problems or bans for those trying to enter those countries/regions in the future.

It is considered an extremely serious offence to drink and drive in Canada and depending on where it happens the charges may also be reported in the media (the outcome of the case usually is not). This means the name of the accused may show up in search results and on social media as being associated with impaired driving charges for the rest of their lives.

If you are in Canada as a student, on a work permit, or have PR, and you get charged with an impaired driving related offence the most important thing moving forward is the outcome of your case.

In terms of Canadian immigration, avoiding a finding of guilt should result in nothing more than some increased paperwork with the IRCC for those who get charged with DUI crimes in Canada.

Impaired driving offences are not taken lightly by the Crown Attorney or the courts so getting the Crown to drop the charges, reduce them to something else such as an HTA careless driving charge, or proving yourself innocent in court requires a lot of work from your lawyer. Sometimes the police violated your rights (evidence, Charter, human rights, etc). In other cases they were just wrong by accusing you of driving while drunk.

Sometimes if the person blows under the legal limit they will be accused of driving while high. This normally means high by cannabis but also meth, crack, cocaine, heroin, oxycodone or other opioids. For this reason roadside tests and performance on them via video evidence is extremely important which ultimately has to be disclosed to their criminal lawyer.

Canada has always been very strict regarding DUI related convictions in terms of who is allowed in.

The DUI laws in Canada became even more strict as of 2019. Even prior to this, people from the USA who were convicted of DUIs many years ago were refused entry at the border for this reason. For Canadian immigrants charged they may be deported and deemed inadmissible if found guilty/convicted.

If you are in Canada and not a Canadian Citizen (student, work permit, PR) and you get charged with a DUI / impaired related offence your immigration application may be refused for this reason and you may also be deported afterwards. The IRCC will evaluate your case based on the final result.

Depending on what the facts are it may be possible to avoid these problems so just give us a call for a free opinion on your case. Many cases are able to be dropped or reduced or result in findings of not guilty even when the accused wrongly thought otherwise.

Students at our colleges and universities and those thinking of applying for work permits or are already working on them who get charged with impaired driving often wrongly conclude that there is no hope in their case when there may be many defences available. It is the job of the lawyer to identify these issues, raise them with the Crown Attorney (prosecutor), and the Judge. If you get charged with DUI related offence just call us today for a no obligation free opinion of your case.


Call us today.
You don't have to jeopardize your future or waste thousands of dollars on excessive legal fees. We provide effective and affordable lawyer representation for those charged with impaired driving offences throughout Ontario.

Have a skilled criminal lawyer who focuses on impaired driving related charges protect you and your future from the stigma and consequences of a criminal record.





Are you a lawyer? If you are defending an impaired driving related case and are looking for expert advice regarding possible defences, case strategies, and information release management call us at: 647-228-5969.

Please note: We do not accept legal aid certificate cases. All clients are handled on a private retainer only.

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