Singer Chris Brown was recently denied a visa for travel to the United Kingdom because of his criminal history. As a result of the visa denial, Brown’s tour had to be postponed. As a result of postponing his tour, Brown is out a lot of money.
What does this have to do with me, you ask?..After all, I’m a U.S. citizen…It’s not like I’m going to get deported or something, right?..
Criminal defendants are effected by their cases in more ways than they know. Not only can non-citizens be deported, they may also be denied re-entry into the country or denied naturalization in the future. These are common words that we read or hear on a near daily basis when entering pleas to criminal cases, even misdemeanors, here in California. However, many people do not realize that having a criminal record could cause our denial of entry into or exclusion from another country. For years I have seen clients have difficulty when trying to gain entry into Japan and Canada. Now, we see that other countries are following suit. In Brown’s case he appears to have a lawful business purpose to enter the United Kingdom. Nonetheless, he was denied access.
This type of denial could happen to anyone. In fact, most countries are more liberal in allowing entry for business purposes than they are for other reasons like tourism or socializing with friends or family. This means that if you want to take a ski trip to Whistler or you want to drink scotch in Scotland, you better get off of probation, expunge your conviction before you purchase your non-refundable airline tickets. Also, I suggest checking the entry requirements for any country you plan on visiting. It’s better to find out you’re not welcome in another country while you’re sitting at home, then to have an immigration officer tell you that you need to be out of their country on the next flight home.
If you have questions about this or any other criminal matter, please contact my office at any time: (818) 783-5700 or email me at vallenslaw@yahoo.com .