I recently was pressed with charges for theft under 5000.
My job interviewer today asked if I had ever been convicted. I told her no.
She's going to do a background check, and my court date is next week.

The question:
Will I still have a criminal record leading into the court or does it take the judge to decide?

And if I get let go on terms, like probation, may I cross the Canadian-American border?

From your description, it's a unclear as to whether you told the interviewer that you had been charge with something.

If you have been formally charged with something, then there is a record of it. I would be upfront with the interviewer. If you haven't been upfront, then I would call her and tell her that "There is something that I need to be upfront with about..." and, continue from there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Clough

From your description, it's a unclear as to whether you told the interviewer that you had been charge with something.

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She didn't ask if I was charged with anything, so I didn't mention anything. But yes I was charged like I said.

Hello in:

Your record, if you ever get one, won't happen until AFTER you're convicted, IF you ever are. Therefore, you have NO criminal record as of now.

If you get convicted, and put on probation, you will be restricted from travel BY the probation department. IF you're American (you didn't say), Canada will try to keep you out even after you've been totally released.

excon

As noted you do not have any record that shows up on a background check for employment tlll after the judge convicts you.

If you do get probation, of course you realise they will most likely contact your place of employment to verify you are employed.

But travel out of your area is controlled by the probation people

Where I live, and also in other places around the nation, a record of what someone has been charged with is available online, even if the charges have been dropped. It is available for background checks and is free of cost also.

Included in the listings are everything from moving violations for traffic, domestic issues, misdemeanors, felonies, etc. from the initial charges, to warrants that have been issued, and so on, to the final disposition - even if a case was dismissed.

It depends on where you live as to whether this particular kind of service is available to potential employers.

If you are convicted, you would be ineligible to enter Canada. You would be considered inadmissible.

There is a way that you can enter Canada while considered to be inadmissible. That would be to apply for a Temporary Resident Permit. This can be done five years after the completion or termination of your probation.

There is also a way to remove your inadmissible status.

Please see the following sites for more information.

Embassy Washington :: Visas and Immigration :: Persons who are inadmissible to Canada

CIC Canada | Do You Want to Visit Canada

Embassy Washington :: Visas and Immigration :: Immigration Fee Schedules

CIC Canada | Application For a Temporary Resident Visa to Visit Canada

Let me start by establishing my credentials. I am a human resources professional who now owns a large employment background screening firm.

Your pending criminal case WILL appear on any decent background check.

Federal and state laws will affect what can be reported but in almost every case, a pending case will be reported if a decent.good background check is conducted.

--COFFEY

With all respect to coffey, no legally arrests can not show up, at the police stations when people do background checks they are required to take off any mention of arrests and any mention of dismissed cases or any record of not guilty.

So if this information is provided there well can be a civil case against the people providing this. Our clerks at the police office could be held liable personally ( not just the department) and could face fines up to 20,000 for giving out any info that was not just convictions.

We had to take classes every year on the NCIC rules and regs and also on rights to privacy anyone giving out an arrest only would lose tiher jobs on the spot.

Okay, my assumption is that we are talking about commercial background checks in the US.

Most background checks used by employers come from background screening firms such as mine. Those background checks are focused on the records of the court - not those of police agencies. These are two distinctly different sources.

We report pending cases every day. Believe me, it WILL show up. Earlier in this thread, you were given some good advice: contact the employer and clarify your situation.

Best of luck,
--COFFEY

Hi there,

Sorry to ask you this SO late after this question was posted, but what was the outcome of the police background check? I'm in the same situation as you are, and was wondering if I could get some answers as to what to expect.

Thanks so much!

I don't know how other states are but in NY a pending prosecution will show up on both a fingerprint check and a court level background check. If a Consumer reporting agency pulls the record from the court, the reporting laws for NY say that "no information pertaining to an arrest or a criminal charge may be reported unless there has been a criminal conviction for the arrest or the arrest is still pending"

If the arrest did not lead to a conviction(acquittal, dismissal, ACD), then the arrest could not be reported

I'm actually in Canada, and I'm not sure that the US and Canada policies would be the same. Would you happen to know what happens in Canada?