You may have heard about identity theft of credit cards, bank information and other financial transactions. Have you ever heard about identity theft causing troubles relating to port of entry matters? Our office was recently approached by a Canadian citizen who recently attempted to enter the United States in order to attend a concert with a group of friends when he was unexpectedly bared for “criminality”. It was not until he returned to the Canadian side where he was informed by Canadian immigration officials that there was an outstanding warrant against him for a significant amount of theft.  

After speaking with Canadian authorities, our client was able to deduce that the thief was using the client’s old driver’s license because the address provided to the Canadian authorities by the thief at the time of the arrest was a previous address used by our client.  The Canadian clients’ first course of action had been to engage a Canadian criminal defense lawyer to help him resolve the outstanding criminal charges. The government prosecutor, referred to as “the crown”, after being shown evidence that our client was indeed in Mexico at the time of theft incident, agreed that this was a case of identity theft and all of the charges against our client were subsequently withdrawn.

The criminal defense attorney in the case was aware that this incident could also cause potential issues for the clients future travels into the U.S. – given the frequency by which Canadians shop, work and tour the United States.  He therefore realized that it would be wise to consult with an experienced U.S. immigration lawyer to also alert Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of the identity theft and have them update their system to make the appropriate corrections so that the client could continue his cross-border travels seamlessly.

Our office agreed to represent the Canadian citizen in what we refer to as “controlled admission”.  It’s a process by which we gather all the necessary evidence to overcome the inspection problem submitted to CBP and request that they make the appropriate modification to their records. We then personally appear with the client at the port of entry at the time of inspection and are available to assist the client in addressing any remaining issues during the time of inspection.

We are pleased to confirm that after submitting a copy of the judgment record indicating that the charges had been withdrawn against our client, together with a copy of the court transcript confirming the same, CBP admitted our Canadian client as a B-2 visitor.  They also annotated his passport to state that there was a mismatch in his record and that further information would be put into the CBP system to alert any other Port-of-Entry of the client’s unique situation.

After our client was admitted, we provided the client with a copy of the full package that we had submitted to CBP and have instructed him to carry the package with him at all future entries into the U.S. in the event that this issue rears its head again. 

If you have experienced a similar situation or you have another situation in which you would like our office to be present with you during the inspection process, please feel free to contact us to schedule a consultation to see how we can be of assistance.