Conrad Black, once a Canadian who renounced us citizenship to become an English Lord finds himself in very unusual legal waters from an immigration perspective.
As someone with a criminal conviction, he would be considered inadmissible to Canada as a non-Canadian citizen. This means that despite the fact that Lord Black was born in Canada and has a Canadian wife, his renunciation of Canadian citizenship nevertheless renders him inadmissible to Canada given his US conviction.
He is now awaiting the decision of US Judge Amy St. Eve on whether the terms of his bail would allow him to travel to Canada. Not so simple. Even if Judge St. Eve grants him access to Canada, Black, it would seem, would still have to apply for a Temporary Resident Permit (TRP) to be able to cross into Canada. As discussed extensively in our blogs, TRPs are not always easy to get and given this high profile case, Black’s application could take months to process.
I was interviewed on the Black debacle by the Canadian Press yesterday, reproduced below here
President & CEO
Michael Niren
Mr. Niren is CEO of VisaPlace LLC and the President and Managing Partner of VisaPlace Legal Canada, an immigration law firm based in Toronto, and VisaPlace Legal US a law firm registered in The District of Columbia, USA. Mr. Niren is a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Canadian Bar Association’s Citizenship and Immigration Section, American Lawyers Association, and an Associate Member of the American Bar Association.
