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A record suspension sets your criminal record aside so it does not appear on an ordinary police record check. This page explains who is eligible, when the waiting period starts, and what the application actually involves.
Book My Consultation →Under the Criminal Records Act, the waiting period is five years after the sentence is completed for a summary conviction offence and ten years for an indictable offence.
Five years after the sentence is completed for a summary conviction offence, and ten years for an indictable offence, under the Criminal Records Act. The waiting period starts only when the entire sentence is finished, meaning custody served, probation expired and every fine, surcharge and restitution order paid in full.
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A record suspension, called a pardon before 2012, is an order of the Parole Board of Canada under the Criminal Records Act. Its effect is that the record of your conviction is kept separate and apart from other criminal records, so that it does not appear on an ordinary criminal record check conducted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The Canadian Human Rights Act also prohibits discrimination in federally regulated employment on the basis of a conviction for which a record suspension has been ordered.
It is important to be precise about what it does not do. A record suspension does not erase or delete the conviction, and it does not mean the offence never happened. It can be revoked or cease to have effect if you are later convicted of a new offence, or if the Board is satisfied you are no longer of good conduct or made a false statement in the application. It does not bind foreign governments, so United States border officers may still see and act on the record. And a conviction for a sexual offence against a minor remains flagged for the purposes of vulnerable sector checks.
A separate process, expungement under the Expungement of Historically Unjust Convictions Act, permanently destroys records of convictions for conduct that is no longer criminal and that was historically unjust. That is a narrow scheme with its own eligibility criteria and is not the same as a record suspension.
The waiting period does not begin at conviction. It begins when the sentence is fully completed, which means all of it: the custodial portion served, parole or statutory release finished, probation expired, and every fine, surcharge, restitution order and compensation order paid in full. An unpaid victim surcharge from years ago is the single most common reason an otherwise eligible applicant is not eligible, and it is worth checking early.
| Situation | Waiting period | When it starts |
|---|---|---|
| Summary conviction offence | 5 years | On completion of the entire sentence, including payment of all fines and surcharges |
| Indictable offence | 10 years | On completion of the entire sentence |
| Service offence under the National Defence Act | 5 or 10 years depending on the penalty | On completion of the sentence |
| Absolute discharge | No application needed | Purged automatically 1 year after the court decision, under section 6.1 |
| Conditional discharge | No application needed | Purged automatically 3 years after the court decision, under section 6.1 |
| Charge withdrawn, stayed or acquitted | No application needed | No conviction exists; fingerprint destruction can be requested from the police service |
Some convictions cannot be the subject of a record suspension at all. Under the Criminal Records Act these include offences listed in Schedule 1, which are sexual offences involving a child, unless the applicant meets the specific exception in the Act, and cases where the applicant has been convicted of more than three offences prosecuted by indictment, each with a sentence of two years or more. Where you have several convictions, the applicable waiting period is measured from the completion of the most recent sentence, and all of them are dealt with in one application.
Obtain a certified criminal record check from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police based on fingerprints taken by an accredited agency. This establishes exactly what convictions exist.
Court information forms from every courthouse where you were convicted, confirming the offences, sentences and, critically, that everything ordered has been paid and completed.
Checks from every police service in each jurisdiction where you have lived during the preceding five years.
Proof of citizenship or residence, military conduct sheets where applicable, and for indictable offences a statement of the benefit the record suspension would bring and how you have been rehabilitated.
The completed package and the application fee, currently $50, are filed with the Parole Board of Canada. Processing times vary considerably and are published by the Board.
For summary conviction offences, the Board must order a record suspension if the applicant is eligible and has been of good conduct with no new convictions. For indictable offences, the Board has discretion: it must be satisfied that the applicant has been of good conduct, and that the record suspension would provide a measurable benefit, sustain their rehabilitation as a law-abiding citizen, and not bring the administration of justice into disrepute. Where the Board proposes to refuse, the applicant is given notice and an opportunity to make written submissions.
You do not need to pay a private agency to apply. The forms and the guide are published by the Parole Board of Canada and the fee is set by the Board. The genuine difficulty is administrative: incomplete records, unpaid surcharges, convictions in multiple provinces, or eligibility that turns on how a sentence was structured. Those are the situations where legal advice is worth having, and they are worth clarifying before spending anything.
Ontario's Police Record Checks Reform Act, 2015 standardised what may be disclosed in this province and created three types of check. A criminal record check discloses convictions for which no record suspension has been ordered, along with certain outstanding matters. A criminal record and judicial matters check adds outstanding charges, warrants, and certain judicial orders such as probation and prohibition orders. A vulnerable sector check, available only for positions of trust or authority over children or vulnerable persons, adds record-suspended sexual offences and, in exceptional circumstances and subject to a defined test, non-conviction information.
The Act generally prohibits the disclosure of non-conviction information, meaning withdrawn charges, stays and acquittals, on the first two types of check. That was a significant reform. It does not, however, control what a foreign government sees, what an employer learns from a court database search or a news report, or what a professional regulator may require you to disclose under its own rules.
A record suspension therefore matters most for ordinary employment screening in Canada, and it matters a great deal there. Once ordered, the record is kept separate and apart and does not appear on a criminal record check, and the Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination in federally regulated employment on the basis of a conviction for which a record suspension has been ordered. Ontario's Human Rights Code similarly protects against discrimination in employment on the basis of a record of offences as defined in that Code.
The most frequent obstacle is an unpaid amount. A victim surcharge, a fine, a restitution order or a compensation order left outstanding means the sentence is not complete and the waiting period has not begun. People are frequently unaware of a surcharge imposed years ago, and the only way to be certain is to obtain court information forms from every courthouse involved. Where an amount is outstanding, it can be paid and the clock then starts, so identifying it early is genuinely valuable.
The second is a misunderstanding about which waiting period applies. It runs from the completion of the most recent sentence, so a later conviction resets the timeline for the whole application. Where the Crown proceeded summarily on a hybrid offence, the five-year period applies; where it proceeded by indictment, ten years. The court record establishes which, and assumptions are often wrong.
The third is incomplete documentation. The Parole Board requires fingerprint-based confirmation of the record from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, court information from every convicting court, local police checks from every jurisdiction of residence in the preceding five years, proof of citizenship or residence, and for indictable offences a statement of the measurable benefit and sustained rehabilitation. Applications returned as incomplete lose months, and the documents themselves have limited validity periods, so they need to be assembled in the right order.
You do not need a lawyer to file a straightforward record suspension application, and the Parole Board publishes the forms and guide free of charge. Advice is worth obtaining where eligibility is genuinely unclear, where convictions span multiple provinces or include a service offence, where a Schedule 1 offence is involved, where the Board has given notice that it proposes to refuse, or where the real objective is not a record suspension at all but fingerprint destruction, correction of an inaccurate record, or a United States entry waiver.
This is the point on which people are most often given wrong information. A Canadian record suspension has no effect on United States immigration law. Admissibility to the United States is determined by United States officers applying United States statutes, and where a record has previously been shared or recorded, it does not disappear because Canada has set it aside. Categories that commonly cause difficulty include offences involving moral turpitude, which broadly captures offences of dishonesty and certain violent offences, and any offence relating to a controlled substance.
Where a person is found inadmissible, the available remedy is a waiver application to the appropriate United States authority. It is a formal application requiring supporting documentation about the offence, the sentence, the time elapsed and evidence of rehabilitation, and it takes many months to process. Waivers are granted for a fixed period and must be renewed. Anyone whose work or family circumstances require regular travel should begin the process well in advance rather than discovering the problem at a port of entry.
Two related points are worth knowing. Being turned away at the border is not, in itself, a criminal matter in Canada, but a refusal is recorded and affects later attempts. And a charge that did not result in a conviction can still prompt questions at the border if it was recorded, which is a further reason to pursue destruction of fingerprints and photographs where a charge was withdrawn, stayed or resulted in an acquittal.
If your charge did not result in a conviction, you do not need a record suspension. Where a charge was withdrawn, stayed or ended in an acquittal, no criminal record was created, and you can apply to the police service that arrested you for destruction of the fingerprints and photographs taken at the time. That is a discretionary administrative process, and it is worth doing because non-conviction records can otherwise surface in some screening checks.
If you were discharged, section 6.1 of the Criminal Records Act does the work automatically: one year after an absolute discharge and three years after a conditional discharge, the entry must be removed from the automated criminal conviction records. If a record check still shows it after that time, the point can be taken up directly with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
If your concern is travel to the United States, a Canadian record suspension does not resolve it. Admissibility is determined under United States law by border officers, and where a person is found inadmissible the remedy is a waiver application to the relevant United States authority. That is a separate process and should be planned well ahead of any travel.
Record suspension applications and related record matters may be handled by Lexaltico LLP or referred to counsel within our LexKonnect consortium where that is more efficient for the client. Any referral arrangement is disclosed to the client and complies with Rule 3.6-6.1 of the Law Society of Ontario's Rules of Professional Conduct. The client's interests govern the choice of counsel.
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