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I need to know if I have a legal judgment already. I have to go to jail in December for a few months but I won't be doing that because I'll be deported after that anyway.

My question: I'm in the US now and have a legal judgment in the US.

If I'm going to Canada, can they see something when I pass the border? And then in the Canada airport? I don't have an arrest warrant. Does anybody know anything? Please tell me if on the land border or at the airport they can they stop me.

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    Were you convicted of a misdemeanor or a felony? A felony definitely makes you inadmissible to Canada. Are you planning to complete the jail sentence or are you going to try to leave before that?
    – mkennedy
    Commented Oct 23, 2017 at 3:08
  • @mkennedy the term "judgment" generally indicates a civil case. If that is accurate, the person was not convicted of anything.
    – phoog
    Commented Oct 23, 2017 at 13:18
  • @phoog what civil judgment would lead to jail time? Failure to pay child support maybe?
    – mkennedy
    Commented Oct 23, 2017 at 13:29
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    I find your question hard to follow. First, what is your country of nationality? Could you give a clearer explanation of your situation?
    – David Richerby
    Commented Oct 23, 2017 at 19:51

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I suggest rethinking this strategy, as you might get into much more serious trouble comparing to where you are now.

First, if you have been convicted for a crime in the US for which you'd be serving jail time, you will be refused admission into Canada altogether. They will check this when you're passing Canadian immigration. This may even be the case when you transit through Canada, as all airports there I've been to (4) work similar to US, where you have to pass the immigration even if you "just transiting". According to Michael Seifert's comment, this seem to be the case with all airports. Then you will be then put on a flight back to US (not the onward one).

Second, once you check in the flight the US authorities would know you're on that flight. While there are no immigration checks on departure, CBP staff routinely patrols the departure gates of many international flights and they do stop some travelers for additional document verification/search. So yes, they can stop you here too.

Finally, if you are caught departing on a one way ticket, there is a good chance you'll end in a much worse situation than you're now.

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  • Is there any Canadian airport where one wouldn't have to pass through immigration control during transit? Also I have never seen CBP patrolling the departure gate of an international flight. There may be some flights where it is common, but overall it is rather rare.
    – phoog
    Commented Oct 23, 2017 at 13:20
  • @phoog: According to Wikivoyage, "Similar to the US, Canada also does not allow sterile transit, and requires passengers transferring between international flights to undergo customs and immigration checks."
    – Michael Seifert
    Commented Oct 23, 2017 at 17:16
  • Some countries take into account the length of any jail sentence in deciding whether to issue visas. Almost certainly, the penalty for leaving the country without serving your sentence will be longer than the original sentence, making future travel harder.
    – Patricia Shanahan
    Commented Oct 23, 2017 at 19:31
  • @phoog DTW-AMS I don't think I ever seen it without CBP staff being present there. Maybe "patrol" is not a good choice of a word, they just stay aside looking at passengers and pulling up some for brief questioning/search. Never been pulled myself, so no idea what they ask. Regarding CA airports I only been to 4 of them, and I couldn't find an official source confirming this besides Wikivoyage.
    – George Y.
    Commented Oct 24, 2017 at 16:43
  • @GeorgeY. I think they're mostly looking for people exporting stuff illegally or failing to declare currency in excess of USD 10,000; I believe they will also check immigration status of departing foreigners. Back to the point of the question: if the passenger's information is linked to a database record indicating that he should not be leaving the country, and if there are CBP officers in the airport, those officers could certainly go to the gate and prevent the passenger from leaving the US, as you say.
    – phoog
    Commented Oct 24, 2017 at 17:18

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