How Much Does a Canada TRP Cost?

Intoxicated driving is a serious crime in Canada, so a visitor arriving at the border with such an offense in their past may be considered criminally inadmissible to the country and denied entry. In addition to DUI and DWI offenses, many other misdemeanor and felony convictions can be an issue at the Canadian border including drug possession, domestic violence, and even dangerous or reckless driving. Inadmissibility to Canada can be overcome by petitioning their government for a Temporary Resident Permit or TRP. In order to be approved for a TRP, an applicant must show that the benefit of letting them in outweighs any potential risks to the country. In a nutshell, a TRP application should convince the Government of Canada that you will never re-offend and that your trip is important. Applying for a TRP involves a substantial amount of paperwork, and consequently the cost of a Temporary Resident Permit is not cheap.

When calculating how much a Canada Temporary Resident Permit will cost, one should factor in both the cost of the government processing fee and the cost of a TRP lawyer. The Canadian Government charges a processing fee of CAD $229.77 or approximately USD $175. This essentially pays for an employee of Immigration Canada to spend the appropriate time adjudicating a person's application. This fee increased in December 2023, and was previously $200 Canadian dollars or approximately $155 American dollars. The small increase was designed to reflect inflation, as Canada had not adjusted their review fees for many years.

The cost of a Canada Temporary Resident Permit lawyer can vary depending on the attorney's education, experience, and reputation, as well as the amount of work involved in preparing your specific application. Price quotes from Canadian immigration lawyers for the professional preparation of a TRP application can vary from about $1400 to $3000. Since every criminal offense in your past must be addressed in detail, if you only have a single misdemeanor the cost of a Canada TRP application will likely be a lot less compared to someone with several felony convictions.

Wondering how much a Canada Temporary Resident Permit would cost for you? Contact our Canadian immigration law firm today for a FREE consultation! We would be happy to provide you with a no commitment flat-rate price quote for a TRP application based on your specific situation.

Some TRP applications can be more than 100 pages, so the cost is generally reflective of the amount of work involved. Since there is a long list of different crimes that render a US citizen inadmissible to Canada, there can be a huge variance in the complexity of cases and thus the Temporary Resident Permit prices quoted by Canadian lawyers. Specific factors related to an offense can also affect the cost of a TRP application. For example, overcoming a DUI that involved an accident with injuries will ordinarily be more difficult (and thus more work and a higher cost for a lawyer) than dealing with a low level DUI with no aggravating circumstances. A law firm may quote $1500 for person A and $2500 for person B if one application will be considerably easier to prepare than the other. Charges that did not result in a conviction will also need to be adequately addressed, so even if you were not found guilty of an offense it could still increase the paperwork involved in getting into Canada. In general, the more arrests (not just convictions) a US citizen has in their past the more they will need to pay for a Temporary Resident Permit Canada application.

The cost of applying for a multiple-entry Temporary Resident Permit is also typically higher than the cost of applying for a single-entry TRP, since there is an increased amount of work required when requesting longer access to the country. Consequently, how much a Temporary Resident Permit Canada will cost you can change depending on how long a TRP you will want. It is possible to apply for a Canadian TRP for up to three years, but the duration requested must be justified with supporting documentation. If someone must travel to Canada urgently, they may need to apply for a Temporary Resident Permit at the border as well as through the Canadian consulate, which means they technically require two TRP applications. While the paperwork is similar, each application is unique in certain aspects and therefore the cost of a Temporary Resident Permit attorney will usually become slightly more expensive when two applications are necessary.

If an American is also interested in permanently fixing their inadmissibility to Canada, and all sentencing including probation was finished more than five years ago, a great way to save money is to apply for Criminal Rehabilitation at the same time. TRP and Rehabilitation applications overlap substantially, so much of the paperwork can be reused when applying for both (drastically lowering the cost of each). The goal of applying for both is to gain access to Canada quickly with a Temporary Resident Permit and then fix the problem indefinitely with Criminal Rehabilitation, which takes much longer to acquire.

Is the Cost of a Canada Temporary Resident Permit Worth It?

Due to the significant cost of getting a Canadian Temporary Resident Permit, many US citizens simply cancel their trip and avoid crossing the border unless their travel is imperative. In our experience, Americans that need to enter Canada for work purposes or to visit family will often decide it is worth spending money to request a Temporary Resident Permit, while Americans considering a short vacation north of the border will frequently just visit somewhere else instead. One of the few scenarios where the Temporary Resident Permit Canada cost might be justifiable for a vacation is if a trip has already booked and paid for and is entirely non-refundable. Americans with a DUI also seem more willing to file paperwork with the Canadian Government in comparison to individuals with a felony conviction, since the cost of a Temporary Resident Permit lawyer is customarily less for a misdemeanor and the odds of success may be better.

Once it has been five years since all sentencing including any probation was finished, it is possible to apply for Canada Criminal Rehabilitation (CR) which can permanently fix inadmissibility to the nation. Some people avoid Canada until they are eligible to apply for CR, because they do not want to invest in requesting special permission to cross the border until they have the opportunity to fix the problem forever. Unlike when you apply for Temporary Resident Permit Canada access, CR applicants also do not require a valid reason for travel (it can be very challenging to obtain a TRP for a leisure trip). Temporary Resident Permit and Criminal Rehabilitation applications are extremely similar, so if a lawyer prepares a professional TRP application much of the paperwork can frequently be reused when applying for permanent access. Consequently, people looking to save money when applying for a TRP will often ask how big a discount they will receive if they end up also applying for CR in the future.

Questions about the price of a Temporary Resident Permit Canada? Contact our legal team today for a complimentary assessment!