A Canadian immigration lawyer says Donald Trump is technically barred from crossing into Canada now that he is a convicted felon.
The former U.S. president was found guilty Thursday on all 34 counts in his criminal hush money trial, punishable by up to four years in prison.
“Technically, upon him being convicted, he is now inadmissible to Canada,” said Mario Bellissimo, a Toronto-based immigration lawyer and policy analyst.
Given the number of convictions, Trump is likely to remain barred from crossing the Canadian border as a civilian until at least five years after he has served his sentence, Bellissimo said.
After that, he can apply for a “certificate of rehabilitation.”
Alternatively, Trump could apply for a visa if he had an especially compelling reason to come to Canada, the lawyer said, but it would be very difficult for most people to get one in the same circumstances.
However, Trump is anything but a conventional case.
The verdict makes Trump the first former American president to be found guilty of felony crimes, and comes just six months before the presidential election in which Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee.