One of the things that most countries have in their permanent residency process is a criminal background check. Unfortunately, some people who want to move overseas have a criminal history in their past, and they wonder if that will prevent them from living overseas.
Fortunately, it’s still possible to move to a new country if you don’t have a clean criminal background. I don’t have any personal experience with this, nor have any of the people I know (at least they haven’t brought it up in conversation), so I can’t say that these methods are 100% reliable. However, here are a few ways to consider:
Completed sentence
In several countries, “passing a criminal background check” doesn’t mean that you have a completely clean criminal record. What it often means is that, if you were convicted of a crime, that you’ve completed your sentence.
I’ve been told that Uruguay is one of those countries. That’s probably not too surprising, since their current president is a convicted criminal who served 14 years in prison.
What I’d suggest doing if you’re in this situation, is contact some of the residency facilitators (maybe focusing on the lawyers, since they may have better information about this subject). Let them know your situation and see if they have had any experience getting residency for people who have a criminal record.
Alternative ways for permanent residency
Most countries have more than one way to gain permanent residency, and the different programs may have different requirements.
Sometimes if you apply for permanent residency through a family reunification program (you have parents or children who are citizens of the country, and living in the country), you may not need to have a background check.
Often, if you get married to a citizen, you can fast-tracked for residency and don’t need to do things like pass a criminal background check or prove your income or assets. Now, I don’t suggest you just get married to the first person off the street, solely for getting residency – that can lead to many other problems. However, it may be just as easy to fall in love overseas, as it is to fall in love in your home country.
If you’re already married, then your spouse may be able to get permanent residency, apply for citizenship in a few years, then bring you along as their spouse. You can still live in the country with your spouse by using the perpetual tourist technique.
Perpetual tourist
If you still can’t get residency where you want, you may want to consider the “perpetual tourist” method. This is a practice where you don’t actually become a permanent resident, but just act like you are a tourist in the country.
When you go to most country, you can often get a 30 to 90 day visa, or even be able to stay in the country that long without any visa (depending on your home country and the destination country). Right before the visa expires, you hop across the border to a neighboring country for a “visa run” – where you get another visa for as long as you can. This does add some expenses, and can be annoying if you’re really looking to settle down, but it does eliminate the need to a background check.
Being a perpetual tourist can make life bit more difficult than when you have permanent residency. You may have trouble renting an apartment, getting utilities started, opening a bank account, etc. if you don’t have permanent residency (and the associated national ID). But you can usually manage to find a way around that. Just look for privately rented apartments or homes that have the utilities included in the rent.
Conclusion
So if you don’t have a perfectly clean criminal background, it still is possible to move overseas. There may be a few countries where you can’t get permanent residency, or you may need to go through a few more hoops to get what you want, but you can still do it.
Take the same steps to figure out which country (or countries) you want to live in, and then investigate if it’s possible to move there. Don’t just assume that it can’t be done and never even try.
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