Congratulations to all you members of this nice forum. My problem is a little bit different from the ones I've read here so far and it has some geographic complexity. But I hope some of you can help me.

I will try to make my story as short as possible. In the early 90s I moved from my country (not Canada) to the USA and entered a M.A. program. I had a scholarship for one person, and a family of four. The experience was nice (culturally speaking), despite the heavy extra work me and my wife had to do. Then came the Ph.D. Again a meager scholarship. For the first two years of the Ph.D program it was ok! Then the scholarship expired. Without loans or any extra money besides the US$ 400 I got working on a night shift , I started to get in trouble with credit cards. In the beginning I didn't quite noticed how bad the situation was becoming. All my thoughts were on  my thesis.

To spare you of details of a horror-story (depression, insomnia, suicidal thoughts,...), I'll jump right to the end, when I was accepting new credit cards (they kept sending me the plastic traps) in order to pay for my family's expenses, the university and the monthly/minimum/debt of many other cards. When I hit the US$50 cellar I decided to ask the fat cats for help. But the same people who stimulated me to get the f&$%$#@ cards treated me very badly and disrespectfully.

Well, finding myself  with a F-1 expired Visa in the US (could not even think of working legally to pay the debt) I packed up, went to the airport and took a plane back to my country (no Ph.D. ...).  it was a sudden move;  I've never defaulted before. For some time I got even more depressed and was tormented by a profound sense of guilty. In 8-years-time, nobody called me, asked me anything... and I kept working in my country. In all those years my wage was far too small to think about talking to my creditors about the problem. And, again, nobody bothered me. I started a new life, even got a credit card here (just one, and very well managed; I've learned the lesson).  Two months ago I got an excellent job proposal from a firm in Canada. As part of the working visa process  CIC asked me to got a police clearance from all the countries I lived in. Questions:

 What happened from the moment I left the USA? Is there any chance they sued or convicted for what happened? To run away from an impossible-to-pay-CC-debt is regarded as a crime? Would the FBI and local police files list me as some sort of criminal and deny me the clearance? Would they arrest me if I ever visit the country? Would CIC consider me a criminal and refuse to give me a visa? And if I really get the job, would the US-Beasts knock on my canadian door and pest me with phone calls?

I would like to hear any comments, advises, sugestions...

Thanks.

Cesium

cesium

i am not very familiar with how things work in the states or how consumer debt would affect your police clearance.  generally speaking, debt is not criminal it is a civil matter, so even if your creditors tried to sue you, there would be nothing on your police record.  so you should have no problems obtaining your clearance.

each state has its own statues pertaining to consumer debt - visit http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/statuteLimitations.shtml - www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/statuteLimitations.shtml to see what the statute was where you were living.  bottom line, after being away for 8 years you cannot be made to honor your debts in the states.

wish i had nore insight to offer you.  somone else may be able to answer more of your questions.

good luck