Travelling abroad - Information site by charity Unlock | for people with criminal recordsInformation site by charity Unlock

Practical information
Read personal stories
Discuss this with others

Practical information

If you’re on licence you will normally need to get permission to travel outside the UK, but this is often given. Otherwise, there’s rarely anything stopping you from travelling abroad and you should be able to travel freely within the EU. Travelling to specific countries like America and Australia will usually require you to apply for a visa due to their specific process.

Taken from our top 10 things to know

+-Click here for details of what's in this section

Information
Frequently asked questions
Useful links

Read our latest news posts about travelling abroad

Information

Here you’ll find links to various parts of this site where we have information and useful resources relating to travelling abroad.

I’m looking to travel and have a criminal record. What are the consequences?

A lot will depend on the country you wish to travel to, the nature of your offence and the sentence/disposal you received. Useful links to specific countries include:

+-Africa

South Africa

+-Asia

China
India
Japan

+-Australia

Australia
New Zealand

+-Europe

European Union

+-North America

Canada
Mexico
USA

+-Other

Russia
Other countries

I’m on the Sex Offenders’ Register, will this cause me any problems when travelling abroad?

If you’re on the SOR you will need to notify the police of your intention to leave the UK for any foreign travel. Once you’ve notified the police a ‘Green Notice’ may be issued and ‘flagged’ via your passport. This will alert overseas immigration that you are on the SOR.

Travelling abroad while on the sex offenders’ register

Does my passport have a link to my criminal record?

No. Biometric passports include a microchip which stores a digitised image of your photograph as well as your biographical details which are printed in the passport.

Information contained on UK passports

Can I travel abroad if I’m on licence or on a community order?

Standard licence conditions usually state that you must not travel outside the UK without the permission of your supervising officer. There are no general exclusions from travelling abroad while serving a community order.

I’m looking to move abroad. How can I provide a formal record of my convictions to overseas immigration?

For people that wish to emigrate to certain countries, you can apply for a police certificate which will give a formal record of your convictions.

Police certificates

I’m worried that my criminal record will stop me travelling to the EU after Brexit

As a result of Brexit, UK citizens will need approval to travel to the EU via the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS).

Travel to the EU post-Brexit

Frequently asked questions

Here you’ll find some specific questions that we regularly get about travelling abroad and the answers we generally provide. More detailed FAQ’s may be included in the information pages above.

+-Will the country/place I'm travelling to be notified of my sexual conviction?

This would normally only occur if you travelled without prior notification or in breach of a foreign travel order preventing you from travelling outside the UK – therefore, committing a further offence. In the event you had fulfilled your commitment to notify (and therefore travelled with implied permission) there should be no reason for UK police to disclose your conviction or communicate with foreign law enforcement. There is currently only limited routine sharing of criminal record information across states (based around risk assessments); primarily within the EU.

+-What do the terms ‘No Trace’ and ‘No Live Trace’ mean on my Police Certificate?

‘No Trace’ means that you have no convictions, reprimands, final warnings, or cautions held on the Police National Computer.

‘No Live Trace’ means that there is criminal record information held on the Police National Computer but it has been ‘stepped down’. Anyone who sees this, can see that you have a criminal record from your past, even if they can’t see details.

See more about how ‘No Live Trace’ might be used by agencies such as the US Embassy on our information on police certificates.

+-What is the law regarding other countries and applying for information they may hold on me?

If the information is held abroad you would have to contact the embassy of the country concerned or that country’s data protection authority.

If your information is held in the UK, you are covered by the Data Protection Act, so you can apply for the information they hold on you from that country’s embassy.

+-I'm currently on licence for 39 months and want to leave the UK and resettle abroad. My probation officer has told me that this is not possible. If I were to leave and then subsequently return to the UK, could I be recalled to prison and if so, how long for?

All the time you are out of the UK you are considered to be ‘unlawfully at large’ and your licence will stop.

If you returned to the UK, your licence would start again and you would be liable for recall to prison for the length of time you have left on licence. See our section travelling abroad whilst on licence.

Useful links

Here you’ll find links to useful organisations and websites related to travelling abroad that we refer to in our information and advice. Contact details for the organisations listed below can be found here.