We all make mistakes and sometimes those mistakes cause us to have a run in with the law.We can do our best to get out of the trouble and in many cases with the right lawyer and a bit of luck we will succeed. There are those inevitable times however that the best lawyer and the best run of luck are just not enough to get you out of a criminal conviction. In those cases you will have a criminal record that will be attached to you for the rest of your life. Those criminal records can affect your lifestyle in a wide variety of ways. Lets take a moment to look at the ways that a criminal record can affect you.
First off it can affect your ability to make a decent living for yourself. Criminal records can be used as a basis for an employer to not hire you. While most of the time it is possible that a potential employer will listen to what happened and take that into consideration before making a hiring decision, there are some companies out there who have a zero tolerance policy against convictions of any kind other than very minor traffic or drug possession charges. In those cases a criminal conviction means an automatic closed door.
In many states, and in some cases in specific cities, there are laws that allow rental agencies to perform background checks and use the appearance of a criminal record as a basis to deny a rental of an apartment or house to you. These laws are not extremely common but they do exist, mostly in larger cities and more conservative states.
This means that the legal troubles you had 20 years ago may be enough to prevent you from getting that amazing apartment when its time for you to relocate for your job.
In most states the law allows a lender to perform a background check on a person before they make a decision as to whether or not to make a loan or issue a line of credit. These laws mean that you can be denied a car loan, mortgage, small business loan, home improvement loan, even a personal loan or check cashing advance based on a the presence of a criminal record. In fact some banks wont even open a checking account on you if you have a conviction for certain crimes on your record.
Many volunteer organizations will not allow you to perform work with them or even accept donations from you if you have a criminal record. In most cases you will not be able to work with many government agencies, even as a volunteer or even volunteer to work on political campaign or with a civic action coalition with a criminal background.
There is the chance that you will be denied entry into other countries, or if you are allowed into the country your movements may be restricted to only certain cities while traveling abroad. Your passport will often times indicate the presence of a criminal background on it (many countries do not do this yet but more are starting to every year).
In the case of a work visa request for most countries in North American and Western Europe you can most certainly be prepared to be denied the request if the conviction is of a felony level.. These are a few of the many ways that criminal records can affect your Lifestyle.
