Can you enter Paris with a criminal record

Where are you entering Paris from? Do you mean Paris or France? Because I am pretty sure that no one is not type of ID or border check as one enters Paris. Does he have a passport? What kind of felony? If it's robbery, then yes. Aiding and abetting terrorism? Probably not, because he will probably be on some kind of international watch list even if he has a passport. Is he permitted to leave his country? Whether he has post-conviction travel restrictions in the country of his conviction is way more likely to stop him than any restrictions from France.

Traveling from US, he had a drug traffing conviction its been about 8 years ago, hard to find
info on this I checked the French embassy website but was unable to find any info.

"Traveling from US" - I take it you mean he is a US citizen with a US passport.
As a US citizen he is allowed into the Schengen Area (of which France is part) as a tourist for 90 days in any 180. If he is flying in, before he gets his boarding pass, he (and you) will need to register passport details with the airline, and they pass this on to the destination government.

If he is on any banned list, the airline will not allow him to board. But neither the airline, nor the authorities in Schengen Area countries have access to foreign criminal records.

If he has no problems leaving the US to Paris, Does that mean when he gets to Paris and goes through immigration that his record won't show up, if they don't have access to records in US.....just trying to figure this out and not have any problems if possible, thank you all for imput.

Does that mean when he gets to Paris and goes through immigration that his record won't show up, if they don't have access to records in US.

As I said above "neither the airline, nor the authorities in Schengen Area countries have access to foreign criminal records."
The problem (if any) would not come at immigration after landing, but before that at check-in before take-off. The airlines are required by law to submit the passport details of all passengers to the destination government before the flight takes off. The destination government checks these details and approves all passengers before take-off. This happens both ways, also entering the USA.
If there is any problem, he would not be allowed to board the flight.

But, Schengen Area governments do not have access to US criminal records (are these even on-line?).
So, unless he has a conviction in the Schengen Area, or a previous ban, he should be OK.

You're really asking for legal advice on a travel forum. I'd suggest you go to the US State Dept. instead and see where they lead you.

I'd suggest you go to the US State Dept.

No, don't go to the US government, it is nothing to do with them. Why do people think the US government has anything to do with the laws in other countries?

You need to go to ask the French Embassy, you have already said there is nothing on their website, so try contacting them.
You could get legal advice, but it would have to come from a lawyer in France, and would be expensive.

If he is able to travel on a US passport, unless he is on a watch list, he is not going to have a problem with passport control to enter France. No one is going to ask him about his criminal record and as Chris says it is not going to show up. Really for a drug offender, the issue is not can you get into France it is can you get out of the United States because some drug convictions, especially trafficking ones, come with compulsory denials of a passport application. Does he have a valid passport?

Hi Cheri:

I strongly suggest that you contact the French embassy or a good immigration lawyer. I don’t think anyone on this forum can answer this question with total accuracy . The worst thing would to assume it ok and get stopped along the way.

Contrary to what Has been said, depending on where the crime occurred and what it was, immigration in other countries may have access to some information.

I also strongly suggest, and you may be doing this is to have you me step-son get the answer. He is the one will need to know what to do and how to answer any questions that may come up.

I used to work for Customs and Border Protection. When you arrive in the US, you aren't guaranteed entry unless you are a citizen or permanent resident. Bilateral visa-free travel programs don't preclude officers at passport check from denying entry - which means you catch the next plane back to where you started, at your own expense.

And yes, we do have bilateral agreements with many countries to share criminal records of travelers.

If I were he, I'd apply for a tourist visa rather than try to travel under the Schengen visa-free program. Drug trafficking is a serious offense, especially to the people at immigration who must decide whether to allow you to enter their country. I'd rather be denied a visa before I travel than arrive in France and be sent home.

Is he able to even get a passport?

Thank you all, I put the question out there to see if anyone else who might have had this problem could give me some information, again thank you all for the imput.

Just today it was in the news that Mike Tyson was denied entry to Chile and sent back to the USA and the article I read said it was for a prior rape conviction. Slightly different circumstances and he is probably a more high profile case, but it can happen. It is doubtful anyone on this forum can provide a definitive answer.

I'm not sure if EU authorities have access to North American law enforcement databases at the moment, but that will probably happen in future. For future reference, if your step-son is ever planning to come to Canada, the border officials here do have links to NCIC (or whatever) and felony convictions will be readily apparent.

It's good that you're checking that and as the others have mentioned, the French Embassy would probably be the best source of information.

OP, you seem to be avoiding the subject of whether he has or can get a passport at all.

A quick little Google search for us passport convicted felon produced all these results. As others have said, this is a legal question best answered in that arena, but the search results may give you some pointers.

You have to go through a visa procedure - Police references to your crime - and will be probably be denied entry to France.

This applies to passports, too.

Sounds like he needs to try to get a passport first -- certainly before you buy any non-refundable plane tickets.

Sort passport first

Gosh! I don't see any mean or cantankerous posts.

He is in the process of applying for a passport, the information we are getting will help when and if we are
able to go ahead with plans....@Lo I have checked google results, very general information. My thought in
posting this was to see if someone else who had a record as my step-son does might have some helpful information, if he is able to get a passport we will check with some of the other suggestions.

cheri50, from my prior jobs before I became an inhouse lawyer, I used to come into contact with many people with criminal records -- some were straight up big-time drug traffickers and some were mules. Both types could lose their ability to travel because the rules in the US preclude felons who committed international drug trafficking offenses from getting a passport. That is, a person cannot get a passport if she crossed an international border while drug trafficking and was arrested and convicted for it. That is why I mentioned that the key first step is to make sure the man in question can even get a passport. As to Mike Tyson, he was in Paris in 2013 promoting his book. Famous people get stopped and turned away at airports because someone is trying to make a point but being an ex-convict is not an automatic bar to being able to travel or being admitted to France.

If one has a criminal record, it's unlikely it will prevent traveling internationally from the United States to other countries. However, each country has the right to turn away anyone who is attempting to enter its borders for any reason. Officials do not routinely run an international criminal record check on foreign visitors, but they have the right to do so. And just because a country has not been doing does not mean that they will not start.

I have a friend of a friend who was denied entry into the UK due to a criminal record (I do not care to get more specific) and he didn't realize this would happen ahead of time. He flew there and was denied entrance and had to fly home. What an expensive lesson.