Hi all 
 I was hoping to travel to Canada and Alaska this June. 
I have a criminal conviction involving drugs from 2004. ( Long story, but I was a GP who got addicted to opiates and wrote prescriptions for myself to try and treat myself ( never a good idea)).
This was over a period of 18 months, I was caught and went into treatment directly. I had a criminal issue with possession and with supply to myself....
Been well since and been back working as a GP for the past 15 years. I also help other Dr's who have got into trouble in a similar fashion. 
I applied for a Canadian ESTA = had to wait a few weeks but this was granted, they had all my info.
I applied for an American Visa in 2011 and was granted a waiver of ineligibly after 20 weeks.  My Visa lasted a year.
I assumed ( perhaps naively) that the 2011 waiver was still relevant, but on applying for a B2 NIV US Visa recently I seem to be back in the same position of the Embassy not being able to grant me one and it all having to go back to  be approved to the Dept of Homeland Security....which takes a while as before. 
My question is does anyone have experience of being granted a waiver of ineligibility only to have to go through the whole process each time they apply for a subsequent visa...? and.. does this take less time?? as I (stupidly) have already made travel plans. 
Thanks

I don't have experience of the waiver system, but from reading Unlock's information, visas are processed at the embassy, while waivers are processedi in Washington. That's their procedure. While the embassy in London only deals with visas applications from the UK, in Washington they deal with waiver applications from all over the world. I suspect they are much more thorough as well.

Having said that, any new information they have should only be positive. You were given a waiver, travelled to the US and didn't start a crime wave. All those years have passed, and there is no new information on your PNC record, and you have all those extra years of helping people with drug issues. You're helping to reduce crime. I would be horrified if they didn't give you another waiver, but I would be surprised if they didn't make you wait a few months before you get it.

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Robert Lightfoot, former head of NASA, said it succinctly in his parting speech in April 2018: Protecting against risk and being safe are not the same thing ... [W]e must move from risk management to risk leadership. From a risk management perspective, the safest place to be is on the ground. From a risk leadership perspective, I believe thats the worst place [we] can be.

Thanks both, I am aware of the lifelong implications of a CR :-( 
Interestingly my profession were fantastic on getting me back on my feet, which is why I continue to help others who have fallen by the wayside. 
Does the Waiver only last the length of the Visa granted at the time.... it seems likely given the situation I find myself in now.

I don't know if that's how it works, but it wouldn't surprise me. In any case, their previous decision to give you a waiver worked out OK for them, so I can't see why they wouldn't issue another one.

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Robert Lightfoot, former head of NASA, said it succinctly in his parting speech in April 2018: Protecting against risk and being safe are not the same thing ... [W]e must move from risk management to risk leadership. From a risk management perspective, the safest place to be is on the ground. From a risk leadership perspective, I believe thats the worst place [we] can be.