RCMP fingerprinting procedure

[seren8]

As my wife stated in a separate thread, we received an email last week stating that I need to get prints done by the RCMP, even though I am an outland applicant and have never lived in Canada. I even responded to the email asking for clarification, and basically received a response of "just do it." I don't completely understand it, but the consensus seems to be that maybe my (fairly common) name came up in Canada criminal records so they have to verify. This is frustrating since it means our application is being worked on but will probably now be delayed, but fine.

The question I have is - we will probably just go up to Canada one weekend soon to do the digital fingerprints to decrease the delay, but it's unclear if this can be done at all police stations, or just the private security firms. I found in another post here the three private places I can go (Commissionaires, ClearNeed, and L1), but is it cheaper/easier to go to a police station up there?

Also, since there were so many caveats in the initial application for people moving to Quebec, is it a problem to have the prints done in Montreal and sent to the Buffalo office, since we will eventually be going to Toronto, not Quebec?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Jen85]

Hi seren8
We too had the same problem in that my partner has a very common name and CIC are convinced he already immigrated in 1982, which he didn't.  So he had to have the RCMP check to prove he is not the same person.  We are in the UK but looked into coming to Canada to get it done.  When I looked at going to a police station in Canada, he would have to prove he already lives there to get it done so it seemed like you had to be a local resident to get the fingerprints taken at a Canadian police station.  We ended up going through Commissionaires.  Not cheap but at least it was quick.  RCMP clearance for us, being couriered back now, two weeks after we applied.  Of course you could go to your local police station but unless the fingerprints are digitalised, it will take a minimum of 12 weeks to process, if not longer as they are backlogged.  Cheaper but longer option.  Fun fun fun!

No idea about your other question regarding Quebec.  Hopefully someone else can help you there.

[chughes3]

The same thing has just happened to my Fiancee and we are really freaking out and not sure what to do. I read about this commissionaires thing in your post and was wondering how we go about doing that.
Thank you

Hi seren8
We too had the same problem in that my partner has a very common name and CIC are convinced he already immigrated in 1982, which he didn't.  So he had to have the RCMP check to prove he is not the same person.  We are in the UK but looked into coming to Canada to get it done.  When I looked at going to a police station in Canada, he would have to prove he already lives there to get it done so it seemed like you had to be a local resident to get the fingerprints taken at a Canadian police station.  We ended up going through Commissionaires.  Not cheap but at least it was quick.  RCMP clearance for us, being couriered back now, two weeks after we applied.  Of course you could go to your local police station but unless the fingerprints are digitalised, it will take a minimum of 12 weeks to process, if not longer as they are backlogged.  Cheaper but longer option.  Fun fun fun!

No idea about your other question regarding Quebec.  Hopefully someone else can help you there.

[seren8]

The same thing has just happened to my Fiancee and we are really freaking out and not sure what to do. I read about this commissionaires thing in your post and was wondering how we go about doing that.
Thank you

We ended up just going to Toronto over the 4th of July weekend. On that Monday morning, I went to one of the local Commissionaires offices (no appt. necessary), waited a little while (they seem to only have one employee), and then he called me back and I did the prints and paid the money. The one thing I will say is make sure they know to just send the results straight to Buffalo (assuming that's your office) - at first he asked me if my home address was where I wanted the results sent, and I assumed he meant they would send me a copy, but later in the conversation it came out that if that happened, I would have to then send them on to Buffalo myself, which is not what I wanted to do. So, he changed it to send them straight to Buffalo (I think he's just not used to outland applicants coming there, so he didn't think of it at first). It's all a little silly - the fingerprints are digital, but then they still have to mail the results through the snail mail to Buffalo. All in all, though, no problems. We haven't heard anything since, but fingers are crossed that there will be no more delays.