Hey all,
I am a PR who moved to Canada from the States on July 9th 2014. One of the requirements to move to Canada was to submit a FBI background check, It was submitted right before I got my PR card. Now that I am eligible for the citizenship, I am trying to figure out if I need to submit another FBI background check . it would make no sense because the longest I have been outside of Canada was no more than 2 weeks and it was once and just 3 or 4 trips for a few days in the states . Do I still need to submit a FBI background check ?
On cic website, they are talking about long trips ..it`s doesn`t apply to me but the fact that I have been here for 3 years and prior to that I was in the states although a background check was submitted...not sure if it applies to me or not . anyone has been in the same situation ?
Thanks.
Short answer is to submit a police certificate if you were in the U.S. a total of 183 or more days during the four years preceding the date you apply.
For an application made October 15, 2017, count the days in the U.S. between October 15, 2013 and October 14, 2017. If they add up to 183 or more, send a police certificate.
That's what the instructions state.
Longer explanation:
There are two parts to your query.
One is whether or not you need to submit a police certificate.
To answer that question, you need to know whether to check "yes" or "no" to the question about whether you were in another country for 183 or more days in the preceding four years. For the applicant who applies on October 15, 2017, the answer is "yes" if the applicant spent a total of 183 or more days in another country between October 15, 2013 and October 14, 2017. Checking "yes" requires submitting a police certificate or explaining why one cannot be provided. No exceptions or exemptions are noted. Thus, it is not particularly complicated.
The other part is whether a previously issued police certificate might suffice or whether a new one needs to be submitted. Few applicants will have an old original police certificate. What about sending a copy of an old police certificate the original of which was sent to CIC or IRCC earlier in time?
The question is whether
-- the application will be returned as incomplete, or
-- the application will be processed, subject to
-- -- IRCC asking the applicant to submit an updated police certificate, or
-- -- IRCC actually accepting the old certificate
The risk is high that either the application is returned, as incomplete, or the applicant is later required to submit an updated police certificate. In either of these events, there will be a significant delay in processing the application.
How big is the risk?
A key element in that has to do with the timeliness of the police certificate.
Last I looked, IRCC information about police certificate expiry was still about clearances for visa applications rather than citizenship. Generally IRCC requires the certificate be less than a specified number of months old or that it have been issued since the last time the individual lived in that country.
But for citizenship, the criteria for triggering the police certificate requirement does not depend on living in the other country, and as the instructions make clear, even brief stays in the other country are to be included in the calculation.
My guess: an older police certificate should suffice
so long as it was issed since the last time the applicant was in that other country. Or, the converse, that an older police certificate will NOT suffice unless the applicant has not been in that country since the certificate was issued.
