Colombia Police Certificate Process...

[cgat]

Hi There,

I am a Canadian sponsoring my Slovak wife for PR in canada. We are applying outside of Canada, currently in New Zealand on working holiday visas.

We applied in late November. I have been approved as a sponsor and the application has been forwarded to Embassy of Canada in Vienna (which deals with Slovakia).

Probably our biggest hurdles have been figuring out police clearances in all the countries my wife has lived in. As expected, when our application arrived in Vienna, we were notified that we need a police clearance for Colombia (in this circumstance, we were not suppose to do it before applying).

We followed the process described on the cic website (specifically for Colombia, I've quote the text below for convenience), which essentially boils down to putting money in a Colombian bank account and emailing the deposit slip to CIC. The big question is though, how do we know if this worked or not? Will the embassy notify us when they receive it? Does anyone have experience will this process and how long it might take? We deposited the money at the end of April. At what point should we be concerned that the embassy has received it or not (and perhaps try doing it again)?

In terms of overall application timeline, how does "waiting for police clearance" affect the estimated processing times shown on the CIC website? For example, if the estimated waiting time is 11 months, would this time start when application arrived in Vienna, or does it only move to the "waiting to be fully processed" pile once all the police clearances have been received?

Thanks in advance

Do I need to provide a police certificate when applying for permanent residence?
Yes, you need to provide a background verifications certificate. However, do not apply for the background verifications certificate before obtaining a file number from the visa office.

How or where do I obtain one?

If you live in Colombia (both nationals and non-nationals)
Once you have submitted an application to the visa office, the visa office processing your case will provide instructions to you on how to obtain the background verifications certificate.

If you live outside Colombia
The easiest way to obtain a background verifications certificate from outside Colombia is to ask a person living in Colombia to request the certificate on your behalf, following the instructions sent to you by the visa office.

You can also request the certificate yourself by following these instructions:

You must pay a processing fee of the equivalent of COP$60.000 at the current exchange rate per person, to be deposited to:

Intermediary Bank: BANCO INTERMEDIARIO CITIBANK N.A.
Swift Code: CITIUS33
ABA Code: 021000089
CHIPS Code: 0008
Beneficiary Bank: BANCO DE OCCIDENTE
Banco de Occidente Swift Code: OCCICOBC
Account No.: 10950229
Final Beneficiary Name: RISK MANAGEMENT COLOMBIA S.A.
Final Beneficiary Account No.: 223005463

You will receive a deposit slip as proof of payment. There should be one deposit slip per person.

Once you have made the deposit, you must send a scanned copy of the deposit slip to: aplicantes@procesosec.com

You must also submit the following information to the bank:

For Colombian nationals:
the applicant’s full name, National Identity Card Number (Cédula de Ciudadanía), visa file number, and the name of the visa office that is processing the application.
For non-Colombian nationals:
the applicant’s full name, Colombian Foreign Resident Identity Card Number (Cédula de Extranjería) or passport number, visa file number, and the name of the visa office that is processing the application.
If a payment is made for several applicants:
a list with the names, identity document numbers, and a copy of the deposit slips for each person.
A copy of the deposit slip together with the applicant information listed above must be scanned and sent by e-mail directly to the visa office processing your case. The e-mail title must state “Background verifications” and the name of the visa office that is processing the immigration application.

The response will be sent directly to the CIC office processing your application. Please ensure that the name of the visa office is included on the payment slip as per instructions.

 

[Sweden]

I don't think that the embassy will notify you of anything - most VO are not very good (that's an understatement) at keeping people up to date with what is going on with their files.
So - if you want to be sure, it's best probably to contact them, via a case-specific enquiry, to ask politely if they have received it, and if anything else is needed from your side (most VO tend to answer if there is an actual question rather than "can we have an update on our file").

Since it's been 5 weeks, I would say it would be a good moment to ask Vienna about it now. I don't have any personal experience with Colombia so I don't know how fast the process is. Since it's very precisely described on CIC website, I assume that the procedure works, and so it should be OK to use it. You can ask in the Bogota thread http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/bogota-visa-office-2012-applicants-t109614.675.html about others' experience, I'm sure you'll get an answer about it there.

In terms of overall application timeline, it's difficult to know. Each VO works in a bit of a different way, and there are so many other factors (background checks, travel checks, etc.) that can affect the timeline, that there is no answer to your question. I don't think that your file goes back to the bottom of the pile, but it might delay a little. the 11 months however is the time that it takes to complete 80% of the applications, so if you have a straightforward case, there is a good chance that you will be done sooner than that.

Good luck,
Sweden

 

[cgat]

Thanks for the reply. We've sent the VO a message (only a 28 working day wait for a reply) and I'll check out the Bogota thread.

 

[coljhag]

Thanks for the reply. We've sent the VO a message (only a 28 working day wait for a reply) and I'll check out the Bogota thread.

Hi cgat,

I'm sponsoring my wife from Colombia and this is what we did. When we received the email from the Bogota VO to pay for the background check fee. My wife paid the fee at the bank with the bank account info you quoted above. The background check from Colombia takes between 6 to 8 weeks and sometime can take up to 10 weeks. I guess this depends on how many different cities she lived in when she was there.

If you want to know if they receive the payment, you will need to send an email asking about it. They never sent an AOR for this.

Good luck!

 

[canadasoon2013]

Hi cgat,

I'm sponsoring my wife from Colombia and this is what we did. When we received the email from the Bogota VO to pay for the background check fee. My wife paid the fee at the bank with the bank account info you quoted above. The background check from Colombia takes between 6 to 8 weeks and sometime can take up to 10 weeks. I guess this depends on how many different cities she lived in when she was there.

If you want to know if they receive the payment, you will need to send an email asking about it. They never sent an AOR for this.

Good luck!

Hi coljhag,

I was checking your dates and are almos identical to mine. We sent our application just 9 weeks before yours. I just got a question for you: dod you send an email to confirm whether they had received your payment of the background check? Did you receive any answer from there and soon?

Thanks. Take care!

 

[csola]

Hello,

I am currently in Canada and applying for the PR, I need the police certificate and when I go to the bank to get the wire, they ask me for the address of each one, could someone help me with the address for the Banco de Occidente, I get different addresses when I look for the swift code and the account No. One in Cali and one in Cartagena. Could someone please advise me with this? I really need to solve it today.

Intermediary Bank: BANCO INTERMEDIARIO CITIBANK N.A.
Swift Code: CITIUS33
ABA Code: 021000089
CHIPS Code: 0008
Beneficiary Bank: BANCO DE OCCIDENTE
Banco de Occidente Swift Code: OCCICOBC
Account No.: 10950229
Final Beneficiary Name: RISK MANAGEMENT COLOMBIA S.A.
Final Beneficiary Account No.: 223005463

Thank you!!!!


C.

 

[cgat]

Hi Everyone,

It's been a while since I wrote that initial post. We eventually did receive confirmation about the visa office receiving the police certificate (this was 6 months ago). Our application is finally being processed, but guess what, they requested a police certificate from Colombia. We politely asked what had happened to the one they received months earlier, and they told us that it's in spanish, and we need to submit a translated version. The thing is, we followed the instructions which appear on the cic website. The police certificate is sent directly to the visa office, and we are not given an opportunity to receive it directly (after which would get the translation done). The visa office is Vienna.

We've asked the visa office how they would like to deal with this situation, but in the mean time I was wondering if anyone has any ideas as to how we would obtain a police certificate from Colombia without having it sent directly to the embassy. We've asked the embassy if we can pick it up directly, so hopefully that will work out.

C.

 

[lilops]

Hello, I'm from Colombia. I tried to look the company name "RISK MANAGEMENT COLOMBIA S.A" and this is what i got:

RISK MANAGEMENT DE COLOMBIA LTDA
Cr11 71-73 Of 401
Colombia, Bogotá
Teléfono: (57) (1) 3215449

Risk Management de Colombia Ltda
Dirección:Cr11 71-73 Of 501, Bogotá, Cundinamarca, Colombia
Teléfono57) (1) 3212215

G4S Risk Management Colombia SA
G4S Colombia
Avenida el Dorado No. 69 A-51 Torre A
PBX: +57 (1) 7054040
Bogotá - Colombia

Maybe you could give them a call.

 

[lilops]

In another forum related to colombian immigrants one said the company in charge of the background check is:

DEFENCE SYSTEMS COLOMBIA S.A. D.S.C. S.A.
Cr69 C 98 A-30
Colombia, Bogotá
Teléfono: (57) (1) 5330499

http://imigra.com.co/cundinamarca/bogota/seguridad_electronica/1ea33ca8a7527828/defence_systems_colombia_sa

You could try this one first

 

[cgat]

Thanks for the response lilops. This is really helpful.

Vienna said they received the police certificate from G4S, so I think we'll try them first.

 

[lyn Lambre]

Hello guys may be you can help me about my case. I email my receipt and i follow the instruction last december 6, 2013 until now embassy of canada - manila doesn't receive my police certificate and they gave me 45 days to pass my police certificate. Do you have idea where can i follow up because i sent email in applicantes@..... Until now no response hope you can help me..

 

[Axmcol18]

Can please someone tell me how long did the process take to get the background verification from Colombia? I just submitted my application because CIC has been asking for it since July and did not accept the "pasado judicial" that I submitted before.

Thank you.

 

[jjam17]

Can please someone tell me how long did the process take to get the background verification from Colombia? I just submitted my application because CIC has been asking for it since July and did not accept the "pasado judicial" that I submitted before.

Thank you.

For everybody's reference. Ours and the ones for a few friends took 3 months to reach Sydney.

 

[osghar]

Hello everyone,
I found this section of the forum when I was trying figure out my self on how to get the police background certificate from Colombia.
So as everyone seems it had started I check the information stated in CIC website. At first glance I thought that the process was to nebulous then I found many messages from people saying that the process may take up to 3 months, and I didn't want to delay the process of my FSW application just for that certificate.
Then I checked directly in the Colombian Police website and there I found that you can get the police certificate straight away, just by entering your Cedula de ciudadania or in the case of foreigners your Cedula de extranjeria, you can check it here //antecedentes.policia.gov.co:7005/WebJudicial/
But of course it won't help you much since is just a document you can see on the screen, or print out with with your home printer.
So I found this other site //tramites.cancilleria.gov.co/Ciudadano/certificadoAntecedentes/solicitud.aspx (be aware that the process explanation is in Spanish).
There you can get your Police certificate and at the same time get an e-apostille of it making it valid for immigration procedures. You will need to get someone in Colombia to do the payment though, but once you do the payment it will be the next day in your e-mail, then of course you have to get it translated by an official translator since is written in Spanish.
I use this document for my application and it worked fine, I got the passport request from the visa office in Manilla last week, which means that this alternative procedure is also accepted and is way faster that the other away everyone already knows.

Here are some links with more information (in Spanish)
cancilleria.gov.co/content/nuevo-procedimiento-para-quienes-requer%C3%AD-certificado-de-antecedentes-judiciales-para-ingresa
cancilleria.gov.co/sites/default/files/tramites_servicios/guia_certificado_de_antecedentes_judiciales.pdf

I hope this may be helpful, and good luck to all with your applications.

PS. you have to copy and paste the link addresses on your browser since I'm not able to post links.

 

[fcabrales]

Hello,

Has anyone obtained police certificate recently? I requested it through G4S Colonbia, and after a follow-up with them they told me that they usually sent certificates to the Embassy in Bogota after 3 business days and then the Embassy forwards them to the visa office in charge of the application. What surprised me is that after 2 months I just received notification from CIC that thay have not received anything.

Has anyone faced a similar problem recently?

I would really appreciate your comments.