New information on police certificate's
Great News regarding POLICE CLEARANCES just announced. No longer will IRCC require you to obtain police clearances for every country that you have cumulatively visited or lived in for more than 6 months since turning 18.
IRCC is now shifting back to the old rules of only requiring police clearances for countries in which you have lived for greater than 6 months “in a row” or 6 months consecutively.
You can learn more about this on the Completeness Check website:
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/permanent-residence/express-entry/applications-received-on-after-january-1-2016-completeness-check.html
However, here is the basic information:
Police certificates
Purpose
To determine if the applicant or their family members have a criminal record or poses a security risk to Canada
Document requirements
According to the requirements below, the system will automatically generate upload fields for the police certificates required. However, it is always at an officer’s discretion to request a new or additional police certificate from the applicant.
For the applicant’s current country of residence, the police certificate must have been issued no more than six months before the submission of the e-APR.
For countries in which the applicant no longer resides, the police certificate must have been issued after the last time the applicant lived in that country.
Police certificates are required up front and are mandatory for each country (except Canada) where an individual has lived for six months or more in a row. This instruction is for the purpose of the completeness check under section R10. Some countries require that the applicant complete a consent form to initiate a police certificate. For example, an applicant seeking a police certificate from New Zealand must download and complete the Consent to Disclosure of Information (NZ) form available on the IRCC website. The form is then uploaded in the appropriate upload field as part of the e-APR. If the application is not rejected as incomplete, the processing office will assess the consent form and electronic file and initiate the police certificate.
Police certificates need to be a scan of the original police certificate(s) in color. Certified true copies and unauthorized copies are unacceptable and will result in the application being rejected as incomplete.
In exceptional circumstances, IRCC may accept both the following:
proof of having requested a police certificate for some countries
an explanation of best efforts (not a guarantee of acceptance) (In this explanation, the applicant should explain the delay in a document and upload the document in the country-specific field. The uploaded document must show that the applicant requested a police certificate as soon as possible after receiving their invitation to apply.)
In such exceptional cases, the client will be advised to upload a document into the upload field stating country-specific details that support their explanation of best efforts.
