Help! Permanent Residency Question

[sashasbrown]

Help! Can I apply for permanent residency (based on spousal sponsorship – my husband is a Canadian citizen) without a police certificate and update the application with the certificate when we receive it in the next month or two?

 

[anticipation]

Help! Can I apply for permanent residency (based on spousal sponsorship – my husband is a Canadian citizen) without a police certificate and update the application with the certificate when we receive it in the next month or two?

It seems as if most people wait until they get the police certificate before sending the application, and some will warn that if you don't send the certificate in you risk getting the whole application sent back. On the other hand some people have waited to send in the police certification and it has worked.
IF YOU DO send in the certification later, wait until you get acknowledgment from CIC that they have received your application. (We call it AOR. And it will probably take at least 60 days.) You will need the identification numbers they send you to make sure your police certificate catches up with your application. The certificate could get lost without that and will certainly be delayed. Good luck!

 

[NicAnn]

I'm having so much trouble with my prints that we are going to send our application before my FBI report, and include all of the letters they have sent to me regarding the rejection of my prints, and explanation that we are still trying. We've been trying to get my FBI report since Sept '12 and keep getting my prints rejected. The lady who did my latest set of prints said she had met someone who had submitted prints 9 times I hope it doesn't take us 9 times. Hopefully the third time is the one. But we are getting the rest of it in order and hope to send it off in a couple of weeks.

 

[Sweden]

Help! Can I apply for permanent residency (based on spousal sponsorship – my husband is a Canadian citizen) without a police certificate and update the application with the certificate when we receive it in the next month or two?

It really depends on the case... if you have everything else ready and you have a police certificate from another country (let's say you lived in 2 different countries) that is about to expire, then you could do that - send your application explaining that you're still trying to get the other police certificate, and it's taking time etc etc...
But - if you only need one police certificate and that's what is missing, then it might look like "bad planning" on your part, and CIC might send the application back because it's incomplete... so it really depends on your case. If you only have one police certificate for your file, and you're waiting for it, then it might be worth waiting for it and not risking having the application sent back. But at the end - your choice!
Sweden

 

[fandv]

Help! Can I apply for permanent residency (based on spousal sponsorship – my husband is a Canadian citizen) without a police certificate and update the application with the certificate when we receive it in the next month or two?

Let me tell you a true story that happened to me a few weeks ago...

So: I'm a Canadian citizen who's sponsoring my Indonesian wife to Canada. We're applying outland, which means that after CPC-Mississauga is done with the sponsor's assessment, they will forward our application package to the Singapore visa office.

A few weeks ago we were just about ready to send our application, however the Indonesian police took soooooo long to release my wife's police certificate.
There are at least 4 police levels in Indonesia: federal, provincial, district, and community.

The agent that we hired to process the police paperwork, submitted the request to the provincial police, and we were informed that the provincial police took so long since they had to process my wife's data throughout difference sub-offices. According to our research online, getting the police certificate from the community police would've been a lot quicker (i.e.: it would've taken only half an hour! Whereas it was almost 1 month and the police certificate from the provincial police was yet to be released...)

So...! I called the Singapore visa office to explain the situation, and I was about to ask the lady officer whether it's acceptable to send the police certificate from the community police instead of the provincial police (since they were taking so long, and we were so impatient to send the sponsorship application)...

But...before I even finished my question, she already cut me and said "don't send it right now." And I was like "what...? Why? It's one of the required documents in the checklist!"

And she said "yes I know, but the thing is, by the time we process your wife's police certificate, it probably would've expired anyway, since it's usually only valid for about 3 months, upon which we will probably request for a brand new police certificate anyway. So, just send it later when we request it from you."

However, even though I had the peace of mind in knowing that the Singapore office allowed the police certificate to be sent later, I decided to be patient, and sure enough, a few days after I made that call, the provincial police finally released my wife's long awaited police clearance certificate (which we then notarised to certify that it's original, and had a sworn translator translate it, complete with the required affidavit)

I don't know if visa offices in other countries have the same policy as the Singapore office though! If I were you, I would send the application WITH the police certificate, instead of sending it later......

You mentioned that the police certificate will be released in a month or two? How come...? Why does it take so long?