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PCC Validity

r1987

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Feb 28, 2012
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Hello all,

I know this question has been discuss before, I am just little confused regarding the EE critiria of PCC Validity!

In CIC Website it states the following:

For the country you currently live in, the police certificate must be issued no more than six months before you apply.

For countries where you have lived for six months or more, the police certificate must be issued after the last time you lived in that country.


I have PCC that was issued on April 16 from my home country, I have not back to visit since I left to Canada 5 years ago.

1) Is my PCC will be valid if I were to apply after July 16???

2) Did any body have an issue for applying with PCC that was older than 3 months?

Thank you :)
 

Asivad Anac

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May 27, 2015
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r1987 said:
Hello all,

I know this question has been discuss before, I am just little confused regarding the EE critiria of PCC Validity!

In CIC Website it states the following:

For the country you currently live in, the police certificate must be issued no more than six months before you apply.

For countries where you have lived for six months or more, the police certificate must be issued after the last time you lived in that country.


I have PCC that was issued on April 16 from my home country, I have not back to visit since I left to Canada 5 years ago.

1) Is my PCC will be valid if I were to apply after July 16???

2) Did any body have an issue for applying with PCC that was older than 3 months?

The 3 months rule has been revised now as you rightly point out. In my opinion, as you haven't visited your home country and stayed for more than 6 months at a stretch, that PCC is valid indefinitely. But some disagree with that opinion. Typically, a PCC is valid for a year from the date of issue. Even in that case, your PCC is valid till April 16 2016 if you don't visit your home country again.

Thank you :)
 

ultra99

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Jun 25, 2011
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uh oh! PCC is valid for 1 year? That means in my case it's invalid?

Left home country in 2009, issued PCC in 2011, visited the country for 2 nights in 2012.
 

Asivad Anac

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ultra99 said:
uh oh! PCC is valid for 1 year? That means in my case it's invalid?

Left home country in 2009, issued PCC in 2011, visited the country for 2 nights in 2012.
Like I mentioned in that post, that is not my stand on this. I still believe that PCC is valid indefinitely if you haven't stayed in that country for more than 6 months at a stretch after getting it.
 

Bazinga007

Newbie
Apr 4, 2015
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r1987 said:
Hello all,

I know this question has been discuss before, I am just little confused regarding the EE critiria of PCC Validity!

In CIC Website it states the following:

For the country you currently live in, the police certificate must be issued no more than six months before you apply.

For countries where you have lived for six months or more, the police certificate must be issued after the last time you lived in that country.


I have PCC that was issued on April 16 from my home country, I have not back to visit since I left to Canada 5 years ago.

1) Is my PCC will be valid if I were to apply after July 16???

2) Did any body have an issue for applying with PCC that was older than 3 months?

Thank you :)
Older than 3 months will work. PCC should be less than 6 months old.I had a PCC which was 4 months old at the time of submitting docs and that worked for me.


For countries where you have lived for six months or more, the police certificate must be issued after the last time you lived in that country.
This doesn't work. You have to submit a new PCC which is less than six months old cuz I had to submit a new FBI PCC.
 

ultra99

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Jun 25, 2011
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Bazinga007 said:
Older than 3 months will work. PCC should be less than 6 months old.I had a PCC which was 4 months old at the time of submitting docs and that worked for me.


For countries where you have lived for six months or more, the police certificate must be issued after the last time you lived in that country.
This doesn't work. You have to submit a new PCC which is less than six months old cuz I had to submit a new FBI PCC.
so what you're saying is different from the instructions. Where does it say "less than six months"?
 

kaulvirus

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Nov 8, 2010
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Asivad Anac said:
Like I mentioned in that post, that is not my stand on this. I still believe that PCC is valid indefinitely if you haven't stayed in that country for more than 6 months at a stretch after getting it.
Don't wanna hijack the thread but I had a very similar question. I would be applying for my EE in September, that's when I complete 1 year in Canada and a year on the job. When I arrived here a year before, I had to furnish 4 PCC's from the countries I had previously lived in (that being Japan, Singapore, Canada and India). It took me forever to get the PCC from Singapore and Japan. I was thinking I should apply again for the PCC's before (and if) I get an ITA so as to save time but unfortunately, Singapore and Japan both require a letter from CIC before they would go ahead and provide me one.

Now here lies my conundrum, if I get an acknowledgement from CIC to apply for a PR and they ask me to submit PCC's, it would take atleast 2 months for me to furnish those and I might miss the deadline window. I know it's written on the website that I could upload a note asking CIC to give me a letter requesting PCC, but again it would eat into my time.

Thus, is there a way I can get PCC's beforehand and submit them as soon as they ask me for one?

Thanks for reading.
 

Asivad Anac

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kaulvirus said:
Don't wanna hijack the thread but I had a very similar question. I would be applying for my EE in September, that's when I complete 1 year in Canada and a year on the job. When I arrived here a year before, I had to furnish 4 PCC's from the countries I had previously lived in (that being Japan, Singapore, Canada and India). It took me forever to get the PCC from Singapore and Japan. I was thinking I should apply again for the PCC's before (and if) I get an ITA so as to save time but unfortunately, Singapore and Japan both require a letter from CIC before they would go ahead and provide me one.

Now here lies my conundrum, if I get an acknowledgement from CIC to apply for a PR and they ask me to submit PCC's, it would take atleast 2 months for me to furnish those and I might miss the deadline window. I know it's written on the website that I could upload a note asking CIC to give me a letter requesting PCC, but again it would eat into my time.

Thus, is there a way I can get PCC's beforehand and submit them as soon as they ask me for one?

Thanks for reading.
As you rightly pointed out, CIC has the same rule for both Singapore and Japan. The request for PCCs will come to you AFTER you submit the application post ITA.

If you've never visited those countries after getting the PCCs, you can upload those same PCCs upfront along with an LOE that highlights this fact along with a printout of the relevant CIC page talking about the non-requirement of latest PCCs from these countries (owing to you having never gone back there).

If they still come back asking for the PCCs, you will have no choice but to comply but it is worth a shot.

All the best!
 

ultra99

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Jun 25, 2011
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My PCC is from 2011 and has my old passport number on it; and says explicitly "valid for 3 months". Is that a problem?
 

Asivad Anac

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ultra99 said:
My PCC is from 2011 and has my old passport number on it; and says explicitly "valid for 3 months". Is that a problem?
My interpretation of the rule would lead me to believe that you don't need a new PCC but an LOE where you highlight the whole old passport/new passport thing. But that's just me and others will say that you should get a new PCC. Your call.
 

ultra99

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Jun 25, 2011
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Asivad Anac said:
My interpretation of the rule would lead me to believe that you don't need a new PCC but an LOE where you highlight the whole old passport/new passport thing. But that's just me and others will say that you should get a new PCC. Your call.
I'll paste a screenshot of CIC's instructions regarding the validity of PC with the webpage's late updated date.
 

ultra99

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Jun 25, 2011
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Now I'm freaking out.

From CIC: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/perm/express/intake-complete.asp#police_certificates

The CIC website provides instructions to applicants on how to obtain a PC.

PCs are typically valid for one year from the date they are issued.

For the applicant’s current country of residence, the PC must be issued no more than six months before submission of the e-APR.

For countries in which the applicant no longer resides, the PC must be issued later than the departure date of the last time the client resided in that country for more than six months.

The personalized document checklist provided to applicants in their MyCIC account does not prompt applicants for individual PCs based on their declared residence and travel history; rather, applicants must determine which PCs are required as part of their application and must compile the PCs into a single file, to upload as a single supporting document.
This is crazy, why is this vague. They say valid for 1 year from date of issue, and then they say it's valid if you haven't lived in the country again for 6+ months.
 

EmmEmm

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ultra99 said:
uh oh! PCC is valid for 1 year? That means in my case it's invalid?

Left home country in 2009, issued PCC in 2011, visited the country for 2 nights in 2012.
my personal take is that you "would" need a new PCC since you already visited your home country and lived there no matter for how many days.

just saying, committing a crime in your home country would not take 6 months. So, CIC would not know if you did anything illegal in your home country they days you visited or stayed.
 

ultra99

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Jun 25, 2011
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EmmEmm said:
my personal take is that you "would" need a new PCC since you already visited your home country and lived there no matter for how many days.

just saying, committing a crime in your home country would not take 6 months. So, CIC would not know if you did anything illegal in your home country they days you visited or stayed.
See, but then they say you need a PCC if you live for 6+ month. You can do a lot more in 5 months and 29 days, right? ;)