Police certificate from Lebanon

[Yelsew]

I was part of a church group who privately sponsored a family from Syria in 2015. The family members are now eligible to apply for Canadian citizenship. According to IRCC, they are not required to submit police certificates from Syria with their citizenship application. However, the family had to flee to Lebanon (ie, live outside Syria) before the sponsorship could be initiated. They were in Lebanon as refugees for more than six months while waiting for approval. This is what I found regarding police certificates for non-citizens of Lebanon (excerpt from IRCC). There is only one relative living in Lebanon (a brother of the wife) but it could be quite difficult to track him down. This seems like a rather cumbersome and lengthy procedure. Is all of this really necessary? And what about those who don't have any relatives at all in Lebanon? There are thousands of other Syrians who arrived around the same time and I'm sure many of them are also now ready to apply for Canadian citizenship, so I hope someone can advise on this.

If you live outside of Lebanon:
You should assign a relative (spouse, sibling, parent, or child over 18 years of age) who is living in Lebanon power of attorney and ask them to submit a request letter on your behalf to the commander of the judicial police. They must apply in person and bring:

• Power of Attorney
• Copy of your passport
• Copy of your residency permit for Lebanon (if available)
• A letter from you stating:
  • Your residential address when you lived in Lebanon
  • Information about your employment/employer while in Lebanon (or the school you attended)
  • How long you lived in Lebanon (give exact dates: from (blank) to (blank))
• Applicable fees

The commander will forward your request to the criminal record department where your relative who submitted the letter can obtain the criminal record. For more information, visit the ISF Interior Security Forces website.

 

[Zmaqsood]

I was part of a church group who privately sponsored a family from Syria in 2015. The family members are now eligible to apply for Canadian citizenship. According to IRCC, they are not required to submit police certificates from Syria with their citizenship application. However, the family had to flee to Lebanon (ie, live outside Syria) before the sponsorship could be initiated. They were in Lebanon as refugees for more than six months while waiting for approval. This is what I found regarding police certificates for non-citizens of Lebanon (excerpt from IRCC). There is only one relative living in Lebanon (a brother of the wife) but it could be quite difficult to track him down. This seems like a rather cumbersome and lengthy procedure. Is all of this really necessary? And what about those who don't have any relatives at all in Lebanon? There are thousands of other Syrians who arrived around the same time and I'm sure many of them are also now ready to apply for Canadian citizenship, so I hope someone can advise on this.

If you live outside of Lebanon:
You should assign a relative (spouse, sibling, parent, or child over 18 years of age) who is living in Lebanon power of attorney and ask them to submit a request letter on your behalf to the commander of the judicial police. They must apply in person and bring:

• Power of Attorney
• Copy of your passport
• Copy of your residency permit for Lebanon (if available)
• A letter from you stating:
  • Your residential address when you lived in Lebanon
  • Information about your employment/employer while in Lebanon (or the school you attended)
  • How long you lived in Lebanon (give exact dates: from (blank) to (blank))
• Applicable fees

The commander will forward your request to the criminal record department where your relative who submitted the letter can obtain the criminal record. For more information, visit the ISF Interior Security Forces website.

The citizenship form says mention any country you lived in for more than 180 days consectively and if applicable tell us reason if you can not obtain a police certificate from that country in space provided. Also if they have not spent 180 days in any country after they became refugees or PR they r not required to furnish any PC

Pl3ase consult section 10.b in below guide available at IRCC

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/application/application-forms-guides/guide-0002-application-canadian-citizenship-under-subsection-5-1-adults-18-years-older.html

 

[Yelsew]

Thank you for your reply, but I am still not sure how to proceed. I believe the applicants must demonstrate that they have tried to obtain the police certificate from Lebanon, so this means they must show what efforts they have made to contact the brother who still lives there. And even if they do manage to contact him, how on earth do they go about assigning Power of Attorney to him? That is not explained on the IRCC page that I linked above, and I couldn't find information elsewhere. Surely there must be other Syrians who are now applying for citizenship, and many of them must have lived in Lebanon before being sponsored, either as GAR's or PSR's, but I haven't been able to find any relevant postings on the Canada Visa forums.

All sponsored refugees would of course have gone through security/background checks while in Lebanon, before being granted PR status, and yet that apparently isn't sufficient for the citizenship application. This seems like a potentially expensive, complicated and time consuming process to obtain a police certificate from Lebanon. I'm starting to think my friends would be better off waiting until September or October, because by then the time they spent in Lebanon within the four year period will be less than six months. Any further suggestions are appreciated.

PS, I did try the IRCC Call Centre, but once again, they are receiving higher than normal call volumes and I could not even be placed in the queue. I could try again on Monday, but in the meantime perhaps someone here can advise.

 

[sarafandee]

Thank you for your reply, but I am still not sure how to proceed. I believe the applicants must demonstrate that they have tried to obtain the police certificate from Lebanon, so this means they must show what efforts they have made to contact the brother who still lives there. And even if they do manage to contact him, how on earth do they go about assigning Power of Attorney to him? That is not explained on the IRCC page that I linked above, and I couldn't find information elsewhere. Surely there must be other Syrians who are now applying for citizenship, and many of them must have lived in Lebanon before being sponsored, either as GAR's or PSR's, but I haven't been able to find any relevant postings on the Canada Visa forums.

All sponsored refugees would of course have gone through security/background checks while in Lebanon, before being granted PR status, and yet that apparently isn't sufficient for the citizenship application. This seems like a potentially expensive, complicated and time consuming process to obtain a police certificate from Lebanon. I'm starting to think my friends would be better off waiting until September or October, because by then the time they spent in Lebanon within the four year period will be less than six months. Any further suggestions are appreciated.

PS, I did try the IRCC Call Centre, but once again, they are receiving higher than normal call volumes and I could not even be placed in the queue. I could try again on Monday, but in the meantime perhaps someone here can advise.

Did you try contacting the Lebanese embassy in Ottawa?

 

[Yelsew]

Sarafandee said: Did you try contacting the Lebanese embassy in Ottawa?

No, I haven't tried to call the Embassy or Consulate. I don't see 'police certificates' listed among their services, and I have a feeling they will just tell me to follow whatever is on the IRCC site. However, I suppose it woudn't hurt to try contacting them next week. Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

 

[Jaskal75]

Thank you for your reply, but I am still not sure how to proceed. I believe the applicants must demonstrate that they have tried to obtain the police certificate from Lebanon, so this means they must show what efforts they have made to contact the brother who still lives there. And even if they do manage to contact him, how on earth do they go about assigning Power of Attorney to him? That is not explained on the IRCC page that I linked above, and I couldn't find information elsewhere. Surely there must be other Syrians who are now applying for citizenship, and many of them must have lived in Lebanon before being sponsored, either as GAR's or PSR's, but I haven't been able to find any relevant postings on the Canada Visa forums.

All sponsored refugees would of course have gone through security/background checks while in Lebanon, before being granted PR status, and yet that apparently isn't sufficient for the citizenship application. This seems like a potentially expensive, complicated and time consuming process to obtain a police certificate from Lebanon. I'm starting to think my friends would be better off waiting until September or October, because by then the time they spent in Lebanon within the four year period will be less than six months. Any further suggestions are appreciated.

PS, I did try the IRCC Call Centre, but once again, they are receiving higher than normal call volumes and I could not even be placed in the queue. I could try again on Monday, but in the meantime perhaps someone here can advise.

You can hire a lawyer to complete the request. It shouldn't be a problem.

 

[jkennie]

I was part of a church group who privately sponsored a family from Syria in 2015. The family members are now eligible to apply for Canadian citizenship. According to IRCC, they are not required to submit police certificates from Syria with their citizenship application. However, the family had to flee to Lebanon (ie, live outside Syria) before the sponsorship could be initiated. They were in Lebanon as refugees for more than six months while waiting for approval. This is what I found regarding police certificates for non-citizens of Lebanon (excerpt from IRCC). There is only one relative living in Lebanon (a brother of the wife) but it could be quite difficult to track him down. This seems like a rather cumbersome and lengthy procedure. Is all of this really necessary? And what about those who don't have any relatives at all in Lebanon? There are thousands of other Syrians who arrived around the same time and I'm sure many of them are also now ready to apply for Canadian citizenship, so I hope someone can advise on this.

If you live outside of Lebanon:
You should assign a relative (spouse, sibling, parent, or child over 18 years of age) who is living in Lebanon power of attorney and ask them to submit a request letter on your behalf to the commander of the judicial police. They must apply in person and bring:

• Power of Attorney
• Copy of your passport
• Copy of your residency permit for Lebanon (if available)
• A letter from you stating:
  • Your residential address when you lived in Lebanon
  • Information about your employment/employer while in Lebanon (or the school you attended)
  • How long you lived in Lebanon (give exact dates: from (blank) to (blank))
• Applicable fees

The commander will forward your request to the criminal record department where your relative who submitted the letter can obtain the criminal record. For more information, visit the ISF Interior Security Forces website.

Hi. I'm also part of a group who sponsored a family and we are now working on citizenship applications for them all. I too am wondering about this letter. Did you get anywhere with it? I did find something on the lebanese embassy site .. so I'm wondering if it's possible to just go there? thanks!