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Police Certificate

medi5686

Newbie
Feb 21, 2014
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0
I don't understand what this part means for police certificate. If someone entered to Canada 3 years ago with no exit till now and is eligible to apply for citizenship, is the police certificate still required based on this part on the document checklist:

Within the last 4 years, if you spent 183 days or more in another country (other than Canada), you must provide a police certificate. You must provide a police certificate for each country where you spent 183 days or more. If you cannot get a police certificate, tell us why.
 

spyfy

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May 8, 2015
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I don't understand what this part means for police certificate. If someone entered to Canada 3 years ago with no exit till now and is eligible to apply for citizenship, is the police certificate still required based on this part on the document checklist:

Within the last 4 years, if you spent 183 days or more in another country (other than Canada), you must provide a police certificate. You must provide a police certificate for each country where you spent 183 days or more. If you cannot get a police certificate, tell us why.
Yes. Your landing date is completely irrelevant for this question. In fact, if you haven't been in Canada at all in the fourth year before your application, they are particularly interested in that police certificate.

Keep in mind, they want that police certificate to know if you did something outside of the country. So why should it matter at all when you entered Canada?!
 

saad.iqbal

Newbie
Oct 13, 2017
2
0
Yes. Your landing date is completely irrelevant for this question. In fact, if you haven't been in Canada at all in the fourth year before your application, they are particularly interested in that police certificate.

Keep in mind, they want that police certificate to know if you did something outside of the country. So why should it matter at all when you entered Canada?!
this is clearly a weird requirement. this will end up applying to every one who just lived in Canada during the last 3 years. every such person is eligible to apply but need to get police certificate for the country where they lived more than 183 days in the 4th year. I lived in Dubai in the 1st of the last 4 years and it will be very time consuming to get this police certificate. need some advise.
 

spyfy

Champion Member
May 8, 2015
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this is clearly a weird requirement. this will end up applying to every one who just lived in Canada during the last 3 years. every such person is eligible to apply but need to get police certificate for the country where they lived more than 183 days in the 4th year. I lived in Dubai in the 1st of the last 4 years and it will be very time consuming to get this police certificate. need some advise.
It is not a weird requirement. Again: Canada does not want to give citizenship to criminals. And if you have only lived in Canada for three years they know barely anything about you. That is why they want to know what you did during that fourth year.

I know it is frustrating and time consuming and I also don't doubt that you are not a criminal. But again, it makes sense, no matter how frustrating it is.
 
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dpenabill

VIP Member
Apr 2, 2010
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Moreover, it is not as if the police certificate requirement is any surprise. This has been part of the application form since June 2015, pursuant to a change in the law which took effect in May 2015. There were no changes in Bill C-6 related to this (despite some errant noise otherwise), so there was no reason to anticipate the requirement would change. Prospective applicants have had plenty of notice, well in time to have been prepared by now.

The applicable statutory provision (Section 22.(3)(a) in the Citizenship Act) prescribes a fixed period of time, the four years prior to the date the application is made. The burden of proof for all the qualifications is on the applicant. Thus, it makes sense for IRCC to require applicants submit proof of no convictions in a country during the preceding four years if the applicant has spent a significant amount of time in that country during the preceding four years, regarding which IRCC (like CIC before it) considers 183 days total time to be an appropriate threshold for imposing the requirement upfront, to require a clearance be included with the application. Remember, any applicant could also be required to submit a police certificate later in the process, which for many could indeed cause a significant delay in processing.
 

itsmyid

Champion Member
Jul 26, 2012
2,250
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I don't understand what this part means for police certificate. If someone entered to Canada 3 years ago with no exit till now and is eligible to apply for citizenship, is the police certificate still required based on this part on the document checklist:

Within the last 4 years, if you spent 183 days or more in another country (other than Canada), you must provide a police certificate. You must provide a police certificate for each country where you spent 183 days or more. If you cannot get a police certificate, tell us why.
Imagine this: someone applied for PR and later committed some horrible crimes or joined ISIS, or at least on some watchlist, before that his record had been clean, therefore he was able to get his PR a year later and come to Canada — do you think it should be ok not to ask for his police certificate?
 
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21685

Hero Member
Dec 9, 2009
325
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spyfy when a person is migrated suppose in the year Oct 2014 and he is continuously living in Canada till now he is eligible for citizenship.
But he was in his Country during Oct 2013 to Oct 2014 so he has to submit PCC my question is why he should submit it is useless rule because before getting immigration he already submitted PCC of that Country than once again why should he submit. This PCC rule in my opinion is not fair, just or reasonable so all like minded should join and represent the concerned department to remove rule.
 

blueangel371115

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May 24, 2012
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See for me, if it were not for my monthly trips home plus funerals, holidays etc I wouldn't have to do it. I've spent more time here than outside. I'm only just over with most trips about two days long but they want all the way back to 2012 from what the counter says. So I'm going to do it and grumble all the way. But in the end, I want a safe place for my kids and I have nothing to hide. The waiting sucks but this whole process is hurry up and wait.
 

Patrik BC

Member
Oct 13, 2017
11
2
I also received my PR status when I arrived in Canada approximately 3 years and a half ago. I called IRCC this morning in regards to this issue and I was told that it is not required for me to submit any police criminal record from my native country. The agent told me that they take into consideration the amount of time you spent as PR (in my case) in Canada. If I was away for 183 days or more during this time it was necessary to submit the police criminal record.
 
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manoj2010

Star Member
Mar 30, 2010
65
2
Police certificate is time consuming, for me it would take 3-4 months. CIC page reads "You must provide a police certificate for each country where you spent 183 days or more. If you cannot get a police certificate, tell us why." Can we submit application saying applied for police certificate and submit it later ? legal adviser please advise.
 

itsmyid

Champion Member
Jul 26, 2012
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I also received my PR status when I arrived in Canada approximately 3 years and a half ago. I called IRCC this morning in regards to this issue and I was told that it is not required for me to submit any police criminal record from my native country. The agent told me that they take into consideration the amount of time you spent as PR (in my case) in Canada. If I was away for 183 days or more during this time it was necessary to submit the police criminal record.
These agents on the phone are not the ones processing the application , just keep that in mind ...
 

mosaab

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06-01-2014
VISA ISSUED...
03-16-2014
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05-02-2014
It is not a weird requirement. Again: Canada does not want to give citizenship to criminals. And if you have only lived in Canada for three years they know barely anything about you. That is why they want to know what you did during that fourth year.

I know it is frustrating and time consuming and I also don't doubt that you are not a criminal. But again, it makes sense, no matter how frustrating it is.
Everybody landed as a PR had to provide a police certificate with permanent residence application, and a security background check done by the visa office back home.
 

dpenabill

VIP Member
Apr 2, 2010
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Everybody landed as a PR had to provide a police certificate with permanent residence application, and a security background check done by the visa office back home.
Which of course was done BEFORE the PR visa was even issued, not after the new PR was already in Canada. And that was YEARS ago.

Police certificate is time consuming, for me it would take 3-4 months. CIC page reads "You must provide a police certificate for each country where you spent 183 days or more. If you cannot get a police certificate, tell us why." Can we submit application saying applied for police certificate and submit it later ? legal adviser please advise.
You can give an explanation rather than include the police certificate. This may allow the application to successfully pass completeness screening and proceed to in-process. If indeed the procedure for obtaining the police certificate has in fact been commenced, and you can reasonably expect to receive it within the next three months, this could be a reasonable gamble. Worst case scenario, they return the application as incomplete and you get the certificate and return the application within 90 days.

If someone in this situation pursues this gamble, they should offer the forum a report about how it goes.

when a person is migrated suppose in the year Oct 2014 and he is continuously living in Canada till now he is eligible for citizenship.
But he was in his Country during Oct 2013 to Oct 2014 so he has to submit PCC my question is why he should submit it is useless rule because before getting immigration he already submitted PCC of that Country than once again why should he submit. This PCC rule in my opinion is not fair, just or reasonable so all like minded should join and represent the concerned department to remove rule.
Frankly, scores of prospective applicants are struggling just to navigate the changes, including figuring out how to best respond to what IRCC requests in the application form and presence calculator. There are numerous problems with the new form.

Sure, one can argue about the fairness of a requirement even though it is not new, and has been part of the form for years now, and which all prospective applicants could have prepared for by now. But the odds of persuading IRCC to change the parameters or criteria for this item range from very low to none. Thus, the bottom-line is that the applicant who applies on October 23, 2017 needs to declare whether or not he or she spent 183 or more days in a country (other than Canada) between October 23, 2013 and October 22, 2017. If the truthful answer to that is "yes" then the applicant must submit a police certificate from that country OR given an explanation why one could not be submitted.

Thus, . . . as to "why he should submit it is useless rule because before getting immigration he already submitted PCC of that Country than once again why should he submit . . ."

The certificate should be submitted because he is applying for Canadian citizenship and this is required to make a complete application.

That and any old certificate is considered expired. And was undoubtedly issued prior to being issued a PR visa let alone prior to when the individual actually came to Canada.

I also received my PR status when I arrived in Canada approximately 3 years and a half ago. I called IRCC this morning in regards to this issue and I was told that it is not required for me to submit any police criminal record from my native country. The agent told me that they take into consideration the amount of time you spent as PR (in my case) in Canada. If I was away for 183 days or more during this time it was necessary to submit the police criminal record.
Call centre agents are notoriously unreliable when answering any question not readily answered by the FAQ script. Which is not to assert the call centre was definitely wrong about this.

The problem is that item 10. b requires the applicant to check yes/no as to whether the applicant was in another country for a total of 183 days "in the past four (4) years." The instruction is straight-forward. There is no exception for time prior to becoming a PR. None of the help information examples so much as hint that date of becoming a PR factors into the calculation at all.

Thus, a truthful response for an applicant who spent 183+ days in another country during the past four (4) years , whether some or all of those days were prior to becoming a PR, is "yes."

The yes response triggers the requirement to submit a police certificate or give an explanation. If you trust the call centre agent's information, you could list the country and in the explanation box explain that you have not been in that country for a total of 183 days since becoming a PR . . . or, for those have not gone back at all, that you have not been in that country since becoming a PR. And see how it goes. Worst case scenario is IRCC returns the application because they need the certificate. Another potential negative scenario is that later in the process IRCC requires the applicant to submit a police certificate. Or, perhaps IRCC will indeed have a practice which does not require such applicants to submit a police certificate. Or, perhaps some may be allowed to slide on this issue, on a case-by-case basis.

But there is no doubt about how an applicant needs to respond to the yes/no part of item 10.b itself.

Anyone who attempts to apply without a police certificate, despite 183+ days in another country, explaining that they have not been in that country since becoming a PR, should return to the forum and report about how it goes.

There are many aspects to the new process regarding which it will takes months, if not years, to see how certain responses are dealt with by IRCC.
 

itsmyid

Champion Member
Jul 26, 2012
2,250
649
They might not process my application but they have access to my file and they seem professional and very knowledgeable.
that doesn’t really matter , especially if they only ‘seem’ or ‘sound’ so. Just in the last few weeks (before and after the new rules ) there have been number of incidences that they gave wrong/inaccurate answers to some forum members here. The FAQ section of the calculator has a specific answer on why the requirement is 4 years , if they return your application for missing PC they have that to defend against any of your complains and you have nothing — even if you had written down that agent’s name and ID number, they would just tell you that agent was wrong and you should follow the official instructions