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Police clearance certificate required within 30 days

cgat

Member
Feb 26, 2013
18
0
Hi there,

I'm sponsoring my Slovak wife to come to Canada. We've travelled a lot, so the police clearance certificate has been a bit tricky. We applied for the permanent residency visa in late November, and received notice on March 1st. We are applying outside of Canada.

Today we received an email from Visa Office stating that we need to produce police certificates for Colobmia and Russia. For Colombia, this was expected, as you are suppose to wait for instructions after you applied. The Russia one came as a bit of surprise though, since my wife spent less than 6 months in the country. In her Background form, she did state her Russian address from the 7th month of 2011 to the 12th month of 2011. However, in other sections of the document we noted the exact dates (late July to late December) of entry and exit, which make it clear her time was closer to 5 months.

Here's the kicker though, at the end of the email, it states "If you do not produce the required evidence and documents within 30 days of the date of this letter, your application might be refused pursuant to subsection 11(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).".

Even for the Colombia police check, which can't be done until we have a file number, 30 days in certainly not enough to get this done.

So the questions:

Does the "30 days" part just mean that they require some evidence that the process has started, or will they actually refuse the permanent residency application (I would think that they would at least just delay it)?

Should we argument request for russian police clearance or just try to get the police clearance?

To make things more complicated, we are both in New Zealand at the moment.

Thanks for your help.
 

canuck_in_uk

VIP Member
May 4, 2012
31,558
7,198
Visa Office......
London
App. Filed.......
06/12
cgat said:
Does the "30 days" part just mean that they require some evidence that the process has started, or will they actually refuse the permanent residency application (I would think that they would at least just delay it)?

Should we argument request for russian police clearance or just try to get the police clearance?
The last thing that you want to do is argue with the person who is deciding your future :). Even if she spent less than 6 months there, if CIC has made the request, then you must comply. CIC knows that quite a lot of countries don't provide police certificates in 30 days, so the evidence that you have applied for them (receipts, confirmation emails, etc) along with a little letter stating the estimated processing times is enough. Then you can just send the certificates in as soon as they arrive (if they don't go direct to CIC)
 

emamabd

Champion Member
Jun 22, 2012
1,813
428
canuck_in_uk said:
The last thing that you want to do is argue with the person who is deciding your future :). Even if she spent less than 6 months there, if CIC has made the request, then you must comply. CIC knows that quite a lot of countries don't provide police certificates in 30 days, so the evidence that you have applied for them (receipts, confirmation emails, etc) along with a little letter stating the estimated processing times is enough. Then you can just send the certificates in as soon as they arrive (if they don't go direct to CIC)
not necessarily. CIC has requested a police clearance from my wife - for a country which she has never resided after completing age 18 although the residency visa for that country was stamped on her passport. We challenged that request and explained to cic with proof (entry and exit stamps) and they agreed to waive the requirement.

the rule is simple, you need to provide police clearance for any country which you have resided for more than 6 months after turning 18 years old...if not, they shouldn't request you to get it...they do make mistakes and you need to challenge that by providing solid evidence.
 

Akosimak

Hero Member
Jul 21, 2014
269
1
Category........
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
FEB. 13, 2014
File Transfer...
MAR. 4, 2014
Med's Done....
JAN. 23, 2014
Passport Req..
JULY 14, 2014 / IN PROCESS - AUG 13, 2014 / DM - SEPT 1, 2014
VISA ISSUED...
Aug 27, 2014 but received on Sept 4, 2014
LANDED..........
Last week of Sept, 2014
emamabd said:
not necessarily. CIC has requested a police clearance from my wife - for a country which she has never resided after completing age 18 although the residency visa for that country was stamped on her passport. We challenged that request and explained to cic with proof (entry and exit stamps) and they agreed to waive the requirement.

the rule is simple, you need to provide police clearance for any country which you have resided for more than 6 months after turning 18 years old...if not, they shouldn't request you to get it...they do make mistakes and you need to challenge that by providing solid evidence.
i absolutely agree. rule is less than 6 months no police clearance. probably explain them that detailed.
 

canuck_in_uk

VIP Member
May 4, 2012
31,558
7,198
Visa Office......
London
App. Filed.......
06/12
emamabd said:
not necessarily. CIC has requested a police clearance from my wife - for a country which she has never resided after completing age 18 although the residency visa for that country was stamped on her passport. We challenged that request and explained to cic with proof (entry and exit stamps) and they agreed to waive the requirement.

the rule is simple, you need to provide police clearance for any country which you have resided for more than 6 months after turning 18 years old...if not, they shouldn't request you to get it...they do make mistakes and you need to challenge that by providing solid evidence.
Why are you resurrecting a thread that is over a year old?

Your situation was entirely different from the OP's. I would have advised you to do exactly as you did because your spouse was under 18 at the time of the stay and CIC doesn't ever request PCCs for minors. They do, however, occasionally request PCCs for stays of close to but under 6 months.

OP had put their residence in Russia after the age of 18 from 07/11 to 12/11, which is taken as 6 months. Because they stated that in their app, CIC requested the PCC. Even if they had sent in an explanation that it was just under 6 months, there is little chance that CIC would have rescinded the request.

I speak from personal experience, as CIC requested a PCC from my partner for France even though he only spent about 5 months there. I sent an email explaining that but they replied saying that they still wanted it. There are many others on here who have also had to provide PCCs for stays of less than 6 months.
 

emamabd

Champion Member
Jun 22, 2012
1,813
428
canuck_in_uk said:
Why are you resurrecting a thread that is over a year old?
Age of the thread does not matter, its a public forum and there are readers who might view this thread 20 years from now.

I mainly commented because i wanted to share my experience regarding the same topic for other readers, i'm not suggesting that the OP would be waiting for a reply till now ;)