Hey fellow future Canadians...got a quick question and seek your help. My case is a bit complicated. I have a EE profile and getting my documents ready. I am originally from India and moved to Australia on a PR. I later surrendered my Indian citizenship and now I am an Australian national.As per CIC website we need a Police Clearance Certificate(PCC) from a country where you have stayed since 18 yrs old. In my case this would be India as I was still living there. But now I am an Australian citizen.
I have now been in Australia for 8 years. So as per CIC we need a PCC issued after you last lived in the country which in my case would be 2009. As per CIC requirement I got my Indian PCC done from the Indian Consulate Melbourne in June 2017as I am now a foreign national. My visits to India for a holiday on both my previous Indian Passport which is now cancelled as well as my current Australian passport in all these 8 years has not been more than 6 months. I had to visit India recently for only 3 weeks in August this year. Would I need to get a new PCC again from the Indian Consulate ? Getting a PCC from India for a foreign national is a nightmare.
Your help will be appreciated.
I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure you would need a new Indian PCC. I don't believe the rule is 'after you last LIVED in the country'; it's 'after you were last IN the country' (as in visited, not just lived).
The PCC requirement isn't based on citizenship, so I don't think the fact that you've changed citizenship affects anything.
The requirement is based on trying to ensure the PCCs cover as much of your time in the relevant countries as possible. The reason you only have to provide a PCC that's less than 6 months old for the country you're living in, is because it wouldn't be realistic to ask for a PCC as at your last date in that country (you live there, so you would never be able to submit your application if you were trying to get a PCC that's dated after your last date in the country you're living in). So, for Australia, your PCC only needs to be less than 6 months old but...
But for India, your PCC needs to be dated after your last date in that country (so since you've been there in August, the June PCC can't work). You could have committed a crime in India (I'm sure you didn't but CIC doesn't know that) during your August vacation, and your June PCC wouldn't pick that up, so it's of no use to CIC.
My sister's first PR application was turned down because her US PCC didn't capture a week-long vacation she took to the US after the PCC was issued, even though she hadn't lived in the US for 6 years at that point.