Police clearance certificate
- Thread starter goldei
- Start date
AOR just means yours application was complete and fulfills basic requirements as per checklist and fee. Processing starts at the level of your office and an officer will look through the case. He/she can alsk for anything they deem necessary.
I will recommend getting a new PCC and if required you will save time. I am assuming you spent further 183+ days in the same country you provided PCC for.
If you have spent more that 183 days (all counted together, not necessarily in one go) in ONE country than you will need to provide them eventually with a police certificate. My friend was only told during her interview that she still needed it.
So you can just wait for them to ask you for it, or better if you know you will need it get the whole process going, by ordering one from that country.
Thanks, i have applied for the ppc already, i just want to know that they will ask for the police clearance certificate during test or anytime during processing.
They might. They might not.
They for sure can and they for sure have required applicants to provide a police certificate later in the process. Explicit reports of this include request for police certificate during and following the interview. Those, however, appear to have been cases in which the total number of days in a particular country were not readily apparent until the interviewer was reviewing the specific absences, either in preparation for the interview or during the interview. If there is a more blatant or obvious failure to provide a relevant police certificate, perhaps the request for one could precede being scheduled for an interview or test. In any event, like many other potential requests for additional information or documentation, the request could come at any time in the process, any time, which includes right up to the time the oath is taken (while possible, and it has happened, requests for additional information or documentation after being scheduled for the oath, or even after "Decision Made," are very unusual -- they happen but rarely).
There is no way to discern what factors or circumstances will determine whether IRCC will require you to submit another police certificate.
We do not even know whether IRCC has a strict or flexible approach. I have GUESSED it will be flexible, that some applicants who meet the criteria invoking the requirement to submit a police certificate will not necessarily be required to do so, but even if my guess is in the ballpark, that is a huge ballpark, meaning the discretion employed could range very widely.
Among the factors which I think will have some influence, presence in the particular country after the submitted police certificate was issued looms large, particularly any extended periods of time in that country. For example, you indicate 183 days of "absence" since the certificate was issued, whereas what is more significant is the number of days present in a particular country.
I lived in Canada since 2013 with minor travels for 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. I applied in March 2017. So according to their rule a PCC is not required in my case. PCC is only required if someone is absent for more than 183 days in one of the four years preceding the citizenship application. Now I got my AITP and in one place it says Foreign Police certificate and/or a review in required for the travels I made. Can someone guide me? Why should it be this way? Thanks in advance.
Hello @goldei,
What did you mention in question 10(b) where it ask to to provide police certificate and if police certificate not presented then provide explanation. Please let us know..Thanks..
The requirement to submit a police certificate WITH the application itself is triggered by a TOTAL of 183 days spent in a country, counting all days over the full four years combined.
This is wrong: "PCC is only required if someone is absent for more than 183 days in one of the four years preceding the citizenship application."
The criteria is triggered by more than 183 days in total for ALL four years! Thus, for example, if the applicant averaged 46 days per year in a country, the total would add up to 184 over the four years, triggering the requirement to check "yes" in response to the respective item in the application form (this is 10.b in the current form, it was 11 something, as I recall, in the previous application), which in turn triggers the requirement to submit a police certificate WITH the application.
Beyond that, IRCC can request a police certificate from an applicant for any country in which the applicant has traveled or which IRCC has reason to believe the applicant may have had a criminal prosecution relevant to the statutory prohibition for foreign convictions.
All that said, if you have not yet received a request for a police certificate, I am not sure the copy of a report generated from GCMS for your case means you will be required to submit a police certificate. If your total number of days spent in one country, total for all four years combined, exceeds or comes close to 183, then you probably will be required to submit a police certificate. If there is any chance that IRCC has information suggesting you may have had criminal charges in another country, that too increases the likelihood you will be required to submit a police certificate. Otherwise, this entry might only signal the processing agent needs to review your travel dates to determine if a police certificate will be requested.
If the total number of days spent in one country, total for all four years combined, exceeds or comes close to 183, then you probably want to go about the process of obtaining the police certificate from that country, so you can promptly submit it if and when requested.
Thanks dpenabill. That makes sense - so my total absence from Canada in the last 4 years combined is 46 days. But in 2012 (when I got the PR) I was out for most of the year because of a job situation. But they shouldn't count that as that year is 5 years out from the time I sent out the application, should they?
Plus I have no criminal records in Canada or any other country. Please let me know your thoughts.
Plus I have no criminal records in Canada or any other country. Please let me know your thoughts.
I am NOT at all well versed in deciphering the GCMS reports applicants are sent in response to ATIP. Perhaps others are more familiar with entries like this and can offer more insight into what it means.
There is a reason why I do NOT bother to be well versed in deciphering the GCMS reports: with only some unusual exceptions they rarely offer any useful information. The vast majority of them are a waste of time for the applicant, and a waste of IRCC resources.
But, if this entry means it is likely you will be asked to submit a police certificate, that is useful information. It alerts you to this and thus you can commence the process of obtaining the police certificate sooner rather than waiting to get a formal request.
I just do NOT know that is what it means.
Otherwise, what I know is that IRCC has the authority to make reasonable requests related to verifying the applicant meets all the qualifications for citizenship. Since Section 22(3) in the Citizenship Act imposes a prohibition for foreign convictions, IRCC clearly has the authority to request a police certificate even if the applicant was only briefly in a country; that request is so IRCC can verify the applicant has no criminal convictions in that country.
Remember, sometimes a RCMP or CSIS background check can involve false-positives, a hit, due to similar names or other coincidental information, and then IRCC will need to follow-up on that to make sure it is indeed not the applicant.
But again, I am not familiar enough with deciphering GCMS reports to offer an interpretation of what this entry actually means. As I said in my previous post, this could simply mean your travel dates need to be reviewed to ascertain whether a police certificate is required; it could be a default status unless and until that particular element of the screening process is completed.
Thank you anyways. I agree that most the report GCMS is a waste because to decipher anything is tough may be only immigration lawyers understand.
But one thing I noticed, the officers don't review much before the test/ interview actually happens. Then they realize certain things are required. Can't they let us know before?
But one thing I noticed, the officers don't review much before the test/ interview actually happens. Then they realize certain things are required. Can't they let us know before?