Not sure when it was 3 months, but for spousal sponsorship, it has been 6 months for many years now.
At least... until they removed it from the website a few months ago. But it was 6 months before the guidelines vanished.
It can't be that many years. It was 3 months when I submitted PR spousal sponsorship back in 2012. I still have a copy of the PR sponsorship guide back in 2012. Here is what is written in the guide at the time. I highlighted it in red the 3 months rule. The guide was saved on file June 6, 2012. That was 6 years ago. You seem to imply it was never 3 months rule and always has been 6 months before the rule change recently. So it is either some time after 2012 and the latest guidefile changes, it may have bumped up to 6 months or it was 3 months the whole time until latest change.
Police certificates
If you and your family members who are 18 years of age and are not permanent residents or Canadian citizens have to provide:
- a valid police certificate, or
- police clearance, or
- record of no information
These documents are to be provided for each country other than Canada, in which you have lived for six consecutive months or longer since reach the age of 18.
The certificate must have been issued
no more than three months prior to submitting your application. If the original certificate is not in English or French, then you will need to submit both the certificate and the original copy of the translation prepared by an accredited translator.
It is your responsibility to contact the police or relevant authorities. When doing so, you may have to:
pay a fee for the service, and
provide information or documentation such as: photographs, fingerprints, your address and periods of residence in the country or territory.
We will also do your own background checks to determine if there are grounds under which you and your dependants may be inadmissible to Canada.
Please consult our website for specific and up-to-date information on how to obtain police certificates from any country.
