I landed and became a permanent resident in Canada last April 8, 2017. Before that, I was in the Philippines. I would like to apply for citizenship in June or July 2020. Do I still need to provide a police certificate?
I need a concise and clear answer.
Since multiple factors can influence whether or not a citizenship applicant needs to submit a police certificate WITH the application, or may otherwise be required to submit a certificate later in the process,
there is NO concise and clear answer. Sorry. It depends.
Moreover, since the question is in reference to a future date, the answer is CONTINGENT on future events.
@zardoz identified an important one: the prospect that application requirements can change, and since NO legislative process, and NO notice of the changes to what is required to make a complete application, are necessary, changes of this sort are fairly common . . . note, for example, there was a big change just this year precisely about who is required to submit a police certificate with the application. Given a Federal election coming soon, the prospect of future changes is substantial.
Another big factor, of course, is whether or not the applicant has returned to the previous country since landing. There is some ambiguity in the current instructions, but the main demarcation appears to be whether there is already a police certificate covering the period of time AND the applicant has NOT returned to that country since (and this applies for any country, not just home country).
In the latter regard, technically the applicant can make an application without including a police certificate IF the applicant --
-- can check "no" to the question about having been in another country 183 or more days within the previous four years, or
-- the applicant needs to check "yes" BUT the instructions say the applicant can --
-- -- explain why no certificate is submitted based on that time (the 183 days) being in the home country BEFORE landing, or
-- -- at least there was a certificate already submitted for that country (any country, not just the home country) as part of the process of becoming a PR AND the applicant has NOT returned to that country
Practically, IRCC can still require an applicant to provide a police certificate at any time later in the process. Thus, there is NO definitive answer that no police certificate is needed . . .
. . . only clear answer available is that a certificate is or is not needed to submit WITH the application under the
current instructions applied to a particular individual's specific facts.
