The anatomy of a Background Check? - <<<<<<IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS>>>>>>>

[nazgul86]

Hi, if you don't mind, may I ask if you have extensive travel histories or any military/government background? Just want to get a general idea on what are the facilitators for being in security screening. Thanks.

The comprehensive security check is on my wife (secondary applicant), who doesn't really have an extensive travel history or government/military background, the only thing I can think of is that she's from Iran, but residing in Canada since past 2 years. I'm hoping it's going to be faster than expected.

 

[waynezhang1995]

The comprehensive security check is on my wife (secondary applicant), who doesn't really have an extensive travel history or government/military background, the only thing I can think of is that she's from Iran, but residing in Canada since past 2 years. I'm hoping it's going to be faster than expected.

Thanks for your reply. Hope yours will be faster than average. My case is very very similar to yours. Same VO and i also got 2 ghost updates in two continuous days back to May. The call agent also said "the update is for starting my security screening" he did use the term security screening but he said there is no difference between security check and security screening. I called in the next day and ask if I am in comprehensive security check but the other agent explicitly said no. I am so confused now. Sorry for another quick question, when the call agent informed your security just started, is that yours or your wife's?

 

[nazgul86]

Thanks for your reply. Hope yours will be faster than average. My case is very very similar to yours. Same VO and i also got 2 ghost updates in two continuous days back to May. The call agent also said "the update is for starting my security screening" he did use the term security screening but he said there is no difference between security check and security screening. I called in the next day and ask if I am in comprehensive security check but the other agent explicitly said no. I am so confused now. Sorry for another quick question, when the call agent informed your security just started, is that yours or your wife's?

I recommend you just ordering the CBSA notes and avoid guessing from what the agents said, since I've seen it being quite inconsistent at times.

 

[immigrator]

Friends,

I have a confusion on my situation. I live in India and I was travelling 2 years back for tourism to UAE. They fined me for an offence and I had to pay fine the same day and I stayed there for 7 days and after that come home. They said everything was clear, no problem hence travelled back. Then 6 months later I was travelling to Europe for vacation via dubai and they detained me because they said my earlier case was not closed in some system. so i had to engage lawyer and removed the charge and during that time i was at airport detention for 7 days. the court and police gave me clearance paper. My problem is--

1. when i write in the form under 'have you ever comitted, been arested, been charged or convicted in any country' what do i answer. is that a yes or no because im not a resident of uae. just travelling and didnt stay 6 months also there

2. if i say yes, what paper do i show. my paper is is all arabic

3. if i say no, then will they be able to find out my problem. im confused

4. can i get a new fresh police certificate from uae and show

please help me with this

 

[torontob]

Friends,

I have a confusion on my situation. I live in India and I was travelling 2 years back for tourism to UAE. They fined me for an offence and I had to pay fine the same day and I stayed there for 7 days and after that come home. They said everything was clear, no problem hence travelled back. Then 6 months later I was travelling to Europe for vacation via dubai and they detained me because they said my earlier case was not closed in some system. so i had to engage lawyer and removed the charge and during that time i was at airport detention for 7 days. the court and police gave me clearance paper. My problem is--

1. when i write in the form under 'have you ever comitted, been arested, been charged or convicted in any country' what do i answer. is that a yes or no because im not a resident of uae. just travelling and didnt stay 6 months also there

2. if i say yes, what paper do i show. my paper is is all arabic

3. if i say no, then will they be able to find out my problem. im confused

4. can i get a new fresh police certificate from uae and show

please help me with this

#1- The question is clear and doesn't ask if you were a resident, tourist, or citizen but simply asks if you were ever arrested for crimes. Based on first paragraph of your description it seems you had an infraction and paid it and you did not commit a crime?! Based on second part of your paragraph you were detained. This goes back to laws of UAE. See if you can find out if you were arrested or not. It should show on your record somewhere. If it doesn't show then it means you were not arrested for a crime. Usually crimes are court cases etc...

#2- This is not a real problem. Just translate it if you have to provide paperwork.

#3- We don't know if they will find out and you are not confused. You are wondering if you can get away with it or maybe wondering if your issue falls within "commited a crime, been arrested, been charged....". RCMP and CSIS do the searches for these things usually and if your name pulls up on some international list or if UAE is a partner of RCMP then it may show up. BUT not many people know what they share with each other...

#4- Not sure what you mean by fresh certificate. If you were arrested - as with most other countries - their certificate will show it all unless you were pardoned or if it was not a crime and just an infraction (i.e. parking ticket). A new certificate doesn't mean it will wipe out your past.

*Important: Find out if you ever committed, been arrested, been charged, or convicted in UAE or elsewhere. Ask the lawyer who helped you and he should be able to answer that question.

Furthermore, not all issues with law in other countries mean inadmissibility but find out exactly what happened and search the forum or consult Canadian lawyers or immigration lawyers to see if that can be troubling for you.

 

[richardsmile]

All applicants have the same BGC, and that is done by CSIS.

Hi, Legalfalcon! Great to read your post!
Could you pls tell me what kind of BGC check will be for a work permit as I am experiencing it now? It should not be the same as application for PPR as I see many work permit applicant received their work permit in 3 months. It must be different BGC, right? I do have a lot of travel history for tourism though. Thanks!

 

[rushi.gada]

H. Some scandals CSIS has been involved with.

Even though CSIS is a professional agency that is tasked with the security screening of prospective immigrants, it does not stop its activities there. Even after an applicant is granted PR status, CSIS continues to monitor his activities, as another security screening is done when the PR applies for citizenship. CSIS, from the time someone applies to enter Canada until long after they have citizenship is involved in surveilling, gathering information, creating files, developing profiles, writing and passing on secret reports. There have been frequent complaints about general harassment, and also about the specific behaviour of CSIS. CSIS agents have been known to show up at an individual’s door late at night. As SIRC reports indicate, CSIS agents regularly fail to inform the individual of their right to have an attorney present.

According to the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations (NCCAR), students of Arab origin are being approached by CSIS agents on campus for questioning. They have reportedly been threatened with deportation and revocation of their status if they fail to provide information about community members (“In The Shadow of The Law”, a report by the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG), 2003).

Toronto immigration lawyer Faisal Kutty elaborates, “Showing up at homes and workplaces unannounced; offering money and favors for “information”; intimidating and threatening newcomers; inquiring about a person’s religiosity; and discouraging people from engaging lawyers are some of the recurring themes that I have come across from clients.” (Faisal Kutty, “The Dirty Work of Canadian Intelligence”, April 2004)

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) has distributed tens of thousands of “Know Your Rights” guides and organized workshops across the country to help community members deal with CSIS and the RCMP. A community survey conducted in 2004 by CAIR-CAN reports that security officials were using, “troubling tactics” such as “discouraging legal representation, aggressive and threatening behaviour, threats of arrest pursuant to the antiterrorism act, visits at work, intrusive and irrelevant questionning, improper identification, informant solicitation, and interrogation of a minor.” (CAIR-CAN, “Presumption of Guilt”, 2004).

In the past CSIS has been involved in the following scandals:

Maher Arar. Documents divulged in the Arar inquiry reveal that CSIS believed “the U.S. would like to get Arar to Jordan where they can have their way with him,” as early as two days after Mr. Arar was deported by the US to Jordan, and then on to Syria, where he was tortured and imprisonned for nearly a year. According to the Arar inquiry report, CSIS nevertheless visited Syria and met with Syrian intelligence agents during Arar’s incarceration, even passing on questions to be posed to Arar. The information Arar provided under torture was then passed on to CSIS, who in turn passed it on to other Canadian authorities. CSIS's position during this period was that Arar should not return to Canada. Syrian authorities were aware of the position of CSIS, despite Canada's official demand that Arar should be released immediately. Arar is one of several individuals who have gone public with similar stories, including Benamar Benatta, Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati, Muayyed Nureddin and Abousfian Abdelrazik. The report on this is available at http://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/402/SECU/Reports/RP4004074/securp03/securp03-e.pdf


Security certificate cases. Security certificates are a “legal” way of doing the same thing that was done to Arar, Benatta, Almalki, El Maati, Nureddin and Abdelrazik: on the basis of secret suspicions, attempting to send people to places where it is known they will be tortured and in the meantime keeping them in indefinite detention. CSIS is the government agency which prepares security certificate cases. Even within the fundamentally flawed framework of the certificate, CSIS has been mired in several scandals, including the destruction of evidence, and possible involvement in media leaks. CSIS has been accused of using information obtained under coercion and torture in these and similar cases. For example, CSIS is known to have introduced information obtained from Abu Zubaydah-the poster boy of the CIA’s “black sites” programme-into the Charkaoui case. CSIS continues to deny that it uses information obtained under torture, but in November 2005, SIRC SIRC reported that CSIS was in no position to make "an absolute assurance" to the government that information it receives from allied spy agencies is not obtained as a result of torture. What is a security certificate - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_certificate

Air India. CSIS destroyed key wiretap evidence and those responsible were not brought to justice. A suspected CSIS mole, Surjan Singh Gill, was identified by the RCMP as one of six main suspects in the bombing. The RCMP believed that he had the explosives and airline ticket with him shortly before two bombs were apparently checked onto flights in Vancouver. Gill left Canada in 2000 and has never been charged. (Globe and Mail, 4 June 2003). More on Air India Case - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_India_Flight_182

Bhupinder S. Liddar. CSIS was caught lying to SIRC [Security Intelligence Review Committee] (in SIRC’s words, the agency “purposefully misled” SIRC in order to "suppress information that was embarrassing to the Service") to cover up its errors in the Liddar case. SIRC reported that CSIS had conducted a “hasty, slipshod investigation” and had ‘a regrettable’ attitude that supporting Arab causes can be suspicious.” (Globe and Mail, 14 September 2005). https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/csis-vows-changes-amid-criticism/article986548/

Targeting Unions. During the 1980s and 1990s, CSIS spied on the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). Former CSIS officer John Farrell confessed that, as CUPW engaged in the difficult negotiations leading to the strike of 1991, he and fellow officers prepared dossiers on "troublesome" CUPW leaders. They sought and received authorization to intercept every piece of mail delivered to the homes of targetted labour organizers and to inspect their garbage. They illegally planted a listening device in a postal station and stole keys from a postal depot to break into apartment buildings and mail boxes (Andrew Mitrovica, Covert Entry: Spies, Lies and Crimes Inside Canada's Secret Service). CSIS has always denied these activities. CUPW was not the only union of interest to CSIS. Marc-André Boivin infiltrated Quebec’s CSN for 15 years - first for the RCMP and then for CSIS. Boivin was involved in making bomb threats during a hotel strike.

Heritage Front. Grant Bristow, one of the founders of the neo-Nazi group Heritage Front was employed for five years by CSIS. According to an article by Bill Dunphy of the Toronto Sun, Bristow was supposed to be working as a mole for CSIS, while serving as the intelligence chief and co-director of security for the Heritage Front. However, his active role in hate activities has raised questions. Bristow allegedly ran a programme of harassment against anti-racists in Canada, and provided the Front with personal information on them. More on Heritage Front - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_Front



I hope you found this information useful. I try to answer as many questions as I can, but it is humanly impossible for me to answer specific application questions for all applicants. So lets keep this thread to discuss BGC and what other forum members have experienced.

If you have any specific questions for me, please use the threads in my signature.

Thank you.

Thanks so much for such a detailed and thorough explanation .. you have truly shed a lot more and much needed light on this

 

[Joshua Afful Duncan]

How can I apply for the express entry?

 

[Mmaindak]

I received my cbsa notes and in Ices travel history, a person with a different middle name than mines is showing in their records.
Should this be of concern as my AOR was April 2017 and final eligibility and security have not started till date?

Should I raise a CSE to ask for clarification?

 

[reza0358]

I have a previous US VISA refusal. According to the notes, Info Sharing is Complete. Security Screening is still in process (Since February). Does "complete" mean that US VISA refusal has been of no concern to the officer?

 

[Franko72]

Do you have an estimate on the time for PNP paper based applicants? Thank you in advance.

 

[PALASHPAL]

Hi,
I have applied for sinp, and waiting for work permit.i have question plz answer to me.
I got a job in LOGCAP if, Afghanistan in United state army base, in 2010. My company was dyn Corp which was the direct contractor of US govt. They provide me LOA ( letter of authorisation ) but they didn't stamp the visa of afghanistan. They given UAE visit visa which we were used to enter in Dubai, then we exit from Dubai and entered in Kandahar Air field by our pre arranged company flight. Once we entered in camp, military taken the finger prints and asked LOA. I stayed almost 4 years. I have all the documents from US military as well as from our company.

Recently I got the police clearence certificate from Afghanistan, and I have requested to US embassy to provide a police certificate fir my stay in Afghanistan and they given one.

I have police certificate and enough documents for my stay in afghanistan. Still I worry bcoz I didn't have visa stamp in my passport.
I have written in LOE about this.
Is it gonna be any problem for immigration process?

Thank you.

 

[PALASHPAL]

Hi Legalfelcon,
I have applied for sinp, and waiting for work permit.i have question plz answer to me.
I got a job in LOGCAP if, Afghanistan in United state army base, in 2010. My company was dyn Corp which was the direct contractor of US govt. They provide me LOA ( letter of authorisation ) but they didn't stamp the visa of afghanistan. They given UAE visit visa which we were used to enter in Dubai, then we exit from Dubai and entered in Kandahar Air field by our pre arranged company flight. Once we entered in camp, military taken the finger prints and asked LOA. I stayed almost 4 years. I have all the documents from US military as well as from our company.

Recently I got the police clearence certificate from Afghanistan, and I have requested to US embassy to provide a police certificate fir my stay in Afghanistan and they given one.

I have police certificate and enough documents for my stay in afghanistan. Still I worry bcoz I didn't have visa stamp in my passport.

Is it gonna be any problem for immigration process?

Thank you.

 

[Oct17]

Hello legalfalcon
I have applied for citizenship in October 2017 and done with the test in March 2018, I haven’t heard anything back from CIC since then.
I have MP office following up with my file and the recent information I received recently is that , the security is in progress and under review.
I have also ordered GCMS recently and it does mention a note from the agent that the status has to be manually changed to under review.
It’s been under review since March 2019.

Would really appreciate if you can provide some information as to what exactly it means and how long does a file stays under review and so on and so forth ?

Thanks

 

[Oct17]

Hello
I have applied for citizenship in October 2017 and done with the test in March 2018, I haven’t heard anything back from CIC since then.
I have MP office following up with my file and the recent information I received is that , the security is in progress and under review.
I have also ordered GCMS recently and it does mention a note from the agent that the status has to be manually changed to under review.
It’s been under review since March 2019.

Would really appreciate if you can provide some information as to what exactly it means and how long does a file stays under review and so on and so forth ?

Thanks