For all the applicants undergoing security checks, found this on another forum, simply quoting it here
Background check -- the basics:
· Timeframe: 0 - 21 months
· Steps that they take: If everything is cleared (medical is cleared, police report is cleared) they then start the background/security check (they will not do this before both things are cleared)
· From the first step they determine (with a CSIS member) if they want a in-depth report or simple one...
· Simple one takes about 90 days - 120 days
· In-depth takes about 180 days - 21 months --> further broken down to how in-depth they go... here are a few determining factors
o Your nationality and race
o Where you currently live
o Have you ever been rejected by a country
o have you ever been a refugee in a country and was that excepted
o how many courtiers you lived in
o Have you ever been in a country illegally
o Your Criminal record
§ if you have a record have you been rehabilitated and for how long
§ they do a full 12 months one if you had a criminal record
o And then they go into your personal stuff
§ eg. Bankruptcy ....
o They also will check your family background if they have reasons to suspect it
§ eg your brother is involved in anything that is related to their watch list (terrorism springs to mind here)
· Checks for most in-Canada apps are done by CSIS unless they think that they need to do checks in other countries...
· I asked him about the US and the UK ... all are done by CSIS unless they have reasons to check with local ...
· Now another hint he gave me is if your country is on the watch list for Canada you can find it on CSIS website ... I have not gone and looked at it so don€™t know ... but he says that Canada's list is exactly like US list so we should go look at that as well
· Here is also an added factor ... If you have ever worked for any governments you will be of interest even if you have ever been just a file clerk...
· Military background automatically = in-depth report ... (this means if the person sponsoring or the person being sponsored has any military background your looking at least 6 months check)
· Now for outside apps... you're looking at 6 months check anyway unless you come from a country that is visa exempt ...
This information is pretty old, from 2007, but i doubt the working of CSIS has changed in any way.
