Can I use this Police Certificate?

[AMBriers]

Hi all, (hope this is the right place to put this)

I am attempting to be sponsored by my common-law partner and obtain a partner visa. I am a UK citizen, and have been in Canada on an IEC visa for nearly 2 years, and living with my partner the entire time. On the list of requirements for the visa, it states I need a police certificate from the UK. I read somewhere that police certificates are valid for a year after issue, or that they can be dated the last time you resided in your home country (if I recall?).

I have a police certificate dated from May 2016 that I used to apply and obtain my IEC visa. Since November 2016, I have been living in Canada with my partner, and have been back to the UK for 7 weeks worth of vacation visits.

Since technically I have not been residing in the UK since before I came over on my visa, could I still use my old police certificate? Seems a bit annoying and yet another unnecessary expense to request another when I've barely been back in the UK in the two years I have been in Canada.

To apply for a UK police certificate, I need proof of address. Technically my address at the moment is in Canada, so would this alone mean I should apply for a new one, or would my last UK address still work; thus bringing me back to the question of; would my old one still be valid?

Thanks for your time. Hopefully my question makes sense.

 

[KBH]

IRCC has removed all police certificate guidelines related to the spousal stream from their website, so any information shared here by anyone will be a guess. What you've stated was indeed the rules, before they changed them/removed them from public view.

I'll put it this way. Depending on whether you apply inland or outland, AOR can take anywhere from 4 weeks to over 9 weeks. That means if your application were to be returned due to submitting a police cert they don't like, you'd be delaying yourself anywhere from a month to three months (by the time the app gets sent back). Get a new cert.

 

[AMBriers]

Oh, okay fair enough. Sometimes I really dislike the way IRCC operate. They only seem to make things more confusing. It says they want a police certificate, does this have to be the real thing, or can it be a colour copy? The checklist doesn't specify. I can get my father to send everything off that I need in the UK, and can get the certificate within 2 days if I pay a higher fee, but I'd hate to have to wait to have it shipped over. My certificate from 2016 is the original copy, as I had that in case they asked for it when activating my IEC visa.

Thanks again.