I found some details about how background check are done by CSIS.
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I find that this is such a mystery and would be great to know what others have experienced over time ... I know that it has been suggested before but for some reason I cant find the topic... CSIS is driving me crazy... nothing makes sense ... one person tells you one thing others tell you another and I am sure that its got more people and ... so maybe if we all put our heads together we can come up with something ....
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I posted the above in the suggestion box and I really think that we should do this .... so anyway I also wanted to add to this ... (swift you should be interested in this)
I finally got a chance to speak to my old prof... he confirmed most of the things that I suspected with a few surprises .... so anyway ... i thought i share with you all what he said ... for anyone going trough the same thing that I am right now .... before i start he also told me that he can give me only the basic... he said that he could not leak anything to me or he would have to kill me tehehe... I think
Background check the basic:
· Timeframe: 0 (people can get except from this) - 21 months (ya i swore at him too... he was not used to that from me)
· Steps that they take: If everything is cleared (relationship is real, medical is cleared, police report is cleared) they then start the background check (they will not do this before all of those three things are cleared)
· From the first step they determine (with a CSIS member) if they want a in-depth report or simple one...
· Simple on takes about 90 days - 120 days
· In-depth takes about 180 days - 21 months --> now he said that this is further broken down to how in-depth they go... here are a few determining factors
o Your nationality and race (eg. if you are Tamil you are going to get an in-depth one... great my husband is that)
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 aps 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 and Russia (for swift) ... all are done by CSIS unless they have reasons to check with local ... now for Russia swift here is what he says CSIS does their own check because they worry about security breaches .... so I asked him why some of the interviews were canceled ... and he says that they probably could not get someone out there because of the recent security problems and risk currently in Russia ... he says that Russia is becoming a country that is little by little unstable ... so when a low level CSIS opp is sent in they take all the precaution... ( sorry swift that’s all i could get out of him)
· 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 aps... your looking at 6 months check anyway unless you come from a country that is visa exempt ...
· Another thing that you have to look at if you are coming from a country that is not visa exempt… if there currently is any unrest…
· I asked him about my own situation and he explained that it should take a min of 9 months
* Added: I just review my notes and I forgot to add this ... Most of the other coutries that Canada does not have a close ties to or does not know much about get done by their local counterpart... so eg in Sri Lanka the local depts take over and they then fork it out to local police and equals of CSIS ... as they would know the culture and behaviours of those people ... and to top it off .. if there is unrest this will take longer ... and if their is any prejedice against you in that country eg.. .Tamils in Sri Lanka then expect it to take even longer ... Cuss
· I told him that there are lots of people out there who need help just like me and I told him it would be nice if there could be some understanding of this process … but he says that it would not be possible … if that was possible then there would not be any criminals in the world and then we would not need CIC or CSIS for that matter … he has got a point
On that Note: I hope this helps people a little to understand this stupid process that we are stuck in…
