Difficulty in getting a police certificate - share your ideas please

[silenthill82]

This topic could of interest to some people who are finding extreme difficulty obtaining a police certificate from their home countries (or other countries) due to instability , corruption or total chaos in these countries which make obtaining such a certificate a living hell.
This is my situation anyway ,I am from Iraq and studying in the UK for the past 3 years , I have repeatedly tried getting a police certificate from the Iraqi authorities but it seems I am just chasing a mirage. I know some people who are having the same situation. I have notified the CHC in London about these exceptinal circumstances when I submitted my full apllication and supporting documents to them. My application (or at least the e-cas) reads "in process" now . The question is what is next? will they ask us to attend an interview to check our backgrounds and do this security check? will they reject the application due to the lack of this police certificate? if you have any experience or insights please share them here with us for the benefit of everyone who is having such a complicated problem.
Thank you.

Silenthill82

 

[dodan]

unfortunately, u need this one. maybe u can visit and get one? or ur relatives can request one on your behalf ? sorry to hear. yes i understand that u r willing to migrate. hope situations improve.

 

[Sisifo]

the CIC site provides a lot of useful info. The following is for PCC

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/security/police-cert/index.asp

Since you are from Iraq but staying in UK you fall under non resident category and this is what it says

Non-Resident Requests
Applicants should apply for a police certificate at the consular section of the nearest Iraqi embassy.

 

[jes_ON]

Silenthill, I am with you. Unfortunately, there were two I was unable to get, but I cannot yet tell you the outcome.

I can tell you - when I called CIC, the agent on the phone told me "If you can't get it, you can't get it. Write a letter documenting your efforts to get it." So - try to get everything in writing if you can (not easy, I know). In your case, everyone should understand why you can't get one from Iraq...

I also talked to another IO, informally. He said basically the same thing, that I had aready done much more than many applicants (I showed him my stack of documents), and he said that if CIC still wanted me to try and get them, they would send more instructions on what to do.

Sisifo, it is true that a lot of people who ask how to get PCCs have not read CIC's instructions. But it is also true that the instructions are not always accurate, and often not particularly helpful for non-residents or non-citizens of many countries. What are we supposed to do if, for example, CIC says to apply to an embassy, but the embassy refuses to do it?

I would expect at a minimum, a consequence would be that the security check takes longer.

The issue of corruption and chaos ... The whole PCC thing reeks of it. Just my opinion...

 

[silenthill82]

Dodan, Sisifo and Jes-On,

Thank you for your feedback . Speical thanks to Jes-On for the great information.
Just to clarify that I have actually read the CIC website quite carefully and I followed the instructions, I went to the Iraqi consulte in London , gave my fingerprints and got a document from the consulate which testifies that I have actually done that. I have submitted this document with my application to CHC london , just to show them that I am not really trying to hide anything , after all I am a medical doctor and I have never had any troubles with the police in my life in any shape or form. The thing is I do not really know what happened to the application when it reached Baghdad ! I wouldn't be surprised if it was just thrwon straight away to the bin ! In Iraq if you don't know someone from inside ,you can almost forget about getting your stuff done. Plus I can't really expect the authorities in Iraq to leave all the security issues, terrorism, bombings here and there and all that crap to worry about providing someone who has been away from the country for 3 years with a police certificate ! I think they probably laughed at the whole thing and just throw it away!