Let me give a brief backgroud. I appeared in citizenship test and the same day, I was handed over an RQ. I submitted RQ along with supporting documents. Now I have received a letter asking me to submit my finger prints, but the problem is that I am outside the country and time is short. I just wanted to check, if CIC accepts finger print submissions from abroad, or I must travel to Canada for submitting finger prints? The second question is how long does it take for CIC to process the case after that? Appreciate if anyone may help.
Finger Prints submission
- Thread starter mr_saviour
- Start date
If you are OUTSIDE OF CANADA :
contact the nearest police force which offers fingerprinting services. The RCMP will accept fingerprint forms from foreign countries that contain the following:
rolled and flat impressions of all ten fingers taken with black ink
full name, date of birth and sex of the applicant
the name and address of the police agency
the signature of the official taking the fingerprints
Electronic fingerprint submissions to the RCMP is not currently available outside of Canada. You may contact third party agencies within Canada who will digitize ink fingerprints and submit them electronically to the RCMP. You may search International Fingerprinting Services on the internet. Electronic processing significantly reduces processing times when there is no match to an RCMP fingerprint holding.* See processing time chart *
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cr-cj/fing-empr2-eng.htm
contact the nearest police force which offers fingerprinting services. The RCMP will accept fingerprint forms from foreign countries that contain the following:
rolled and flat impressions of all ten fingers taken with black ink
full name, date of birth and sex of the applicant
the name and address of the police agency
the signature of the official taking the fingerprints
Electronic fingerprint submissions to the RCMP is not currently available outside of Canada. You may contact third party agencies within Canada who will digitize ink fingerprints and submit them electronically to the RCMP. You may search International Fingerprinting Services on the internet. Electronic processing significantly reduces processing times when there is no match to an RCMP fingerprint holding.* See processing time chart *
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cr-cj/fing-empr2-eng.htm
Hi
I too had to organize out of country fingerprints for my wife's citizenship application. I used the service at the below link. There was a fee of about $70CAD I recall but this organization receives your foreign fingerprints and immediately digitizes them which then enables electronic submission of the fingerprints to CIC thus saving a lot of time. You still get the fingerprints taken in your present country but then courier them to this firm (that's the longest part of this process).
You can save the fee by send your fingerprints directly to RCMP in Canada but the process will take months longer because the fingerprints have to be manually checked due to their not being digitized.
RCMP do not accept digitized prints from foreign police forces, hence the reason to use an accredited agency like the Commissionaires at the "thecommissionaires.com/index.cfm/services/criminal-record-checks/" out of Kingston Ontario. (sorry - the system wont let me post links).
I too had to organize out of country fingerprints for my wife's citizenship application. I used the service at the below link. There was a fee of about $70CAD I recall but this organization receives your foreign fingerprints and immediately digitizes them which then enables electronic submission of the fingerprints to CIC thus saving a lot of time. You still get the fingerprints taken in your present country but then courier them to this firm (that's the longest part of this process).
You can save the fee by send your fingerprints directly to RCMP in Canada but the process will take months longer because the fingerprints have to be manually checked due to their not being digitized.
RCMP do not accept digitized prints from foreign police forces, hence the reason to use an accredited agency like the Commissionaires at the "thecommissionaires.com/index.cfm/services/criminal-record-checks/" out of Kingston Ontario. (sorry - the system wont let me post links).
Thanks for the feedback. Yes I followed the same approach by sending (courier) finger prints to an accredited agency in Montreal (Xl-ID). They were quite helpful and gave detailed guidance on the process, and as I opted for an urget service (extra C$25), it got processed within a day after delivery to them.
I would recommend the same approach to all others, though it costs some bucks.
I would recommend the same approach to all others, though it costs some bucks.