HELP: China no criminal record

[mazleen]

Hi

I'm having trouble to get a no criminal record ( police clearance) from Guangzhou. I went there in 2005 for 9 months and was on F visa (business/visit visa) the whole time. I asked my friend to asked the police station and also PSB for no criminal record but they told her that they have no record of me as i was only a visitor and not a residence so they can't issue me a no criminal record. I found a website that said that it can be done. The office is in Shanghai and it said that Shanghai can give no criminal record for the whole China. They asked for USD500 (which is A LOT) for the no criminal record. Have anyone tried this route? I'm worried because PSB in Guangzhou said that they can't give me a no criminal record but the one in Shanghai can? Please help as I need to send my application ASAP.

 

[BrianDell]

Where did you register your residence during your time in China? You advised a PSB office where you lived at some point, no? You were on a F visa for 9 months? I've never heard of someone being on an F that long. You may wish to ask the company that supported your application for a F visa whether they filed any paperwork on your behalf with authorities and with which authority. I note that a 9 month F visa is not normally possible, as anyone there that long should be getting a resident permit. If you truly were there for 9 months as a temporary visitor, you shouldn't have told Canadian immigration that you were ever a resident there in the first place, since you were never a legal resident, just a visitor.

In any case, at this point you should just go to a 公证处 in Guangzhou. Normally you would take the paper you get from the PSB to a 公证处 anyway for notarization and translation. I got the impression that a 公证处 in China is not just notary service per se but also something of a verifier, perhaps they have access to other sources such that they could produce something for you without giving them any PSB papers. Never heard that done but immigration will want to know that you'd tried everything. A 公证处 should only charge you about 200 RMB including translation, so shop around if it is a lot more.

 

[mazleen]

Where did you register your residence during your time in China? You advised a PSB office where you lived at some point, no? You were on a F visa for 9 months? I've never heard of someone being on an F that long. You may wish to ask the company that supported your application for a F visa whether they filed any paperwork on your behalf with authorities and with which authority. I note that a 9 month F visa is not normally possible, as anyone there that long should be getting a resident permit. If you truly were there for 9 months as a temporary visitor, you shouldn't have told Canadian immigration that you were ever a resident there in the first place, since you were never a legal resident, just a visitor.

In any case, at this point you should just go to a 公证处 in Guangzhou. Normally you would take the paper you get from the PSB to a 公证处 anyway for notarization and translation. I got the impression that a 公证处 in China is not just notary service per se but also something of a verifier, perhaps they have access to other sources such that they could produce something for you without giving them any PSB papers. Never heard that done but immigration will want to know that you'd tried everything. A 公证处 should only charge you about 200 RMB including translation, so shop around if it is a lot more.

Brian Dell.. I had 2 F visas. I had one renewed after the first one expired. I dunno why the college applied F visa for me and my husband but that was what they put on our passport.I'm still waiting for my friend who has a friend in GUangzhou to get back to me regarding this. From what she told me, because I was on F visa, there was no record of me at the police station in Taihe, where we stayed. I hope I don't have to pay USD500 to get the police certificate from Shanghai which I don't know if it is acceptable because I was not in Shanghai but in GUangzhou.

 

[BrianDell]

In 2011 I couldn't get a residence permit because I couldn't commit to studying for a whole semester. The college would only support a visa for the couple months I had paid tuition for in advance, and the PSB puts pressure on the colleges to report drop-outs to them so that the study visas or permit of drop-outs can be cancelled. Hence at that time the school just supported my getting a F visa, and they wouldn't give me more than a couple weeks more than what I paid tuition for in advance.

In 2013, I arranged my affairs so I could study a full four months at a university than ran normal late Feb and early September start semesters, and this allowed me to get an unlimited entries residence permit good for my study period plus just a little less than a further three months. I entered on a 30 day L visa (like I had in 2011) but this time converted that to a six months and a bit residence permit after arriving at the school.

So if you're studying for 9 months, I am at a loss as to why you didn't get a residence permit, it would have been in your interest to do so. The college would only have supported your F visa if you paid them tuition for at least 8 months (or supported your renewal only if prior to renewal you paid more tuition so that you'd paid more than 8 months in total).

Anyway, you say you got a renewal, which I thought you must have gotten since they don't give 12 month F visas to study, but if you got a renewal, you must have registered your residence with a local PSB. In my experience, you cannot get a renewal without first showing proof you've been recorded at a PSB. You're technically supposed to head to a PSB within 24 or 74 hours to register your residence unless you are at hotels even if you just arrived on a 30 day L (tourist) visa. This is an authoritarian country and they do not grant permission to stay here (except at hotels) without having a record of where you are staying. The cops once showed up at my (now) mother-in-law's place to put me in the car and take me downtown to register that I was staying there for ONE NIGHT (I had actually tried to stay at a hotel for that night to avoid this potential problem but the hotel's computer system was down and somehow the police got tipped off there was a foreigner in town. At 11 pm they knocked on the door to take me away). You must have made a trip to the local PSB at some point, if nothing else in order to get that renewal. It's that PSB that should be approached. If they truly insist they don't have a record, then I suggest trying to prove that you did all you did to try and get it. Send in a copy of the form your took to the PSB to register if you still have it, as this may allow Canadian authorities to pursue the matter further if they wish to. That form would have had your address, the landlord's contact info, etc.

If the local PSB where you registered your residence has no record, it's not clear to me why someone else would have that record. Like I said in my last post, MAYBE the local PSB just has poor record management but it's still in some national or regional database. But if that's the case, a Guangzhou 公证处 should have it. If a Guangzhou 公证处 doesn't have it, in my opinion no one does, and somebody in Shanghai telling you they can give you a document for 500 USD is pretty much guaranteed to just send you a fake. That price, on the order of 3000 RMB, is also a red flag to me as this is not in-line with official government pricing. Sending Canadian authorities a fake or forged document would be worse than not sending it in at all.

Honesty is the best policy. Tell them you were never a resident of China, you were just there as a temporary visitor for 9 months. They'll make of that what they will, but at least you'll have owned up to it instead of covering that up.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

I'm having trouble to get a no criminal record ( police clearance) from Guangzhou. I went there in 2005 for 9 months and was on F visa (business/visit visa) the whole time. I asked my friend to asked the police station and also PSB for no criminal record but they told her that they have no record of me as i was only a visitor and not a residence so they can't issue me a no criminal record. I found a website that said that it can be done. The office is in Shanghai and it said that Shanghai can give no criminal record for the whole China. They asked for USD500 (which is A LOT) for the no criminal record. Have anyone tried this route? I'm worried because PSB in Guangzhou said that they can't give me a no criminal record but the one in Shanghai can? Please help as I need to send my application ASAP.

Don't pay $500 for a certificate.

CIC does waive PCC requests when a person shows they've done everything they can. Document your efforts to obtain the PCC. See if your friend can get a letter from the PSB confirming that they cannot issue one for you. Include whatever you can in the application to show CIC that you've tried to get it but weren't able to.

 

[Epsilon]

Hi maizem
I had a similar hard time obtaining my PC from China. I asked a friend there to help me go at the police station where I was registered to obtain one but he met several obstacles, finally what I did was this I wrote a detailed letter to CIC explaining all the hard times I encountered obtaining the PC, I also went to the local police station where I presently reside and got my fingerprints done then took it to a public notary officer to notarize it, then took it to the ministry of foreign affairs for notarization then finally took it to the Chinese embassy for notarization. I then sent this document and the letter explaining my difficulty to obtain a PC from china to CIC. all these cost me about $60. No need to go through the shanghai office after exhausting all possibilities of obtaining one fingerprinting can be accepted as CIC can use it to check for any criminal record with the various security agencies. hope this helps

 

[mazleen]

In 2011 I couldn't get a residence permit because I couldn't commit to studying for a whole semester. The college would only support a visa for the couple months I had paid tuition for in advance, and the PSB puts pressure on the colleges to report drop-outs to them so that the study visas or permit of drop-outs can be cancelled. Hence at that time the school just supported my getting a F visa, and they wouldn't give me more than a couple weeks more than what I paid tuition for in advance.

In 2013, I arranged my affairs so I could study a full four months at a university than ran normal late Feb and early September start semesters, and this allowed me to get an unlimited entries residence permit good for my study period plus just a little less than a further three months. I entered on a 30 day L visa (like I had in 2011) but this time converted that to a six months and a bit residence permit after arriving at the school.

So if you're studying for 9 months, I am at a loss as to why you didn't get a residence permit, it would have been in your interest to do so. The college would only have supported your F visa if you paid them tuition for at least 8 months (or supported your renewal only if prior to renewal you paid more tuition so that you'd paid more than 8 months in total).

Anyway, you say you got a renewal, which I thought you must have gotten since they don't give 12 month F visas to study, but if you got a renewal, you must have registered your residence with a local PSB. In my experience, you cannot get a renewal without first showing proof you've been recorded at a PSB. You're technically supposed to head to a PSB within 24 or 74 hours to register your residence unless you are at hotels even if you just arrived on a 30 day L (tourist) visa. This is an authoritarian country and they do not grant permission to stay here (except at hotels) without having a record of where you are staying. The cops once showed up at my (now) mother-in-law's place to put me in the car and take me downtown to register that I was staying there for ONE NIGHT (I had actually tried to stay at a hotel for that night to avoid this potential problem but the hotel's computer system was down and somehow the police got tipped off there was a foreigner in town. At 11 pm they knocked on the door to take me away). You must have made a trip to the local PSB at some point, if nothing else in order to get that renewal. It's that PSB that should be approached. If they truly insist they don't have a record, then I suggest trying to prove that you did all you did to try and get it. Send in a copy of the form your took to the PSB to register if you still have it, as this may allow Canadian authorities to pursue the matter further if they wish to. That form would have had your address, the landlord's contact info, etc.

If the local PSB where you registered your residence has no record, it's not clear to me why someone else would have that record. Like I said in my last post, MAYBE the local PSB just has poor record management but it's still in some national or regional database. But if that's the case, a Guangzhou 公证处 should have it. If a Guangzhou 公证处 doesn't have it, in my opinion no one does, and somebody in Shanghai telling you they can give you a document for 500 USD is pretty much guaranteed to just send you a fake. That price, on the order of 3000 RMB, is also a red flag to me as this is not in-line with official government pricing. Sending Canadian authorities a fake or forged document would be worse than not sending it in at all.

Honesty is the best policy. Tell them you were never a resident of China, you were just there as a temporary visitor for 9 months. They'll make of that what they will, but at least you'll have owned up to it instead of covering that up.

I was there as a guest English teacher at a college there in Guangzhou that has an agreement with a college here in Malaysia. The Malaysian college actually paid my salary. My husband who was appointed as their head of English department technically hired me. He also got an F visa and got paid by the Malaysian college. After all the research that I did, it seems that China won't give any 'no criminal record' for someone who was not a resident...so I'm also quite skeptical about this company's service. I already wrote a letter stating that I wasn't a resident and was there as a visitor. I included the copy of my passport that had the visas. Hope that it is sufficient.