.I sent my citizenship application to CPC on March 7th 2018.I have been living in Canada since Nov 2014.After that I didn't left Canada .Now I have a confusion that
I did not send them police certificates for the time when I was in my own country.I didn't even mention the info (educational , job etc) of that period in my application.Will they send my citizenship application back to me or they will ask me for update the forms and police certificates? Our all police certificates and information before coming to Canada already laying with them then why they are asking us to send them again ?Can anyone help me in this regard ?
There are two reasons why IRCC will return a citizenship application:
-- the application is not complete
-- the application otherwise does not meet the requirements for processing a citizenship application
We, the public, are not informed as to the criteria employed for either of these, but between anecdotal reports from applicants who have had their application returned and what can otherwise be reasonably inferred (including, for example, from
Regulation 2(1) in the Citizenship Regulations, No. 2 (this should link) which prescribes what must be included in an application for citizenship), we have some rough idea about many of the things which will pass this
completeness check and which will not.
So far as we can discern, it is not as if the completeness check involves a review of the substantive content of the application to determine who should or should not submit a police certificate. For this, what matters is how the applicant responded to item 10.b. If the applicant checked "no" for item 10.b, that will pass the completeness check even if the applicant was in another country for a total of 183 or more days and did not include a police certificate. Of course, if the applicant actually was present in another country for a total of 183 or more days during the FOUR (4) years prior to applying, and checked "no" in response to item 10.b. (10-2017 version of the application), that is an untruthful response. And that could have implications later in the process, but it will pass the completeness check.
The reason why IRCC requires applicants to submit a police certificate if they have spent 183 or more days in another country during the preceding FOUR (4) years is this is the period of time prescribed by
Section 22(3)(a) in the Citizenship Act (this should link), which provides that a criminal conviction in another country during the "
four-year period immediately before the date of the person's application" prohibits eligibility for a grant of citizenship. So IRCC requires proof of no such conviction for any country in which the applicant has spent a significant period of time, which IRCC has administratively set as 183 or more days in total during that relevant time period. This has nothing to do with when the applicant came to Canada or with the presence requirement.
In any event, if you checked "no" in response to item 10.b (assuming you applied after October 11, 2017), the failure to include a police certificate will not result in your application being returned. What impact this might have later, if the "no" response was not an accurate response, is yet unclear. So far, anecdotal reports suggest the worst case scenario is some delay in processing due to IRCC later requesting the applicant to provide a police certificate (this typically happens at or following the test/interview), related of course to the amount of time it takes to get it and submit it.
Failure to provide work or address history for the full five year eligibility period:
Here too it is not clear, yet, what impact this is having. For an applicant in your circumstances, the information prior to you coming to Canada has minimal material significance. The fact that IRCC explicitly asks for it (to be frank, the application is rather clear in this regard, clearly asking for address and work and travel history for the FULL FIVE year eligibility period) makes it relevant, but that does not necessarily make it material. Since IRCC is NOT engaged in a GOTCHA game, this should not totally sabotage your application. Whether it leads to some non-routine processing, thus some delays, again this is NOT yet clear.
