Police clearance in Scotland vs. England

[BCbound]

The letter from the Canadian High Commission in London asking for a police clearance, refers to the United Kingdom.

However Scotland has its own police and can provide a letter of no convictions quite quickly. The Met on the other hand are pretty slow at getting the letter back to you.

Does anyone know if a clearance by the Scottish police is sufficient if you have lived all your life in Scotland? Or is it absolutely necessary to wait for the Met clearance and send both to London?

 

[tired_of_waiting]

See, I am from England and lived in Scotland for a few years (Edinburgh, it's a wonderful city). I was going to get a Scottish police clearence but my lawyer advised me to just get the UK one from Scotland Yard as this is what CIC would expect and because it would cover all of the UK if I was convicted in either England, Northern Ireland Scotland or Wales.

I didn't have the energy to pursue it any further so I just got the standard one. To be honest, if you are worried about a long wait from Scotland Yard then don't panic. My one from SY took less than 10 days to get back to me.

 

[BCbound]

Thanks for that. We handed in the form for both clearances to the local police station here in Scotland on Jan. 31. The one from Scotland has just arrived but no sign of the one from the Met yet. I guess we'll wait a bit and see if it turns up.