There are 2 things to consider when dealing with police certificates.David83 said:Thanks. But what about the police certificates? I didn't submit them with the application because their validity, I am afraid, is less than the processing time of the application!!
1. Validity of a Police Certificate in terms of its issue date: When you submit the police certificates, just make sure their issue date is not more than 3 month prior to the day CIC receives the police certificates. For example if you send your police certificates right now and CIC receives them on 18th July 2015, then as long as they were issued After April 18th 2015, you should be fine.
2. Validity of Police Certificate in terms of its expiry: There are two possibilities in this case:
(a) Explicit expiry date written on Police Certificates: Police certificates for some countries have an explicit validity date written on them. In that case its straight forward that if the Permanent Residence application processing goes beyond the certificate expiry date, then CIC will request a new one.
(b) No expiry date written on Police Certificates: For police certificates on which expiry date is not written, generally CIC requests for updated ones if the certificates get more than 1 year old. Some claim it is 10 months, some say it is 12 months.
http://www.cancomglobal.com/FAQ/Security/ClearanceValidity.php
Please note that if 10/12 months have passed, then you are ONLY expected to provide updated certificates if you have recently lived in or are currently living in that country.
For example in my case I am living in Canada since 4 years. I provided police certificate from Pakistan. Now even if 1 year passes, CIC will not ask me for an updated one since I am not living in Pakistan. Even if I go to Pakistan for a short visit, its fine.
If your police certificates fall under 2.b above then I would advise you to send them when you are requested for medicals. My advice is based on the fact that most applications are successfully processed within 10 months after medicals. Then again I do not see any harm in waiting for them to request Police Certificates. It will cause a delay of few weeks but at least you won't have to go through the process of getting them again.
What I have observed is that for people who do not provide police certificates with their initial application, CIC sends them a letter to submit all police certificates if they have not done so. This letter comes roughly a few days after Medical request.
In short, you can't go wrong which ever direction you chose