"the country where you have spent most of your adult life since the age of 18"

[helps]

The rules for police certificates have changed.

Instead of needing a police cert for countries you have spent 6months or more, you need them only for your current country of residence, and "the country where you have spent most of your adult life since the age of 18"

I'm sorry if I sound ignorant, but thats a pretty vague statement, does anybody know the definition of this?
Is it an actual mathematical percentage?

For example, I am 37 years old, and in my 20s I lived in Japan cumulatively for 4 years.
This, technically, is not at all even close to "most of my adult life since 18" infact its about a quarter of it.

The process for obtaining a Japanese police certificate is an arduous task at best, consisting of in person interviews and possibly needing to actually fly to Japan, I would much rather avoid it, or, if I need to do this, I would like plenty of notice to get the ball rolling on it.

Anybody know anything definitive?
Thanks

 

[Db1980]

Hi,

I actually posted a topic regarding this process yesterday. We are a bit confused based on the request sent to us.

I read on the complete guide:

When we ask you for police certificates at this stage, you’ll have to submit them for:

the country where you currently live, if you have lived there for six months or more; and
the country where you have spent most of your adult life since the age of 18.


So to me, there is no need to apply for a Police Certificate from Japan, but others replied back to me that you should (in our case a Police Certificate from Sweden).

I did not really get a concrete answer to my inquiry regarding this topic so am still in limbo what to upload. My wife and I lived in Holland from 2007-2011 (7-8 months of the year), but as posted above we currently live in Sweden and she has spent pretty much all her life since the age of 18 in Sweden.

Maybe others can choose me in with advice...

 

[Bs65]

The rules for police certificates have changed.

Instead of needing a police cert for countries you have spent 6months or more, you need them only for your current country of residence, and "the country where you have spent most of your adult life since the age of 18"

I'm sorry if I sound ignorant, but thats a pretty vague statement, does anybody know the definition of this?
Is it an actual mathematical percentage?

For example, I am 37 years old, and in my 20s I lived in Japan cumulatively for 4 years.
This, technically, is not at all even close to "most of my adult life since 18" infact its about a quarter of it.

The process for obtaining a Japanese police certificate is an arduous task at best, consisting of in person interviews and possibly needing to actually fly to Japan, I would much rather avoid it, or, if I need to do this, I would like plenty of notice to get the ball rolling on it.

Anybody know anything definitive?
Thanks

the guidance on the CIC site contradicts itself depending what link you use one link says any country 6 months or more and the other as you have quoted as per this link http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/guides/5525ETOC.asp#expect which interestingly has a link to the contradicting text.

As for definition adult life although i have no specific knowledge if were me applying now and had lived in more than one country i would just calculate a percentage and use that as the one for a certificate as the most lived in country and if CIC want additional ones they will ask. I would think if a 50/50 they may ask but if 75/25 probably not but who knows given the lack of clarity on the website. Ultimately is all about being up front with any info and if they want more they will ask for it.

 

[Db1980]

Hi,

Not 100% sure, but think you do not need to provide Police Certificate from Japan and also us from Netherlands. This is based on below I came across:

Do I need a Police Certificate with my application for PR? NO. Citizenship and Immigration Canada will SEND you a letter requesting a Police Certificate AFTER you send your Application for Permanent Residence. You must bring that letter when you apply for a Police Certificate.

Based on that, I'm under the assumption if they require a "Certificate of Criminal Record" (as it's called in Japan) you would need request letter from Canada to obtain this.

Just my 2 cents...

 

[Db1980]

Ok ya like I said I wasn't 100% sure, but based on what I read it seemed like they would send you this letter, but seems I am mistaken.

Would this be the same for the Netherlands?

 

[Db1980]

What I read was that you needed a request letter from Canada to obtain a Netherlands Police Certificate (Certificate of Good Conduct).

Guess we will look into it, but really don't think we need to include because CIC contradicts themselves regarding this process. Very frustrating to say the least...

 

[jvid23]

The rules for police certificates have changed.

Instead of needing a police cert for countries you have spent 6months or more, you need them only for your current country of residence, and "the country where you have spent most of your adult life since the age of 18"

I would love if this is the case and hope we can find out more about it!
I have mainly been in Australia and here (Canada) the past 6 years since I turned 18. Do I
inlcude a police certificate from Canada in my application? I got told here once that I dont have to..

 

[Db1980]

Fairly certain you do not need to provide a CDN Police Certificate. They will inform if it is needed.

I to am super frustrated with the lack of professionalism based on the webpage(s) for Police Certifictes. They write one thing that then write completely different somewhere else. 1 place I read we should provide Police Certificate from the country we have resided for the past 6 months or more or have spent the magority of our life and then other place it states to provide Police Certifictes from any country we have been n for 6 months. Like WTF....

Still have yet to figur out how to move forward....

 

[helps]

Much as I expected, nobody knows. These CIC papers can be very vague and grey
Db1980 what did you endup doing?
Are there any Senior members that could weigh in here?

 

[jeffporfirio1]

Its best if your application is as complete as possible.
It seems that you will need the JPN Police Certificate, get on the task of obtaining it.

 

[Db1980]

Much as I expected, nobody knows. These CIC papers can be very vague and grey
Db1980 what did you endup doing?
Are there any Senior members that could weigh in here?

My wife is in the process of obtaining a "Certificate of good conduct" from the Netherlands. She called and the process isn't as confusing as they make it out to be on th website we viewed. Even though it's a hassle we discussed and figured better be safe then sorry.

 

[helps]

My wife is in the process of obtaining a "Certificate of good conduct" from the Netherlands. She called and the process isn't as confusing as they make it out to be on th website we viewed. Even though it's a hassle we discussed and figured better be safe then sorry.

Sorry but even this statement is vague to me! You say she called and it's not actually that confusing, but that you both talked about it and decided to get the certificate anyway to be on the safe side. So what does that mean?
Please, do tell me what she got from them when she called, was there a definitive answer?

Sorry to pester, just looking for answers, thanks!

 

[Db1980]

Sorry, should have wrote it a bit different. We didn't call IRCC, but instead the Police in Netherlands who then informed us the process was not that complicated and the Certificate would arrive before our April 2 deadline. So we went ahead to get the Certificate.

 

[helps]

Ah! Ok cool, thanks for all your help.
Unfortunately the Japanese PCCs arent very easy, it's complicated, expensive and time consuming (involving travel aswell)
Sounds like I need to do it though..

 

[Db1980]

Ya sorry to hear you will need to do this. It's BS to me, but not much we can do if CIC requests.
Good luck with the rest of your application process...