When to Submit Police Certificate?

[Saneth]

I am applying Outland and gathering all my supporting documents together. Both my husband (the Canadian) and I are living in the US and have been for the last 20+ years. The FBI police certificate takes 16-18 weeks to process. I feel the information is a bit confusing about whether the police certificate must be mailed at the same time as all the other documents or if it can be sent along later.

The country specific instructions for the US say to provide all the documents together in a sealed envelope.

The website on "How to obtain a police certificate - United States" says "You should send the letter [the FBI letter] and any attached documents to the Citizenship and Immigration Canada office processing your file." To me this implies that I can submit my package and then send along the FBI letter when I receive it.

I'd rather not wait 16-18 weeks to submit my application since I have almost everything together, but I will if that's the best way to go.

Thanks in advance for the advice!

 

[frege]

I agree with you that the information from CIC is confusing. They say if your application is incomplete, they may return it to you. The thing is, this only applies if certain really essential things are missing, but they don't say that clearly. In other cases, you can complete the file later.

I found a reliable-looking webpage written by an immigration lawyer. It says this:

"Most people are not aware that you can send criminal record checks later in the process if you wish.

If your application is ready to submit and you find out it will take weeks (or months) for your criminal record checks to arrive, submit your application to get into the queue and submit your criminal record checks later, ideally when CIC requests them so they do not get lost."

I can't post the link here, but you can Google "Spousor your spouse" (sic), and you'll find it. Don't let Google correct "spousor" to "sponsor".

Knowing this could have saved us months!

By the way, the CIC call centre specifically told us not to worry about the sealed envelope business. Just send the sponsorship application and the PR application together in the same envelope.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Include a letter explaining that you have applied for the FBI cert but it will take some time to process. Tell them when it is expected to arrive and that you will forward it on to them as soon as it arrives. If you have a receipt or anything from when you applied for the cert, you include that with it as well.

 

[blueangel371115]

I wasn't sure what to do here either. Here's my scenario : we get married, I take his name (change ID, SSN, etc. ) then when I get my new identification and wedding photos back I'd like to submit the paperwork but I'm not sure when I should do my certificate.
I really don't want to hold this up any longer than I have to. Since I'm getting married in october, can I just do my certificate check in mid- September so I can file in mid/ late november (hopefully). Since it would make more sense to search my maiden name anyway? There won't be a record of my married name because I just got it right before I file . I am going to call the town clerk to check into how fast it takes to get the marriage certificate as well. Thanks in advance. I'm trying to iron out a few things to get the timing right. I want to get this process started as soon as possible.

 

[*Siren*]

It rarely takes 16-18 weeks for the FBI clearance. My husband got his in about 3 weeks. The time frame that they give you is the absolute worst case scenario.

 

[opmama]

We got our FBI clearance recently in about 7 weeks. But we chose to submit the application without it (and without the medical). In our case, we take possession of the new house in Canada in another two weeks, and we're really hoping for my husband to have Stage 1 (Sponsor) approval by then, because I've heard that it makes it easier to get him across the border. If we'd waited for the FBI letter, we probably wouldn't have had time for sponsor approval.

HOWEVER, I understand that it will likely show down our Stage 2 processing, so it's likely that my husband will get PR later than if we'd waited until we could submit a complete package. For us, that was a reasonable trade-off, but if spouses will be separated, or there's a need to work as soon as possible, or whatever, then it might make sense to wait to have all the documentation before submitting.

 

[Saneth]

Ok, I think I've decided to mail off the fingerprints and get the FBI clearance before submitting our package. This will give me extra time to fix up our home to sell, get rid of all the extra stuff we don't want to bring with us, assemble additional evidence that our relationship is genuine (if a 20+ year marriage and 2 children attending University in Toronto doesn't do it I don't know what else will) and just generally make sure everything is clean as a whistle. Also I've been looking at threads from other applicants who assembled a thoroughly organized and documented package, and I would like to be just as meticulous.

I have my medical exam scheduled for Monday but I think I'll cancel and defer that until I have my police clearance. That way everything will be ready to go.

After all these years living in the US, I'm excited about moving to my husband's home country. I love Canada and Canadians My husband has a terrific family and it will be wonderful to be close to them.

 

[Millertimez]

I wasn't sure what to do here either. Here's my scenario : we get married, I take his name (change ID, SSN, etc. ) then when I get my new identification and wedding photos back I'd like to submit the paperwork but I'm not sure when I should do my certificate.
I really don't want to hold this up any longer than I have to. Since I'm getting married in october, can I just do my certificate check in mid- September so I can file in mid/ late november (hopefully). Since it would make more sense to search my maiden name anyway? There won't be a record of my married name because I just got it right before I file . I am going to call the town clerk to check into how fast it takes to get the marriage certificate as well. Thanks in advance. I'm trying to iron out a few things to get the timing right. I want to get this process started as soon as possible.

From what I've read so far in other forums, the FBI Certificate takes an average of 4 to 5 weeks. I'm also getting married in August and being proactive in asking my fiancée to get her finger prints done this week.

Good luck with the process

 

[blueangel371115]

From what I've read so far in other forums, the FBI Certificate takes an average of 4 to 5 weeks. I'm also getting married in August and being proactive in asking my fiancée to get her finger prints done this week.

Good luck with the process

Thanks. You too as well. I'll get going on that then. I'll call the town clerk and see the time line and get the prints in September.