Trouble with Obtaining Police Certificates in Canada fro K-1

[Buzz15 3]

Hi,

Has anyone been "randomly selected" for extensive investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after submitting fingerprints in order to obtain Canadian Police Certificates?

A process that should take 3 days can go as long as six months, even for a law abiding citizen like my fiancee who lived in Canada for less than 2 years.

Any stories or ways to deal with this hiccup would be much appreciated. It is very frustrating for us to be moving closer to the interview and not have this document.

Thanks.

[C-ma'am 684]

**Post moved from K1 to Canada. Question is related to Canadian Police Certificates.

[cdneh 3,112]

I don't know about the 'random selection' time frame. I do know that when I applied I was told it would take 6 months from the get go. It arrived in about 3 months. I am a Canadian citizen as well.

[dandndandn 3]

Hi Buzz15,

I don't know anything about the random selection, but I lived Canada for 6 and a half years so like your fiancee I had to get the police certificate from the RCMP. I got scanned my finger prints and received the document in a week or so. (The document was delivered at U.S. address from Canada.) Although I was told when my finger prints were scanned that the result might take longer than it should be. The officer also said that as long as I don't have any criminal records the result should be fine, if it gets extended search based on submitted my finger prints. Obviously I do not have any criminal records, so I didn't bother to ask the officer what he meant by saying extended search. He might have meant " random selection" like your fiancee's case, I am not sure tho. I hope your fiancee should be able to get her police certificate soon like my case. I hope!!!!

Let us know how it goes.

P.S. Did you get an emaill address for the RCMP, specific one? I got one when my finger prints were taken. I was curious after three days from my visit for Canada how it goes and I emailed the RCMP. I got a response from them within a half hour. I was impressed.

[Buzz15 3]

dandndandn,

Thank you for the wishes. My fiancee had to use a 3rd party fingerprint service since she is currently living outside of Canada.

When you contacted the RCMP, did you email this address?

Email: CCRTIS-SCICTR@rcmp-grc.gc.ca

Phone: 613-998-6362 between 7:30 AM and 3:30 PM Eastern Time

Also, what information did you need to provide in order for them to find your record? Were they detailed in telling you about the status?

Thank you!

[Illiria 980]

My fiancee had to use a 3rd party fingerprint service since she is currently living outside of Canada.!

I obtained my Canadian police cert from outside the country and didn't use one of the online third party to do it digitally as I didn't trust companies with only a gmail or yahoo email to contact them. I think a lot of them that ask for the fingerprint form to be sent to them for scanning don't scan the fingerprints you send and do it the slow way anyway.

Sent off to the rcmp for the fingerprint form, had a police dept in my own country take the prints and then sent it directly to the rcmp. Only problem I had was with the payment method accepted but luckily one of my friends was vacationing in Canada and got it for me. This meant it was way cheaper than using the third party even with the local police force fingerprinting fee and traveling to the station to get it done.

It took 6 months to get the report as it said it would on the website and from the correspondence I had with the rcmp it seemed that it took 5.5 months for my form to even be looked at. It took them about a month to reply to each email I sent.

Edited December 14, 2016 by Illiria

[Buzz15 3]

Did anybody try to submit their fingerprints a second time in the hopes of the RCMP not selecting them for "extensive review"?

We were told by the private local fingerprint agency that if the first submission was taking too long to process we could potentially send it again and hope that the RCMP would let it pass. Thoughts?

[dandndandn 3]

Buzz15,

Yes that email address is the one I used. You need to tell them;

Your fiancée's name

DOB

Reason for submission ( I said " U.S. immigration)

DCN ( the one they gave your fiancée on the day her finger prints were taken. Mine was 20 digits)

I emailed to that address on the 22nd of June ( 9:26AM) and they replied on the same day at 9:40 AM.

I also was out of Canada so I had to use the third party.

Hope this helps!

[dandndandn 3]

The reason I used the third party is that I was told to use the one by the RCMP. So I trusted the company and worked well for me.

[zilchfox 296]

So weird. I went and did a P.I.C. through Calgary Police Services and I had the background check within 2 weeks, and that satisfied the CO during the K-1 visa interview in Montreal. I was in Canada when I got this check done, though.

[zeilend 1]

Wow, this was a scary thing to read, as someone whose fiancee is getting a police check today.

Is this standard, or are there ways to avoid this? We were going to do this through RCMP to avoid dealing with the Montreal police force..... is that actually the safer bet?

[lostbutterfly 9]

Just some information from my end. I requested my police certificate on the Toronto Police website. Not sure what part of Canada your fiancé lives in but if its in a big city they might have an easier way to obtain this document. Mine took 3 weeks and was $20. I picked it up at the police station, fairly easy. No fingerprints.

[NikLR 13,227]

Wow, this was a scary thing to read, as someone whose fiancee is getting a police check today.

Is this standard, or are there ways to avoid this? We were going to do this through RCMP to avoid dealing with the Montreal police force..... is that actually the safer bet?

This seems to be an issue for the OP merely because they are out of Canada and need the fingerprints. If you are in Canada and have no arrests or convictions on record, a name check (no fingerprints) does the trick.

[Buzz15 3]

So are you suggesting that the RCMP essentially regards out of country temporary Canadian residents as "higher risk" than those who are natives hence the scrutiny?

[NikLR 13,227]

So are you suggesting that the RCMP essentially regards out of country temporary Canadian residents as "higher risk" than those who are natives hence the scrutiny?

I have zero idea why the RCMP have the requirement for anyone who is not currently living in Canada to send in fingerprints. I can speculate if that's what you are asking, but I do not know the reason with certainty. I do know that if someone lived in Canada 30 years ago, for a year or two, but after the age of 16, they'd also be required to get a Canadian police certificate for the US immigrant visa process and they would have to send in fingerprints to do it.

It's probably a verification tool to identity since you aren't physically present to request the police check vs higher risk.

So no, I'm not suggesting any such thing, just mentioning that being IN Canada when you request the police certificate can be signifigantly easier.