Police Clearance Certificates

PCC

IMPORTANT: PA must provide at Least ONE Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) from ANY country UPFRONT with their Spousal Sponsorship Application. If not possible, explanation must be provided.

Note 1: For Applicant’s Country of Residence (COR), PCC must be issued no more than SIX months before submission of application.

Note 2: For countries where applicants no longer lives, PCC must be issued AFTER the last time client LIVED (not visited) in that country.

Note 3: PCC’s are required for any country where applicant has resided in OR visited for 6 MONTHS or more (in a row). Visa Officers (Program Assistants) can use their discretionary powers to request for PCC for countries with less than 6 months of residency).

Note 4: You don’t need to provide Canadian PCC upfront. You will be contacted by IRCC if you need one. For in-screening (inside Canada), you only need to provide RCMP PCC if any search of your name results in “Fingerprints Required”.

Note 5 : PA must submit ORIGINAL PCC's. Even though PA may upload or provide scanned copy of it, IRCC may not accept PCC stamped with "CERTIFIED COPY" or "COPY". If translator stamps PCC with their company or personal stamp, PCC will be acceptable as long as stamp does not state "COPY", "CERTIFIED TRUE COPY", etc. [This rule ONLY applies to PCC's.]

Document Checklist - IMM 5533

A) The country where you (or they) currently live, if you have lived there for six months or more.

This should be country where you are currently having residence in, provided you have been staying here for SIX months or more.

B) The country where you (or they) have lived most of your (their) life since the age of 18.

This should be country where you have spent most of your life since the age of 18. If it's the same country as 'A', then you only need to provide ONE PCC.

Explanation regarding "MOST OF THEIR ADULT LIFE":

EXAMPLE : If the applicant lived in Pakistan from age 18 to 40, and then in UK from age 40 to 43, and then in US from age 43 to 55 (where they are currently living), the country in which they spent most of their adult life would be Pakistan. As such, they would initially need to submit PCC from Pakistan (the place in which they have spend most of their adult life) and one from US, as their current country of residence. In this example, PCC from UK would not be expected at the initial stage of processing.
After reviewing application, IRCC officer may ask PA to provide PCC from UK, or any other country in which they may have spent time in order to be satisfied that PA is not Criminally Inadmissible.
If PA has already been working on preparing application, and has obtained PCC from other countries inw hcih they have spent a total of SIX months or more, they may wish to submit these PCC's at the same time as the ones itemized in Document Checklist above. This could save time later in processing if PCC is requested.

C) If you (or a family member 18 or older) have lived in Canada for the last six months, or Canada is the country where you (or they) have lived for most of your (or their) life since the age of 18, police certificates for Canada are not required at this time. IRCC will make a request for (a) Canadian police certificate(s) on your behalf. Check here if this applies to you.

You don't need to provide Canada's PCC with your spousal sponsorship application. You will be asked at later stage if required.

D) Note: Some countries may need consent from IRCC to issue a police certificate. If so, you should submit the consent form to us in place of the police certificate. We’ll assess the consent form and start the police certificate request. Check the requirements for different countries here:

Some countries require Canadian Authorities to directly contact other country's Police Institution. Kindly check here to see if your country fall under this category. If yes, you'll be able to see Consent Form. Also include that with your Spousal Sponsorship application.

Application Returned if:

    • PA does not provide a minimum of one valid PCC from ANY country, or letter of explanation.
    • PA only provided a translation of a PCC but not the PCC in its original language.
    • PCC is in language other than English or French and no Translation is provided (unless otherwise indicated on the How-to website)

[EXCEPTION]:

          • Application NOT Returned if Authorization to Disclose Information (IMM 5536) form is provided
          • Application NOT Returned if written explanation is provided explaining why PA is unable to obtain PCC.
          • Application NOT Returned if PA lives/lived in country that does not require PCC.

Who needs to provide Police Clearance Certificates?

  • PA & each family member who is 18 or older
  • who are not already Canadian citizens or permanent residents

must submit police certificates from the following country or countries with the application

i) Current country of residence if you (or they) have lived there for six months or more.

AND

ii) The country where you (or they) resided for most of your (or their) life since the age of 18

“NRT – No Reportable Trace” is written on PCC’s to indicate applicant has no criminal record.

Important: If you can’t provide the above police certificates with your application, you must submit a detailed explanation of why not and when you expect to be able to submit them. This will likely delay the processing of your application.