Road To Canada Forums

Hello,

Could we add a separate link for CSIS processing ... I find that this is such a mystery and would be great to know what others have experienced over time ... I know that it has been suggested before but for some reason I cant find the topic... CSIS is driving me crazy... nothing makes sense ... one person tells you one thing others tell you another and I am sure that its got more people and ... so maybe if we all put our heads together we can come up with something ....

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I posted the above in the suggestion box and I really think that we should do this .... so anyway I also wanted to add to this ... (swift you should be interested in this)

I finally got a chance to speak to my old prof... he confirmed most of the things that I suspected with a few surprises .... so anyway ... i thought i share with you all what he said ... for anyone going trough the same thing that I am right now .... before i start he also told me that he can give me only the basic... he said that he could not leak anything to me or he would have to kill me tehehe... I think

Background check the basic:
· Timeframe: 0 (people can get except from this) - 21 months (ya i swore at him too... he was not used to that from me)
· Steps that they take: If everything is cleared (relationship is real, medical is cleared, police report is cleared) they then start the background check (they will not do this before all of those three things are cleared)
· From the first step they determine (with a CSIS member) if they want a in-depth report or simple one...
· Simple on takes about 90 days - 120 days
· In-depth takes about 180 days - 21 months --> now he said that this is further broken down to how in-depth they go... here are a few determining factors
o Your nationality and race (eg. if you are Tamil you are going to get an in-depth one... great my husband is that)
o Where you currently live
o Have you ever been rejected by a country
o have you ever been a refugee in a country and was that excepted
o how many courtiers you lived in
o Have you ever been in a country illegally
o Your Criminal record
§ if you have a record have you been rehabilitated and for how long
§ they do a full 12 months one if you had a criminal record
o And then they go into your personal stuff
§ eg. Bankruptcy ....
o They also will check your family background if they have reasons to suspect it
§ eg your brother is involved in anything that is related to their watch list (terrorism springs to mind here)
· Checks for most in-Canada aps are done by CSIS unless they think that they need to do checks in other countries...
· I asked him about the US and the UK and Russia (for swift) ... all are done by CSIS unless they have reasons to check with local ... now for Russia swift here is what he says CSIS does their own check because they worry about security breaches .... so I asked him why some of the interviews were canceled ... and he says that they probably could not get someone out there because of the recent security problems and risk currently in Russia ... he says that Russia is becoming a country that is little by little unstable ... so when a low level CSIS opp is sent in they take all the precaution... ( sorry swift that’s all i could get out of him)
· Now another hint he gave me is if your country is on the watch list for Canada you can find it on CSIS website ... I have not gone and looked at it so don’t know ... but he says that Canada's list is exactly like US list so we should go look at that as well
· Here is also an added factor ... If you have ever worked for any governments you will be of interest even if you have ever been just a file clerk...
· Military background automatically = in-depth report ... (this means if the person sponsoring or the person being sponsored has any military background your looking at least 6 months check)
· Now for outside aps... your looking at 6 months check anyway unless you come from a country that is visa exempt ...
· Another thing that you have to look at if you are coming from a country that is not visa exempt… if there currently is any unrest…
· I asked him about my own situation and he explained that it should take a min of 9 months

• Added: I just review my notes and I forgot to add this ... Most of the other coutries that Canada does not have a close ties to or does not know much about get done by their local counterpart... so eg in Sri Lanka the local depts take over and they then fork it out to local police and equals of CSIS ... as they would know the culture and behaviours of those people ... and to top it off .. if there is unrest this will take longer ... and if their is any prejedice against you in that country eg.. .Tamils in Sri Lanka then expect it to take even longer ...

· I told him that there are lots of people out there who need help just like me and I told him it would be nice if there could be some understanding of this process … but he says that it would not be possible … if that was possible then there would not be any criminals in the world and then we would not need CIC or CSIS for that matter … he has got a point

On that Note: I hope this helps people a little to understand this stupid process that we are stuck in…

Interesting post TTTT....

TTT, that is a great explanation of CSIS!!! Thanks so much for taking the time to write all of that out for the rest of us.

Yes TTTT very helpful. I had similar info. In our case though the interview change it seems is the result of a personnel foul up within CSIS. To be human is to err. Just bad luck that the errors comes in my directions :J(

Still reviewing my notes and found something else I did not add... i have 5 pages of notes I took away from my interview with him...

• if you ever worked for the government or had any military background he suggested that you get a letter from your supervisor telling them exactly what your responsobility were and give them a point of contact to speak to ... this would spead up the process a bit...

I will keep adding as I go along ... when i find more stuff that I missed

And everyone your welcome .. I just hope it helps and that more people would add to it with their own personal info

This worries me, I was in the US Army Reserves, but recieved a general discharge before I completed Basic Training. I was planning on mailing my DD-214 with my app so they could see the proof I was discharged...should I try to get some type of letter from the Reserve Unit I was assigned to? I don't even know if they would do that sort of thing...and have no idea how to get in touch with them.

I was in the military myself as well as working for the U.S. Dept of Defense as a civilian right after for a few years. Fortunately, the employment history doesn't go that far back on the application. Regardless, I received DoD Top Secret and Dept of Energy 'Q' clearance much easier and faster than anything CIC did for me.

Yes I think it would be easier to get KGB clearance than through the CIC/CSIS combo team :)

Would be nice to see the people who work there, they must be cleaner than clean :) i.e. never inhaled, never exhaled etc etc.

they could be a tad boring :)

Delicia

I love that turtle thing. I would like to put a graphic signature thingy on my posts representing this immmi process as well, but I fear that they might get a bit uncouth, this would not help me with the laundry boys at CIC/CSIS :)

Updated for KTN048: Military: The 6 months check is for countries of concern.. eg Sri Lanka... Visa exempt coutries can also expect a clearence to be done for Military personal ... if you pull a red flag then they will investigate further ...

went back and asked my prof... I think that he is just not going to answer the phone again when i call ... he asked if I was going to bug him every so often and i said to him: yup... you bet... since there are a lot of people who need help ...

Now to the Admins of this site ... I am not sure about this ... but here goes the question anyway ... If i ask my prof to log on to this site to help people out ... do you think that would be ok ... I am not sure about this because I know that he is still got contections at CSIS and i know that not many people would feel comfortable and as this site is so friendly and open i know that lots of people are open ... so before i giving this website I want to ask permision ... I really think that he would help and possibly could answer lots of question ... or I can keep going on the way I am ... and keep asking him when people have questions .... and KTN he says not to worry ... just hand in you DD-214 as you planed ... the other note is for all of those people who dont have such things (eg. Get a letter from a supervisor) ....

Hi TTT,

Yes get him on

I want to know what are these personnel problems that CSIS is having. It is not a case of them not sending junior ops out, it is apparently a major f...up in the organization. I guess my next stop is SIRC to complain.

great info there thanks for posting

Hello admins,

Could we make this a sticky on this part of the forum... and i will keep updating it as i find more info or someone else finds more info ... this post could be a fact post ..

Hello guys,

Asked my prof if he would come on here and help. He said that he would think about it ... he told me for the mean time that its ok for me to keep asking him questions and since he can read this stuff anyway he will let me know if there is anything that peaks his interst and for him to pass it on to me ... for the time being... he thinks it great that there are site like this for help ... he says this process is even confusing for the people behind CIC walls ... anyways any questions keep asking them and i will do my best to ask him questions ... hope this works and i really hope that he comes on here though he is such a wealth of info ...

Hi TTTT

It is great to have some contacts within this secret organisation, such as CSIS. I'd like to repeat the guelph's question about their staffing problems, whether he's heard of any difficulties or not. It seems to me this whole system simply does not work, or everyone else is on leave during the summer. It is rather annoying to sit and wait for something to happen, never thought my background would be of such interest to those important people, who seem to be deciding for us what to do.

Tks

Ramina