Road To Canada Forums

Hi,

My boyfriend lives in the US and I`m a Canadian. We`re in the process of getting him over here and we`re both feeling very overwhelmed with the amount of paperwork that needs to be done. We`re not married yet, but plan to get married soon so that I can sponsor him.

I read on the forum that he needs an FBI police clearance as part of the application we are supposed to send to Mississauga eventually, and I thought that it would be a good idea to get the FBI clearance done and send it in for processing ASAP. Is this right? How long is the clearance valid for? How exactly should be fill it out (for example, what does he write in the box for his \"Reason for Request\"?). There is another box on the actual fingerprinting form that says simply \"Your No.\" - what does this mean? Is he supposed to put his phone number there...?

When he goes to get his fingerprints, should the people there be able to help? If not, is there someone who generally helps with filling out these forms? I just have the feeling that if he goes to the police station, they`re not going to be helpful because they don`t \"have\" to be extra helpful... or maybe I`m just too cynical =P

We just really want this process to go smoothly and are feeling quite paranoid about it. Any information from someone who has actually gone through the process would be much appreciated!

When I did my FBI the police were very helpful. Lots of times they have a special day where you can go get your prints done (it may cost money). But they did help me fill in the forms.

In fact, I would wait until he got there to fill them out, I use the wrong abbreviation for green (for my eye colour).

If he hasn\'t done so, he can print off the fingerprint cards from the FBI website.

Cheers,
Luke

Thanks for your quick response, Luke!

I think I may have been a little eager to post on the forum. I ended up reading a bit more and realized that if you mark your FBI clearance application as urgent, it takes much less time to process. Now that I know it\'s not necessarily so long, I\'m not so eager to get the background check out of the way, especially since it may even expire before we get the rest of the paperwork in order.

This forum has been very helpful so far, even though I\'ve been reading various posts for only two days. What a great resource. I love reading other peoples\' personal stories and hope that I can one day live comfortably in the same country with the person I want to spend the rest of my life with!

They used to expedite clearances for Canadian Immigration, but they dont anymore. So expect it to take about 12 weeks to get it back. The clearance letter (and the medical exam receipt) goes with the whole application package when its sent to CPC-Mississauga - and the letter needs to be dated within the last 3 months in order to be valid when its received by CPC-M. Its good for 6 months - however, Ive never seen them request a redo under normal processing timelines, even if the clearance technically expires during processing. So thats your timeline for getting one processed.

All your partner has to do is go to a local fingerprinting agency or police/sheriffs office in his home State and they will have the proper FBI cards to use. They will do the printing, and can help him with what blocks on the form need to be filled out. Then he sends the fingerprint card and his request letter to the FBI, and they mail the clearance letter back to him. The original letter goes with the application to CPC-M. All he has to write in for a reason is Canadian Immigration.

Hope that helps.

Robsluv said what I was going to say, they say that they don\'t expedite Canadian immigration prints anymore.

But for your knowledge, I DID put please expedite - Canadian Immgration on it, and I put a date on the bottom. I think it was about 6 weeks in the future. And I got it back in my hand in like 52 days (my signature at the bottom will tell you for sure)

So I don\'t know if that worked to get it faster or not :) But you want to make sure it isn\'t too old when you send your package in.

Good luck,
Luke