Road To Canada Forums

Hello everyone,

I have questions regarding police certificate..

the CIC website states this:
Do I need to provide a police certificate when applying for permanent residence?

Yes. Applicants should provide a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) certificate with fingerprints. State certificates may also be requested. The Visa Office will advise you if state certificates are required in your case.

Here is my first question--Do they usually request the States certificates from applicants? It says "may also be requested". That means people do not send them until they ask?

And my second question--I have lived in Louisiana for more than 6 months when I was a teen.

The website says the following about Louisiana:

Louisiana
State Police Certificates are not available for Immigration purposes. Applicants are required to obtain FBI (They are linked to the FBI). However, Parish police certificates may also be requested

Soooo..it says obtain FBI..that means it is the same thing as FBI police certificate right that we all have to turn in right?

Thanks!!!

The requirement to obtain state clearances was only recently lifted. So there will not be many people who know how often they asked for state clearances under the new guidelines. For now just get the FBI clearance.

I imagine they will only request state if there is any hint of a blemish on your background, or some confusion over your identity.. but Im only speculating.

I too am at this stage. I am waiting for my FBI clearances to be returned to me as we speak, and I am not even bothering with the state ones yet... hoping that they will not request them so I can save the money.

So, get the FBI backround check and send it in with your app and you will have done what CIC wants you to do. If they want to torture you later by requesting more documents... then it wont be because you've done something incorrectly.

Take care.

Rene' covers it pretty well.

This has been flip-flop country for CIC. In 2008 I did not submit any state certs, just an FBI cert, and it was OK. By the end of 2008 they were requiring state specific certs again. Now they aren't (last I checked . . . one should always recheck the particulars).

I suspect Rene' is right one in suggesting that certain things are likely to trigger state specific requests. Any criminal record showing up in the FBI record or an NCIC report is a likely trigger . . . even if it is for someone with a similar name and date of birth, not you.

This page seems up to date. See date at bottom of site.

Here\'s the link

http://www.canadavisa.com/canadian-immig...rance.html