Police certificates serve as proof of an immigrant’s admissibility to Canada for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). To demonstrate that they are not criminally inadmissible, each permanent resident candidate and their family members who are 18 years of age or older must complete a security clearance.
Police Clearance Certifications, also known as certificates of non-criminal activity, are required from the applicant’s current country of residency as well as from every other nation they have lived in for more than six months since becoming 18 years old.
These are typically available from law enforcement or other government organizations. The Canadian Immigration Visa Offices will waive the need to provide police clearance certificates in certain cases.
The police certificate must have been obtained for the nation in which the applicant now resides no more than six months prior to application.
The police certificate must have been granted following the applicant’s most recent residence in a country where they have lived for six months or more.
Every application for Canadian immigration must also pass a background investigation to rule out any involvement in terrorism, subversion, or espionage. This is done to defend and preserve the peace and safety of Canadian society. In order to evaluate if a candidate poses a threat to Canada’s internal security, security screening judgments are based on information from all available sources that is carefully weighed.