Hi!

I just got my letter from the Vancouver consulate for my K1 visa and I'm confused by the police certificate requirements. When I went to the police station here in Burnaby, they made me submit the fingerprint request, but on here people have said that they only need a name check (since I don't have a criminal record). Does anyone know what exactly is needed? If I can avoid the 150+ day wait, it would be awesome.

Thanks!

Hi,

If you have no criminal record you only need the Canada wide name check, you don't need the fingerprint version.

If NO criminal record then you just need the CANADA WIDE background check!! I'm sure someone in ur area will pip up and tell you where to go. Or phone another RCMp detachment or cal lyour local police force and see if they can do it.

The RCMP has a website and they will tell you exactly what you need to do. Everyone needs it, weather you have a record or not. They cannot do a check without your fingerprints. Just be prepared it takes a while.

Disregard above poster!!! If your in canada and NO criminal record, NO fingerprinting!! I like many onhere went to a RCMP detachment and got a background check completed with NO fingerprints! Many things may vary, like fees and wairting time, but you shouldnt need fingerprints

As flames said, no criminal record = no fingerprint check. You can just go to your local RCMP detachment for a Canada-wide name check and get that much faster.

Even if you have a criminal record, as long as it isn't a felony (indictable offence in Canada) then you can go to your local police force and they will run a background check on your name. You don't need fingerprint checking. They use the national computer which will, hopefully, spit out "no records found" or something to that effect. If you have had a minor conviction (public lewdness with an underage squirrel or whatever) and susequently were given an absolute discharge before 1992 then the national computer will probably show it. You can apply to the RCMP to purge your record but the jurisdication where the ofence took place and its disposition will remain. After 1992 an absolute discharge was automatically purged after a certain number of years of good behaviour. The record will still remain with the local police force in some cases. Fingerprints are not needed unless you dispute the charges (that wasn't me and in any event the squirrel told me she had reached the age of majority). The INA allows one misdemeanour for moral turpitude with a few provisos (no drugs, human trafficking, war crimes, etc.).

All I did was go in to my local police office, give them my passport and drivers license and they did a CPIC. It took 10 minutes. Thats it.

I know in the GTA Peel Regional Police do it in 10 minutes or so, Toronto Police mail it out to you, I think most places it is while you wait. Durham can do it anytime day or night at a few stations. It takes them about 30 seconds or less (or so the lady at the counter told me) to run your name through the Canadian Police Information Centre database.

The timing,fee, what the paper loks like al varies throughout canada, even when dealing with the RCMP!! Mine was free at the Greenwood NS detachment and took 3 days. People going to other RCMP detachment had to pay a fee, some got it right away, others it took longer, even the form looked different. In other words, dont be surprised if your looks different than others!!

Thank you so much everybody! I saw that the waiting time was over 120 days for the fingerprint check and I panicked a bit - this process has taken so long already.

Off to the police station on Monday then. Happy weekend everyone!

Yea I was in Simcoe County. I was lucky it only took a few minutes. Some places can take up to 3 weeks, thats what the lady who did mine said.