Police Clearance Checks - What if you can't get one

[locolynn]

Hi,

Anyone have any information what one would do in a case where they are unable to get a police clearance check?

For example one of the countries we may need a check from must be done in person...which is impossible - as we are no longer there...They thoughtfully add that family can apply on your behalf, but we have neither friends or family there any longer.

Any thoughts?

Locolynn

 

[scylla]

There was one police certificate that my husband could not obtain. He lived in Kuwait City in the mid eighties for about two years. All of the police records for that period were subsequently destroyed in the war and for this reason Kuwait will not issue a police certificate for that period. (They will, however, issue police certificates for other periods.)

Anyway, after trying for six months, we weren't able to get one. So as part of the application, we included a letter explaining what lengths we had gone through to try to obtain one. We mentioned the various embassies and consulates we had contacted for help and what their response had been (we included email evidence where possible). We also quoted two US government web sites that stated it was impossible to obtain PC's from Kuwait for this time period. Finally, we explained that after working in Kuwait, my husband was able to obtain clearance as a civilian contractor for several US government jobs and this wouldn't have been possible had he gotten into any trouble in Kuwait (he was in Kuwait as a US civilian contractor).

All of this was accepted by the CIC and my husband's file was successfully processed without this PC.

Before you assume it can't be done, I would recommend that you email the Canadian consulate/embassy in the region to ask for help. This will help to demonstrate that you have tried every avenue you can to obtain the PC. Hopefully they will answer you via email and either offer to help (sometimes they are able to assist in these situations) or tell you it can be done which is then proof you can submit as part of your sponsorship application. Note that in almost every case, it took a few weeks for the consulate/embassy staff to respond. So be patient.

Hope this helps.