Jamackabi

Apologies if this comes across as a bit of a rant, but I am seriously frustrated. I have to travel to Toronto at the end of March to train two new staff members I have hired for the Company I work for. I am a UK citizen, so as such have applied for an eTA using the official website.

Here is where it gets complicated. I have a criminal conviction for theft dating back to 2015. As per the usual protocol I'm assuming, I was advised that I needed to provided more information, my UK police certificate. I have provided this, and a copy of my ACRO as I have just gone through the Visa process for an IR1 Visa at the U.S Embassy in London (which was approved without any issues).

My problem is, every time I upload my police certificate, a couple of hours later I receive another message stating I am required to upload my police certificate! What am I doing wrong? I receive confirmation each time that the document has been submitted, it is clearly scanned and everything is legible. I do not understand, and of course the system is so automated it doesn't explain further what was wrong with the original document I have sent in.

To summarise, my experience with the eTA system so far has been so poor. I rarely get to log in first time as it seems to crash and log me out. Tried calling, but of course all lines were busy after going through a thousand menu options to actually get to speak to a human. I'm getting seriously annoyed with this thing!

Rant over, for now!

christmasoompa

How old is your ACRO cert? And what exactly are you providing (as you say police cert and ACRO)?

And just another thought - is it only the UK police cert that's been requested? Not a US one as well?

Assume you've looked in to criminal rehab for Canada? Sounds like you'll need it unfortunately from what you've said.

Jamackabi

Both documents were issued in October 2017. I have scanned both my Police Certificate and ACRO into one PDF and sent that. The reason being is when I originally sent just the Police Certificate, it said I needed to send another Police Certificate. Then I tried sending just my ACRO, but received same message. So now I just sent everything I have, which is still not good enough. The ACRO site says that some Countries require your Certificate to be dated within a month, but most will accept within 6 months of your intended travel date. What is the requirement for Canada?

christmasoompa

It's 6 months, but it's the ACRO that they require. I suspect submitting two things in one PDF caused the issue, but don't understand why it won't accept just the ACRO if you've deleted the other doc.

Jamackabi

This is where my confusion is. I will attempt to upload it again and if that fails, try and contact them. It's just frustrating as it's so robotic, it doesn't advise you what you may have done wrong. It literally just repeats the same message "Required document = Police Certificate".

christmasoompa

It's really odd. If there is nothing on your account then it should let you upload the ACPO, which is the police certificate required. This is why I hate technology!

Have you applied for rehab or are you waiting to see if you're definitely inadmissible?

Jamackabi

I'm waiting to see if I'm definitely inadmissible, I've read conflicting information which suggests either outcome. That'll just add to my frustration I guess. I can postpone my trip if it comes to that, it's just not ideal. Unfortunately due to previous mistakes, I have to live with these frustrations in life. Thankfully, they act as a regular reminder to me of how stupid I once was and act as a pretty good motivator, if I ever needed one, of not to be so stupid in future! Every cloud and all that...

christmasoompa

Fab attitude.

The CIC website is the only place to read about it, unfortunately from what you've said I think you are inadmissible, but it does depend on the exact conviction.

Best of luck.

Jamackabi

Can you point me in the direction of applying for rehabilitation? Are there any costs involved? I'm also assuming this takes time also, which means I should probably just apply now.

Former Lancastrian

If its just the one conviction and the theft is under $5000 Canadian then the rehab would cost you $200 for the application but extremely doubtful it would be approved before the end of March. Bank on over a 6 month decision.
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration...-activity.html

The same would go for applying for a Temporary Resident Permit.

You could fly to the USA on an ESTA and get a connecting flight to Buffalo NY. Then either hire a vehicle, catch the Mega Bus or get someone to pick you up to drive to Toronto.
A TRP could be issued at the POE but they could also refuse you entry.

Your choice in the end.

Snowy560

It you're going to go for the TRP at the POE option, I'd work with a Consultant/Lawyer to prepare the docs for presenting at the border.