Can someone explainw hat they mean by security clearance? I was looking at threads on Ottawa and cam accross this:

"Be aware that such jobs in Ottawa may require a high-level security clearance, which you're unlikely to get as a non-citizen: my Secret clearance took six months and is only a limited one which doesn't give access to 'Canadian eyes only' documents... that's fine for what I do, but would probably be a big problem in a government-related job."

I have no idea what this person is talking about.

Government security clearance...its pretty self explanatory I would have thought. Lots of government jobs in Ottawa will require CSIS backgroud checks and canadian citizenship.

No its not self explanitory because im from the UK and ive never heard of such a thing.

Whats CSIS? How do you go about getting a security check, can this be done before arriving in Canada?

IN=n the UK you have a criminal check buts that all.

Hi,

It is reasonably common in the UK if you want to get a job that carries out government contracts and/or is a quango (like the Met Office, MOD, naval shipyard) etc. The security clearance procedure is not that far of from the police checks that are undertaken during visa application.

As for Canadian eyes only... again in the UK this is the case (but not so widely used). If you want a job with MI5 for example (who do advertise openly) then you must be a British citizen. Why government offices in Canada ask to this I don't know.

M.

I think you're confused - we have exactly the same thing in the UK. My hubby had to work on job at Chequers (PM's country estate) that required him to get security clearance here.

If you wanted to work at Buckingham Palace or for the government, for example, you'd have to get security clearance here. It just means your background (and that of your immediate family) would be checked extensively.

It's the same in Canada, but it's a bit of a moot point as you wouldn't be eligible to do jobs that require security clearance anyway as you are not a Canadian citizen.



P.S. Re your question 'what's CSIS'............http://lmgtfy.com/?q=csis+canada

So how do you go about ghetting a clearance. In the uk you can pply yourself and it only takes a few weeks. Ive heard employers have to do it in Canada and it can take up to 6-months?

I'm not sure the citizen part is 100% correct - I believe MarkG has some kind of clearance and isn't a citizen yet, hopefully he'll see this and comment....

Probably depends upon the level of clearance required...

No you can't - I think you're just thinking of an normal police check? An official security clearance in the UK is much more involved than that - when hubby's was done they even contacted my old school to verify I went there!

And it took months as well.

It does depend on the level of clearance required. When I worked at the CHC I had a Canadian "Confidential" clearance, which is one below Secret. It was all I needed and I was quite happy not to be Secret. To get even that clearance, I had to provide shit loads of information and it was checked out by CSIS, the RCMP and, although I'm not meant to know this, military intelligence. The UK police and Interpol would have been consulted. Several of my Brit colleagues had Secret clearances.

Souvette has either Secret or Top Secret clearance (she could tell me which but then she'd have to kill me). There are much higher levels of clearance than Top Secret.

Several of the organisations I've worked for in the UK have required security clearance which, as Christmasoompa has said, is most definitely a step up from the normal police checks. I used to work in HR before I made the jump to IT so I got to be fairly familiar with some aspects of it from the employers perspective. In some circumstances job offers had to wait for clearance to come back, in others they could start, but with restricted access. In the UK it seemed to take anything from a few weeks to many months for the paperwork to come back.

Wikipedia never ceases to amaze me with its content:-



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_clearance

I never worked for HM Govt. I did however work for a Foriegn National (at least thats what we will call him for now) and required the security clearance of 4 (yes four) Nation states (including the UK)

Let me guess. Canada, the USA, Australia and New Zealand?

LOL
I'd already said one was the UK.

That would make five..including the UK