whm

Hi all,

We got our AIP from Vegreville for our Inland Spousal and have now been instructed to get the police clearance certificate from the UK. I find myself stymied at every attempt to find out how much money we have to send along with the police clearance form and the fingerprints. And I've spent so much time looking and reading that now I'm not very confident about the whole procedure!

I've searched on this forum but the most recent info. is 2003 on this topic, that I could find, so I expect that's changed. If anyone can help that would be appreciated!

What I would like to know/confirm is:

a) confirmation that the UK police need a police certificate form and fingerprints and some sort of fee AND NOTHING ELSE

b) can I simply send our police certificate form and the fingerprints to the address that I've listed below? This is where the CIC site tells you to write for all "necessary forms and instructions"

Metropolitain Police
Public Access Office
Dol2 (3-3)
20th Floor Empress State Building
Empress Approach
Lillie Road
London, England
SW6 1T4

c) how much does it cost?

d) how do I pay? I have seen the faq on the metropolitain police site about "subject access" (and I'm not really sure what that means): http://www.met.police.uk/dataprotection/faq.htm
Quote:
Each subject access application will cost £10 Sterling. A receipt will be issued to you. Please note that the Metropolitan Police Service does not accept the Euro (including Euro cheques) or overseas postal orders, nor do we recommend the sending of cash via post. Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to the Metropolitan Police Authority. Overseas cheques must have a United Kingdom bank clearing facility.
Unquote.

I just can't be easy in my mind that this police faq is talking about the same thing I'm talking about.

Sorry this is so long - I've tried to be as clear as possible with what is, to my mind, a deliberately muddy path to this part of immigration. I've tried twice, calling the UK High Commission in Ottawa to access fee amounts (as advised by CIC) and cannot get through to a human being on their electronic voice phone system.

Thanks all!

whm

RodseyUK

a) You don't need to send fingerprints for UK police checks and the fee is £10 per application.

b) You have to make an application to every local police service for every county you have lived in for 6 months or longer since you were 18 years old. The website you're link refers to is for London and under form 3010b it states "If you do not live or have never lived in the London Metropolitan area, please apply to the Police Service that covers the relevant region or area."

c) £10 per application, so if you lived in 3 different counties in the UK then the total cost would be £30.

d) the answer is in your own post

Police certificates and subject access are one in the same.

whm

Thanks for your quick reply and for clearing up what a "subject access" is, among others of my questions!

I'm not questioning your answer at all, but I am a little paranoid about this whole procedure. When CIC gave me instructions about the police certificate, they instructed me to get fingerprints?? And the "Fingerprints Request Letter" from the CIC site says,

"Imm. Canada requires that applicants for PR and their family members obtain police certificates for all countries, etc. etc...In order to apply for certificates an ORIGINAL (their emphasis) set of fingerprints is required for each certificate being requested."

Sorry for re-hashing this.

whm

RodseyUK

You definately don't need to submit fingerprints with subject access applications for the UK.

You are only required to submit copies of identification (passport, driving license, bank statement, utility bill etc.) which show your full name, date of birth and current address. I would advise that you look at the website of the local police service for the area in the UK where you lived.

The CIC instructions as regards UK subject access application procedures bear no resemblance to what you actually have to do.

whm

Wow. That is so interesting.

Thank you very much for your help. We will definitely be tackling this asap in the manner you have advised.

Cheers,

whm

RodseyUK

No problem whm.

Good luck with the rest of the process.

Robski

Just to add my tuppence worth. The CIC instrucitons on this are so vague, but i had to get 2 police clearances for my original app, and then in December just gone i was asked for an updated UK police cert..

Origianlly, i got 1 from USA, they needed me to send finger prints to them. Also, i did one for UK, they did NOT need finger prints, it cost just £10, and they told me jsut to apply to the most recent policae area i lived in, not all police force areas i had lived in. I definielty only paid the £10.


I did the same for the UK update one in Decmeber, jsut sent the forms from the website to the local force, wtih £10, and that came back fine. And i got my passport last week with visa in it, so assume that was fine with CIC.

whm

Hey!

Great news Robski! I am feeling so much more relaxed about this now. I was very irritated with CIC for awhile there!

Congratulations on your visa - excellent news.

whm

Robski

No problem, and good luck. Sounds to me like you are entering the final straight and nearly there!!

Biiiiink

If you've lived in 3 different police forces in the UK you don't need to pay three times the fee, that's not right.

England/Wales computer is linked and all your residences will show up. For Scotland and England, or just Scotland, you need the national England/Wales search and the Scottish search - still just costs a tenner. Northern Ireland I believe CHC don't accept the NI search alone either, you need the national one too - I guess that's still just a tenner but am not sure.

Biiiiink

Whm, did they mix up two instructions and mean you need prints done for an RCMP search? I notice you're an inland application so your sponsored person has probably been in Canada >6mths and therefore needs a Canadian police check too?

whm

Biiiiiiiik,

Are you SERIOUS? Do you think? An RCMP check - it's entirely possible that that's what they meant. My significant other has has a police check done recently for the purpose of volunteer work, but no finger prints were involved. And the letter from Vegreville says nothing whatsoever about a Canadian police check, only one from the UK.

Surely they wouldn't omit that little request from their letter, would they?

Would they!?!?

Thanks for kind thoughts, folks - we do actually feel like we're getting closer, but I'm beginning to finally understand the frustration I've been reading, off and on over the years, on these pages.

Cheers,

whm

Biiiiink

I don't know, I was just wondering if they mixed their instructions up. If you haven't sent them a UK one for him, you need to do that for certain. It's quick and cheap. And if he's been in Canada for longer than 6mths, he'll need an RCMP one too. I don't know the cost of that but it's sadly not quick at all

PMM

Hi

He probably does not need the RCMP check unless it is specifically asked for. CIC does a name check on CPIC and if there are no similar names/ages then they don't require an RCMP check. Note this is for in-Canada cases only. If a person is required to have the fingerprint check, their best bet is the Corp of Commissionaires who now do electronic checks, much faster than the paper prints.

whm

Again thanks Biiiiink and PMM for your help on this. We really appreciate the quick and informed replies. I think we may be on the final road!

whm