Giggles2080

Hi guys, Happy New Year to you all!

I have a problem and I really have no idea what to do next. I applied as a common-law partner for my PR back on July 31st, 2007...everything was going great until I found out that an immigration officer had given me some bad advice. I actually called up CIC to find out if I needed to supply a Police Certificate along with my app; which their response was that I didn't need to until further notice. I found out in October that I should have so I had to hustle to get it done. As I'm in Canada, I faxed my police forms to my sister in Liverpool where she was to mail them off for me. After 2 months and 3 failed attempts of them reaching the police station; I was allowed to fax them in directly. Luckily, the Merseyside Police contacted the Met and they kindly rushed them through for me in a day and mailed them off to my sister. She received them later that week, made a copy of them and put them in the post to the CHC London office. Still to this day; they have not reached the London office and I don't know what to do. I have tried to contact them by e-mail but no response. I contacted the Royal Mail and they said they were unable to track the letter even though it had a tracking number!

I'm having a hard time getting my sister to fax me to copy she took (which is so frustrating beyond believe) so I really am at a loss of what to do and who to contact!

Once my sister does fax me the copy, I am thinking of sending a copy of it along with a letter and copies of e-mails I have sent them to the London Office using Special Delivery. They will have a copy to see that I did get it; but will that be good enough? I'm almost 100% sure they will not accept a copy. I had to wait 2 months just to the Merseyside Police to get my forms, but this time (If I have to get them again) I don't think they will rush them through for me.

I really feel like screaming, I just wish the immigration people will acknowledge my e-mails...I'm trying to give them information and if I can't rely on them for help; what do it do?

I know I have babbled on here; but this is my situation and if any of you reading this could offer any help it will be much appreciated.

Thank you guys.

Kate

live to ski

Sorry to hear that you are having such a headache.

I applied directly to the Met for our Poice Certificates and they posted them directly to us in Canada, hence having to cut out the middle-man (aka unreliable sister).

We got ours through from the Met in 6 weeks of posting off for them.

But the Seattle office have literally just written to say that they are still waiting for the Police Certificates even though I have an email from the courier company, confirming delivery and with the name of the person who signed for them.

How about applying for another one directly from the Met, and then couriering it with a reliable tracking service. Will cost a bit, but might save time in the long run.

Good luck gettingit sorted.

live to ski

I'm still rather confused as to why you went through your sister and Liverpool rather than dealing with the Met directly yourself.

We requested a "Person Record: Prosecution/Criminal History under Section 7 of the Data Protection Act, 1998 from the UK’s National Police computer. "

Here's the address for posting your form and cheque off to:

National Identification Service
Subject Access Office
Room 350
New Scotland Yard
Broadway
London
SW1H 0BG
UK

If you don't have a UK bank account and / or cheque book anymore, and don't know anyone locally who has who will write a cheque for you, I have heard of people just exchanging CAD$ for 10GBP and posting it off with their application

BristolUK

I thought it was because Kate was in Canada at the time and the cert had to go to CHC in London.

Having the cert sent to Canada only to be sent back to London would seem unnecessary, time consuming and, maybe, risky.

When I did mine (also from Canada - so I got my mum to receive it and send it on for me) I had to do it via Police in Bristol - the advice being one could only do it via the Met if one lived in that area.

live to ski

Thanks for that BristolUK - makes sense about the sister doing it as she is submitting to London if she was reliable.

If you live outside of the UK (as Kate does) then it should go to the Met. If you still live in the UK then you use your local station / force.

But they don't seem very strict about it, so you can apply to the Met even if you live in another part of the UK, and can apply to a local force even if you are living in Canada already.

The Met just seem more set-up and professional for dealing with such requests from ex-pats. I've heard of local forces, Liverpool especially (again in this case) having lots of trouble getting their heads round the whole process.

Jeffinthecity

OH KATE!!!!Not another bloody hold up!!This is getting beyond a joke now mate!!!I really feel for you!!

I would hassle the Royal Mail, what's the point of paying for a registered service when you can't even bloody track it!Useless b$%#ards!!!
You're going to need the receipt for the postage...then i'd log a formal complaint!!!This will also get them to investigate the where abouts of it...I hope it's not a case of a postman with sticky fingers thinking there's something nice inside!!

It was a very important document so tell them that!!We had something lost a couple of years back and they compensated us...

Then i'd contact the Merseyside police directly again, the woman that you spoke with...tell her again about your sitch and what has happened with your police certs...she'll push them through again for you, but you'll have to fax over the forms and stuff again. So basically you're going to have to do what you did last time...

CHC won't accept photocopies...when you photocopy the police certificate, it has void written across it...

Ahh mate....this is terrible!Really terrible!!I was hoping it'd all be sorted for you by now!!!

Sending you support!

BristolUK

Hmmm...just goes to show that either things are forever changing or different resources give different answers. The reason I did mine through Bristol was because the website I saw actually said I had to go by my most recent UK address and, therefore, my local force if that wasn't the Met.

live to ski

Probably a combination of things changing and different resources giving different answers!

I know of people outside of the UK who have applied to their former local force, and others applying to the Met even though they have never lived in the capital.

Just from what I've read, I would go with the Met if living overseas - although they might take the whole waiting time, they are far more used to dealing with 3019B and hence probably more efficient in the long run. Whereas many local forces, depending on who your speak to, haven't heard of a 3019B etc. so it's more of the luck of the draw.

But at least, overall it seems that both routes do work minus unreliable sisters and Royal Mail

mandymoochops

I think as long as you keep them updated (CIC) with your progress things should be ok.

We had a limited timeline to get some info over to them and went slightly over, and we like you were having kittens (felt more like baby dinosaurs actually) and even though we got no reply it all turned out ok in the end.

Likewise we got no response so we didn't know if they were reading emails / disregarding them etc, but it turned out ok.

As long as they know you're doing your utmost there's not a lot else you can do (CIC are human!!!)

Giggles2080

Thanks guys for all your responses! I really appreciate your help.

The reason for me faxing everything to my sister was to save time! LOL Look how that turned out! So, I can definitely send my forms directly to the Met, yeah? I'm going to send them off today (Special Delivery) fingers crossed they'll get there OK, and I'll get them sent back to me here in Canada. I know this is going to waste time, but it didn't help any doing it through my sister, so I'll go another route! Fingers Crossed.

I called the CHC number again yesterday hoping upon hope that they may just have suddenly given the option to speak to someone! No go! LOL I did get their Fax number though...and guess what? My fax kept saying "sent failed"...EEK...I sent a fax to my work and to a friend and our fax is working ok, I checked the fax number they gave over and over to see if it was the right one, which it was...anyone else had that trouble too?! I found a site with all contact information for the Canadian immigration & visa office in London and it said that they will not answer calls about immigration & visa...the best way to contact them is by fax or snail mail. Fax didn't work, so snail mail it is! This is the number I have: 0207-258-6506 and their office is only open from 8:00 -11:00 ...

Will keep you updated guys! Those of you who are still waiting for your PR, I hope you all hear some great news soon!!

Cheers!

Kate

YYZlover

My understanding is that you are in Canada. Then the number above will not work - period.

You have to dial 011-44-207-258-6506

Giggles2080

Yup, I know...I fax the UK all the time; I did the country code and took the first 0 off...it just didn't work.

Thanks for trying to help anyway!

Biiiiink

I only ever faxed CHC-London once, and it took about 20 tries. Iirc it didn't work until the next day - I wondered if their machine had run out of paper, and if its memory was full or something. Try again an hour or two after the staff will have had their coffee, and likely restocked the machine.

Might work?!

Giggles2080

I thought something like that too...I thought maybe they had switched it off because it was after hours for them?! By being switched off though, I don't think it would stop it, right?! LOL

OK, I will keep trying!! Thanks Biiiiink!!

Giggles2080

Phew, good news guys...CHC-London received my Police Certificates today (well I got an e-mail from them today!)...I'm so happy and relieved now, Thank God! Just wanted to update you!

Thanks again, guys! Your help was very much appreciated!