Obtaining Canadian Police Vetting from Ireland

JohnMearsheimer

Hi all,

I spent time in Canada a few years ago. I might have to get a criminal background check from Canada for a new job. The information on getting it from outside Canada is a bit vague. From what I gather I have to use an approved third party company in Canada to get it. I have to be fingerprinted in Ireland and send the prints to the approved Canadian company and have them digitized. They are then forwarded to the RCMP to be put through their database. I should then be issued with a cert saying I never came to the attention of police over there.

Has anyone been through this process from Ireland? There seems to 5 or 6 approved companies. Any recommendations on which one to use from people that have been through the process?

Thanks

JohnMearsheimer

I got my police certificate from Canada in the end if anyone else in Ireland needs to get a criminal background check from Canada.

If you are abroad you have to use a third party company in Canada approved by the Canadian government to digitize your prints and submit them electronically to the RCMP.

In the end I used a company called XL-ID based in Montreal. It was an expensive process. I paid XL-ID €205 to digitize my fingerprints and for them to send the certificate to Ireland (unfortunately the RCMP couldn't send the certificate directly to me in Ireland). I had pay the Gardaí another €60 to take ink fingerprints for me and another €10 postage to Canada for the prints. €275 in total, probably half the cost of a flight to Canada!

Rowsdower

Hi, so I've just returned from Canada and it turns out for my new US visa I need a criminal background check for Canada. I know, kicking myself for not getting it done over there but here we are. Anyways, can you say how long it takes between contacting XL-ID and having the police cert? What are the steps involved? I'm pressed for time (need to be stateside and married to my American fiancée before Christmas). Any advice at all with this would be savage.

JohnMearsheimer

Rowsdower wrote: »

Hi, so I've just returned from Canada and it turns out for my new US visa I need a criminal background check for Canada. I know, kicking myself for not getting it done over there but here we are. Anyways, can you say how long it takes between contacting XL-ID and having the police cert? What are the steps involved? I'm pressed for time (need to be stateside and married to my American fiancée before Christmas). Any advice at all with this would be savage.

I know, I was on holiday in Vancouver last September and I could have had the check carried out there for a fraction of the cost. If I only had to be thinking at the time.

The whole process took about 3 weeks from when I first contacted XL-ID. A week of that 3 weeks though was getting the run around from the Gardaí about which station would take my prints for me. After getting the ink prints sorted things moved pretty quick.

Postage from Ireland to Canada took 4 days with An Post. My prints were digitized by XL-ID and submitted to the RCMP the day they got my prints (July 24). The check itself takes very little time because fingerprints can turn up convictions straight away. The RCMP sent the cert to XL-ID at some stage the week beginning July 27. I got the dispatch notice from the courier company on July 31st and the cert arrived August 4th.

Steps:

1. I went on the XL-ID website. I uploaded a recent passport sized photograph (it will appear on your cert), scans of my passport, driver's licence and proof of Irish address (I used a bank statement) and then paid for the service. XL-ID then sent me a PDF of a sheet to get my ink fingerprints taken on.

2. I then contacted the Gardaí about having my prints taken. The Gardaí prefer you to have your prints taken at your local station but nobody at my local station returned my calls about having them taken. After being passed around to three different stations I was eventually able to pin down a detective to take the prints. I then had to go to the post office and get a money order for €60 (An Post charged €2.50 for it) to pay for the prints being taken.

3. I posted the ink prints off to XL-ID in Montreal.

It was just a waiting game after that. I definitely could have had the cert sooner than 3 weeks if the guards had been easier to pin down. I still think 3 weeks is good though. I applied for a UK police cert around the same time and I'm still waiting for it.

Rowsdower

Thanks for the reply man. Yeah scanned and uploaded everything and paid the fee. Printed the fingerprint PDF. As expected, the local cop shop was totally unfamiliar with my request and recommended I go to Ronanstown Garda station as they have fingerprint processing there, but I think they thought I was looking for something else. Was the detective you were able to get based in Dublin? If it comes to it I could check out that Garda station.

JohnMearsheimer

Rowsdower wrote: »

Thanks for the reply man. Yeah scanned and uploaded everything and paid the fee. Printed the fingerprint PDF. As expected, the local cop shop was totally unfamiliar with my request and recommended I go to Ronanstown Garda station as they have fingerprint processing there, but I think they thought I was looking for something else. Was the detective you were able to get based in Dublin? If it comes to it I could check out that Garda station.

No bother. Sorry, I got mine done in the Bridewell station in Cork city. Maybe ask to talk to the Sergeant in Charge at Ronanstown. When I spoke to the Sergeant in Charge at the Bridewell in Cork I explained I needed my fingerprints taken for a criminal background check for Canada. He said 'like the FBI thing'. I just said ya, he seemed more familiar with people being fingerprinted for the US authorities. After that he arranged for a detective to call me to fix a date and time.