A way to get a Canadian RCMP police check without going back to Canada

Legal Visa & Residency
1

Hello All,

Have used this place for random info for years, thought I would give back a bit. I found a huge and wonderful loophole for the CANADIAN POLICE CHECK hassle of your APRC or JFRV application. It worked for me, I have the card in from of me, might be able to work for other countries as well.

This info might save you an emergency trip home!

My story is I got married to my Taiwanese spouse in Canada in the summer of last year, waited until recently to change the visa to the JFRV. Didn’t have to go back to Canada at all.

Here is what I did.

I wrote a letter saying that “I authorize (my father’s name) to apply for a police check in my place as I am currently not in Canada. Please allow (my father’s name) to do this on my behalf.” Something like that, make it sound legal. Then I went to a NOTARY PUBLIC here in Taiwan and paid a fee of about 750NT. They photocopied my ARC, passport and I signed my name in their presence and all that crap. They stamped it a hundred times and put lots of little holes in the paper and made it look ‘official’. Then gave me 5 copies of it.(same price as one…)

Then I took my fancy letter with all the holes to the post office and sent it back to Canada. It took five days. On the sixth day my father took it to the police station in downtown Toronto and they accepted the application no problem. I really don’t think they care too much. The police check was sent to my house in the mail a few days later.

So far so good, but here is the hard part.

For your police check to be accepted in Taiwan, it has to be stamped and stickered by the TAIWAN TRADE OFFICE IN CANADA. It can’t happen in Taiwan. In Toronto, that is on Younge St. in the downtown core. Now both my wife and I had been in touch with the office people through phone calls and in person during the summer so they knew us. If you phone them before hand it should be fine, they will tell you what you need to do. There are some forms that need to be filled out if I remember correctly. I think I remember my wife sending them originals of forms from Taiwan…

Anyways, my father took the police check to the TECO office on Younge St. and they stamped and stickered it and gave it back to him after a few days. He then sent it to me in the mail(5 days or so).

ONCE YOU HAVE IT IN TAIWAN YOU STILL HAVE TO TRANSLATE IT. But it is easy. I just took it back to the notary public, paid my fee and got my unnessesary five copies in a day. Took it to the NIO after jumping through all the other burning hoops and there you have it! It worked!

Some things to remember.

Not this one. There were no fingerprints involved.
rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cr-cj/fing-empr2-eng.htm

  • This is only an Ontario/Toronto police check, but it says “National RCMP Database” on the letter so they accepted it. I don’t know what other provinces do.

Hope this can save some trouble for someone out there. Might be able to use the idea for some other countries as well. Good luck!

-Matt

2

Wait… and that worked? snap! I’ll have to call my local RCMP office and make sure I can do that, but AWESOME. Because I actually had that criminal record check done when I happened to be in Canada but didn’t know about needing it stamped by the TECO office so I got hooped. But that will take way less time and cost much less money.

I want to get my APRC, so you did this and got your visa all no problem? If so I’m hoping on this train tomorrow!

3

Which notary did you use? Any good ones? I always go to Canadian trade office and it costs an arm and a leg, plus it’s a bit of a hassle to get there.
Much appreciated.

4

I just wrote this all up, here you go (oh and the notary information is in this big ole thing)

Step By Step Process For Getting an APRC
for a Canadian 2012
I recently went through the whole process and documented it for other Canadians

  1. (Depends, only took me 15 minutes, free) Open through lunch 8am-5pm
    Go into your NIA office (National Immigration Agency, where you go to get and renew your ARC # 15 Guangzhou street, Zhongzhen district Taipei city. Tel: 02 2388 9393) And ask if you’re eligible for the APRC, they will do a check and make sure you’ve had an ARC for long enough (5 years) and make sure to ask if you have any gaps in your ARC that you might not know about. Also make sure you made enough money in the last Calendar year… the last I checked it was around 450,000nt but confirm with the agents when you’re at the NIA. You can ask the Tax office for that information if you’re not sure.

  2. (less than 5 minutes, free) closed at lunch 8:30-am-5pm
    Go to the Canadian Trade office in Taipei: pick up fingerprinting papers
    This was easy as pie, just scooter over, parked by the Mitsikoshi malls zipped up, asked the receptionist and voila.
    6F, Hua-Hsin Building, No. 1 SongZhi Road, Xinyi District, Taipei 11047, Taiwan Tel: +886 (2) 8723-3000

  3. (10 minutes, Free calling with Skype)
    Call the law office in Canada and confirm what they need from you as well as have them send you the application form for them to submit the check for you. Need to call after 10:30 pm Taiwan time, during Alberta Business hours. You need application form, sign the release to have your criminal record sent to someone in Canada. Photocopies of two pieces of Canadian ID,
    Webpage: canadianlegal.org/ Phone: 1-800-320-2477

Copies of my driver’s license and Passport (Canadian) as well as my ARC. Printed the Documents, and application forms.

  1. (30 minutes or less, 100nt per fingerprinting set) Friday 13th open for lunch
    Go to the NIA office in your area, go to counter 58 in the basement of the Taipei office and have the officer take your prints.

  2. (5-10 minutes, 300nt)
    Friday 13th it arrived Tuesday the 17th and was submitted to the RCMP that day
    Mail documents to the legal office in Canada, there is a post office in the basement right next to the counter for the fingerprinting. I sent it EMS (express post) and it’s supposed to arrive within 3-5 days. I also took photos of everything that was included in the packet and emailed them to the law office in Calgary to make sure everything was in order.

  3. (10-15 minutes, free with skype)
    Converting and Processing of prints costs $78.75 including taxes
    Called the law office again and gave them my credit card number. Also called the TECO office in Ottawa to confirm everything needed for them to authenticate my Criminal record check.
    taiwanembassy.org/CA Tel: (613) 231- 5080 ext. 225 or 239

  4. (20 minutes, 750nt) Thursday 19th open at lunch 9am-5pm
    Had my letter of power of attorney notarized, allowing my friend (that my Criminal record check was being released to) to apply for the authentication. The notary office was very friendly and easy to deal with.
    Phone 02-2729-3139 www.twnotary.org (last I checked their site was down, but just call they speak English) The office is just upstairs of the Tavern, on the corner of Keelung and Xinyi, the door is right next to the Hang Ten. You’re also meant to authenticate a copy of your passport, but it was expensive and annoying so I didn’t bother , I sent my passport itself.

  5. (20 minutes, 300nt) Thursday 19th
    Arrived in Canada Tuesday 24th, so did the Criminal Record check from the RCMP
    Mailed my power of attorney letter, my passport, the TECO application form to my friend who was getting my Criminal Record Check in Canada. Used EMS again 3-5 days.

  6. (2 hours, 1660nt) pick up a 5-10 business days later Friday 20th CLOSED at lunch
    You can do it at most national hospitals, I went to He Ping Hospital (because of their quick processing time, 5 days) unfortunately because you need to get health check type B, NOT type A (the one you get for your ARC) which many Taiwanese people need to get, so you might need to do some waiting. Blood test and X ray themselves were quick. Went back on Friday 27th to pick it up.

  7. (Time?, $107 Canadian) Wednesday 25th arrived in Ottawa on 26th (2 days for processing)
    My friend took a photo of my criminal record check and emailed it to me (so I could have it translated). She put everything in an envelope and sent it to the TECO office in Ottawa. My friend got a certified cheque or money order, made out to “TECO in Canada” from the bank for $16 Canadian. This link explains everything you need to do taiwanembassy.org/CA/ct.asp? … =166&mp=77

My friend went and got a money order/cheque, the application forms, copies of their ID, my passport, my criminal record check, a letter requesting they send everything back to me in Taipei, and the money order for $76 and put them all in an express envelope to the TECO office in Ottawa. Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada 45 O’Connor Street, Suite 1960, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1P1A4 (613) 231-5080. $60 for the EMS to send it back to Taipei, $16 for TECO processing plus postage to send it to Ottawa.

  1. (5 minutes, 100nt) pick up in 5 days Friday 27th open at lunch 9am-5pm
    Went into the foreign affairs police station in Ximen, gave them my ARC and 100nt and requested a criminal record check. Picked up my Health Check from the Heping hospital.

  2. (an hour or so driving around, gas money) Friday the 3rd
    Picked up my Taiwanese Criminal Record Check, went to the tax office (open at lunch) and picked up my blue tax paper, went to my boss and picked up my employment letter.

  3. (an hour or so, 750nt) Monday 6th open at lunch
    My passport and authenticated criminal record check arrived in the mail on the 4th. I took them into the notary on Xinyi with the Chinese Translation of the Criminal Record Check AND MY TRANSLATOR (this is very very important they are not authenticating your translation they are notarizing your translator’s signature on the document, which means they must see them sign the document in front of them). Also popped by my work and made a photo copy of every page of both my current and previous passports. Then went to my meeting at the NIA with the APRC agent.
    Check list of everything you need to prepare
    o Fingerprinting document from Canadian Trade Office in Taipei
    o Photo copies of ID, application form, completed fingerprint forms for your Criminal Record Check (valid 3 months)
    o Authenticated and certified copy of passport, or original passport, application form, letter of power of attorney to be sent to the person receiving and forwarding your Criminal Record Check to the TECO office for authentication
    o Chinese Translation of RCMP Criminal Record Check, anyone can translate but you need them to go with you to the notary office to sign their translation in front of the officer (the signature needs to be notarized )
    o Health check type B (valid 3 months)
    o Taiwan Criminal Record Check (valid 1 month)
    o Tax ‘income’ form from the previous fiscal year (it’s blue) (valid 1 month)
    o Employment certificate (letter from your boss, same one you use for your ARC)
    (valid 1 month)
    o The originals of your work permits, for the past 5 years (at least) and a photocopy of the most recent year.
    o An ID photo
    o Photo copies of every page of your current and previous passport and if your ARC on A4 paper (You can copy both of them on the same paper, it just has to be clear).

5

What a post. Thank you so much for that. :bravo:

6

Thanks :slight_smile: (I know I was naughty and posted it in three threads… but it seems relevant to all of them :slight_smile: )
I genuinely hope it helps someone else, I had a million questions while I was doing it… drove immigration batty :smiley: And I still got stuff wrong and had to damage control… but in the end seems all is well… now I wait. sigh the worst part

7

Here are the perfect Chinese translation of FBI check and Canadian RCMP police check. There is only pdf version on the website so if you need an editable one, you can email to this notary office. They will send you the word version.

minquan-notary.com/2012/08/a … ation.html

8

[quote=“delieadalish”]3. Call the law office in Canada and confirm what they need from you as well as have them send you the application form for them to submit the check for you. Need to call after 10:30 pm Taiwan time, during Alberta Business hours. You need application form, sign the release to have your criminal record sent to someone in Canada. Photocopies of two pieces of Canadian ID,
Webpage: canadianlegal.org/ Phone: 1-800-320-247.[/quote]

Everything in your post is pretty clear but this. Is there only one law office you can use for this?

9

UPS

FedEx

DHL

TNT

10

[quote=“Mucha Man”][quote=“delieadalish”]3. Call the law office in Canada and confirm what they need from you as well as have them send you the application form for them to submit the check for you. Need to call after 10:30 pm Taiwan time, during Alberta Business hours. You need application form, sign the release to have your criminal record sent to someone in Canada. Photocopies of two pieces of Canadian ID,
Webpage: canadianlegal.org/ Phone: 1-800-320-247.[/quote]

Everything in your post is pretty clear but this. Is there only one law office you can use for this?[/quote]

I have no idea… it’s the only one I found… but as it worked and it’s all by mail/digital I didn’t see any reason to look for more… sorta that whole… it’s the last place you looked (well obviously… why would you keep looking once you found it?)

11

The RCMP website actually specifies “How to Obtain a Certified Criminal Record Check Outside of Canada”… I am actually a little surprised they’re so organized! :sunglasses:

My employer has told me I don’t need the full fingerprint check and whatnot though, so I think for anyone who just needs the basics for a work visa, this info may be enough. I have yet to put this into action, but hopefully it works!