ive searched the forums already for this question but havent found anything relating to my question. i am a canadian planning to marry a taiwanese. ive heard one of the things you need to provide is a clean criminal record check…i cannot provide a clean criminal record. i have a criminal record in canada what does this mean for me? would it affect getting married? also if we get married in canada does that mean taiwan automatically recognizes our marriage? and would the criminal record check still come into effect at any point if we got married in canada instead of taiwan? if we get married in canada obviuosly the government of canada wont care if i have a criminal record but would we be able to come back to taiwan afterwards as “married”? it seems most of the questions relating to the criminal record check on this forum is about how to obtain the records but has anyone had any experience marrying a taiwanese and having a criminal record in their home country? any help would be appreciated. thank you.
You only need the criminal record check for the JFRV. You can marry her no problem, but you won’t be able to get open work rights at this time. My understanding is if you live here for 5 years straight and have no problems then you can do a crim check here, but I’m not sure how feasible that would be.
I’ve heard that the RCMP does only a cursory check. Probably they just go to your Facebook account, and look for any pictures of you doing anything suspicious. Remove all links to Bob Marley songs, just to be safe. If I were you, I’d apply for your clearance and see what happens. What have you got to lose?
The record check is mailed to you, then you send it to be certified at the Taiwanese ‘embassy’ in your home country. This means that you get to see the results first, so if they’re bad you can decide not to continue to the JFRV application process.
BTW, I was informed (repeatedly) by the MOFA that a national-level check is not required. They will accept a formal statement from any level of government. I got the police chief of my hometown to write one. They didn’t run a state-wide or national check on me – they just put my name into their own computer, and nothing came up, so they issued me a letter saying they had no record of any arrests under my name.
You might be able to get a local level check (e.g., in a city where you don’t have a local record). 
Good luck!
[quote=“Dragonbones”]
BTW, I was informed (repeatedly) by the MOFA that a national-level check is not required. They will accept a formal statement from any level of government. I got the police chief of my hometown to write one. They didn’t run a state-wide or national check on me – they just put my name into their own computer, and nothing came up, so they issued me a letter saying they had no record of any arrests under my name.
You might be able to get a local level check (e.g., in a city where you don’t have a local record).
Good luck![/quote]
Yes, that’s true, and I think it’s because local police stations don’t have access to nationwide database info. So, you technically choose a town that you lived in even shortly and get a record from them, and that would probably suffice.
I had a criminal record, nothing serious just a couple of stupid overnight stints when I was a teenager… However when I got my criminal record it was not national therefore they did not show up. All clear for me.
Taiwan requires that you provide a certificate from your county. Mine basically said the county I had lived in had no record of any arrests. I said I had lived in that county for 5 years, there was no way for the sherrif to know that.
What didja Dooo!!
You might want to verify this information.
I was specifically told that criminal record check information was to be sent directly from the authority making the search to the TECO office.
Thus, it was required that I supply a postage paid addressed envelope to them (the record providing group) for this purpose. Chain of possession thing.
You might want to verify this.
Please note that the OP is from Canada.
Last time I heard, from a friend who was doing it maybe 3 years ago, it was the same as the first time I checked, about 6 or 7 years ago.
Only the RCMP can issue the check in Canada.
Unlike the US, there is no provincial or lower authority who can issue the check.
Back when, the protocol was to go to your local (Taiwan) neighborhood police station, and get yourself 'printed.
Then you mail or courier that sheet, with your details, to the Mounties in Ottawa.
It can take (used to be, as before) up to 6 months to get it back.
At that time, there was no requirement to get it chopped in Vancouver or Toronto, BUT it needed to be endorsed at the Canookistanian Office here.
As far as the seriousness of infractions reported, I think the law in Canada is pretty straightforward about what constitutes “criminal” prosecution and what doesn’t, Google is your pal.
You might want to verify this information.
I was specifically told that criminal record check information was to be sent directly from the authority making the search to the TECO office.
Thus, it was required that I supply a postage paid addressed envelope to them (the record providing group) for this purpose. Chain of possession thing.
You might want to verify this.[/quote]
TC, that might be correct for the US, but most certainly is not for the UK where the CCRD is mailed back to the address that the applicant provided, where it then needs to be sent to the FCO for authorisation before sending it to the TECO in London. Even the Saffies here when commenting on their needs it was not mailed directly to the TECO in SA
You might want to verify this information.
I was specifically told that criminal record check information was to be sent directly from the authority making the search to the TECO office.
Thus, it was required that I supply a postage paid addressed envelope to them (the record providing group) for this purpose. Chain of possession thing.
You might want to verify this.[/quote]
Interesting. Well, that’s Taiwan for ya. Different rules specified at different times. 
The procedure I listed was the one I followed this past October. But the police were hometown, in the US. As the chief points out, this might not apply to the OP’s case.
My case was 4+ years ago.
TECO in Los Angeles assured me that a criminal records check was not necessary for me. Of course once I got here I found out different.
I went to the local MOFA Officer here and he sorted things out - correct paperwork, finger printing and all that.
I sent it to the FBI, had them send it to TECO in LA for their chop and then on to MOFA office here in Tainan. Fortunately I had specific personnel names on every envelope and I let them know it was “in the mail.”
Worked for me…YMMV. Taiwan…the land of bureaucratic inconsistency.
And, as pointed out, after 5 years here you only need a Taiwan record check…hellova Statue of Limitations, that is… no wonder all the foreigners in this place are AIDS-carrying, parasite-infested, morally vacant, domestic animal-abusing, sex-crazed crack dealers.
With poor hygiene and a lousy work ethic…
I asked MOFA that and they flatly rejected the notion of a Taiwan record check. They said it had to be from my home country. I had Dragonbabe call and ask the same question to see if we’d get a different answer, but it was consistent. This was last October.
I asked MOFA that and they flatly rejected the notion of a Taiwan record check. They said it had to be from my home country. I had Dragonbabe call and ask the same question to see if we’d get a different answer, but it was consistent. This was last October. [/quote]
Naturally, contest rules are subject to change at a moment’s notice, and my personal experience, obviously, dates back to when it was called Taipeirock and we rode pterodactyls to fly home.
IIRC, I was just stood at the counter at the BCS (Big Cop Shop), and when I whinged about how “rediculous” (I love this spelling, I’m going to use it all the time now) the notion of getting a check from home was, since I’d already been here for like the better part of a decade, they just said, oh, more than 5 years and you can get a local.
Very much smacks of that Official Leeway that each deskholder is granted here.
Oh, I’m remembering something now, this was for my JFRV, although I’d already been married for 4 or 5 years, yeah, I didn’t do both at the same time. They didn’t require the criminal check for the actual marriage, though.
It is a clean criminal record for the last 5 years, so if you got arrested in 2002 for shoplifting you should be ok.
You might also have a clean record. I am not sure how it works in canada, but in some places in the USA only criminal convictions where you were fingerprinted are added to the database.
[quote=“snowman19”]It is a clean criminal record for the last 5 years, so if you got arrested in 2002 for shoplifting you should be ok.
You might also have a clean record. I am not sure how it works in canada, but in some places in the USA only criminal convictions where you were fingerprinted are added to the database.[/quote]
I’m not too sure about the criminal check being only five years previous to the date of application.
In my case have a conviction for assault dating back ten years. I approached the visa office in Taipei and inquired whether a criminal check from Taiwan would suffice for my application, as I have been living here more that five years. They bluntly rejected this notion and insisted that I must provide a criminal record check from my home country. I also inquired about having the criminal check only back dated for five years. Yet again, I was told that it must include all the time that you have be residing in my home country.
I received my criminal record check and applied for my visa, on application I was asked to write a letter to explain the conviction. I was also informed that I maybe called for an interview (this never happened). Today I collected the visa and applied for my new ARC
I hate reading stuff like this and then thinking “Hey wow…I’ve been here much longer than 5 years. I can just get a criminal check here!!”. The post is totally false. even if you’ve been here 30 years…and were just born in the US or Canada…you STILL need a criminal check from that country.
I hate reading stuff like this and then thinking “Hey wow…I’ve been here much longer than 5 years. I can just get a criminal check here!!”. The post is totally false. even if you’ve been here 30 years…and were just born in the US or Canada…you STILL need a criminal check from that country.[/quote]
Mordeth is completely correct. I was here longer than five years before getting married and I still needed a criminal record check from my home country. In fact, every foreigner I know has needed the criminal record check done when applying for their JFRV, regardless of how many years they have lived here. I’m sure someone here has received their JFRV without first getting their home country criminal record check, but that is definitely not the norm.