A police certificate is a document — issued by a national, state, or local police authority — that states whether a person has a criminal record in the issuing country and, if so, the details of that record. IRCC uses police certificates as part of its criminal inadmissibility assessment for many immigration applications, primarily permanent residence, citizenship, and International Experience Canada (IEC). The general rule is that a certificate is required for every country where the applicant (or a family member 18 or older) has lived for 6 or more consecutive months in the last 10 years. Time spent in Canada and time before the age of 18 are exempt. The police certificate for the country of current residence must have been issued within the last 6 months at the time of application submission.

For the current list of which programs require police certificates and how to obtain them from specific countries, refer to the IRCC police certificate page.

• Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), s 36 — criminal inadmissibility provisions that police certificates are used to assess
• Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR), s 16 — obligation to provide information and documents requested by IRCC
• IRCC: Police certificate — canada.ca/police-certificate
• IRCC: Who needs a police certificate — canada.ca/police-certificate-who
• IRCC: When to get a police certificate — canada.ca/police-certificate-when
• IRCC: How to get a police certificate — canada.ca/police-certificate-how

Who needs a police certificate

Police certificates are required for the principal applicant and for each family member 18 years of age or older who is included in the application or is being assessed as part of the household. The requirement applies to:

• Permanent residence applications — all streams, including Express Entry, family sponsorship, Provincial Nominee Program, refugee and humanitarian applications
• Citizenship applications — Canadian citizenship applicants must provide police certificates for prescribed purposes
• International Experience Canada (IEC) — participants in IEC (including Working Holiday) must provide police certificates
• Some temporary residence applications — the requirement may also apply to some work and study permit applications in specific circumstances; refer to the application-specific instructions

Which countries require a certificate

The rule is: a police certificate is required for every country where the applicant has lived for 6 or more consecutive months at any time in the last 10 years. Applying this rule:

• If an applicant lived in Germany for 8 months from 2019–2020 and in Japan for 7 months in 2022–2023: police certificates are required from both Germany and Japan
• The 6-month threshold is consecutive months — periods of less than 6 consecutive months in a country are not counted even if total time in the country exceeds 6 months
• Only one certificate per country is required, regardless of how many times the applicant lived there

Exemptions — Canada and under 18

No police certificate is required for:

• Time spent in Canada — IRCC has access to Canadian criminal records directly; applicants do not need to obtain a Canadian police certificate to submit to IRCC
• Time before the applicant was 18 years old — juvenile records are generally not required

Validity period — country of current residence

Police certificates have a limited validity period. The certificate for the country where the applicant currently resides must have been issued no more than 6 months before the date the application is submitted to IRCC. Certificates from previous countries of residence (not current) do not have an explicit expiry for immigration purposes, but they should ideally be recent — a certificate from many years ago provides less useful information about current criminal history.

Applicants should time the police certificate application for their current country of residence carefully — obtaining the certificate too early means it may expire before the application is submitted.

Countries that require an IRCC request letter

Some countries will not issue a police certificate directly to individuals — they require a formal request letter from IRCC before they will process the request. For these countries, IRCC provides a request letter upon request. If this applies to a country the applicant has lived in:

• The applicant should upload a document in the police certificate field of their application that states: "I am applying from a country that requires an official request letter from IRCC to get a police certificate"
• IRCC will issue the request letter, which the applicant then uses to obtain the certificate from that country's authorities
• The process can add time to the application — applicants should account for this in their timeline

For the current list of countries requiring IRCC request letters, refer to the IRCC how to get a police certificate page, which provides country-specific instructions.

If a police certificate cannot be obtained

In some circumstances, it may be impossible to obtain a police certificate from a particular country — for example, where the country does not have functioning state institutions, where the issuing authority has refused to provide the certificate, or where the applicant's personal circumstances make it unsafe to contact the country's authorities. In these situations:

• The applicant should provide a written explanation of why the certificate cannot be obtained and what steps were taken to try to obtain it
• IRCC will assess the explanation and determine whether alternative evidence can be accepted
• For refugee claimants and protection applications, IRCC is generally more flexible given the circumstances that prevent contact with the country of origin

Failing to provide a police certificate without explanation — or simply omitting countries — is not acceptable and will delay or refuse the application.

Criminal inadmissibility after reviewing police certificates

Providing a police certificate showing a criminal record does not automatically result in inadmissibility — IRCC assesses the nature of the offence, the equivalent Canadian offence, and whether any rehabilitation provisions or waivers apply. For the inadmissibility thresholds and rehabilitation provisions, see the criminal inadmissibility page and the criminal rehabilitation page.

Police certificates are one of the most commonly delayed elements in permanent residence applications — particularly for applicants who have lived in multiple countries, or in countries with slow bureaucratic processes. Applicants should request police certificates as early as possible in the application process. For Express Entry invitations to apply (ITA), the 60-day deadline to submit a complete application means that police certificates should ideally be in hand before accepting the ITA. Applicants who are renewing their Express Entry profile while still waiting for police certificates should keep track of certificate expiry dates — particularly the 6-month rule for the country of current residence. For country-specific instructions on how to obtain police certificates, refer to the IRCC country-specific police certificate guide.