A police clearance certificate for Canada from India, or its equivalent from another country, is required for permanent residence. It is required whenever an applicant has lived somewhere long enough for IRCC to ask for one. India and Pakistan each have their own accepted document, and each has a detail that causes delay when it is missed.
This guide sets out which countries require a certificate at all, and the deadlines and format rules that apply everywhere. It also covers what is specifically required from India and from Pakistan.
Which countries need a police certificate for Canada PR?
A police certificate is needed from the applicant, and from each family member aged 18 or older. It is needed for every country they stayed in for 6 months in a row or longer during the last 10 years. Time spent before the person turned 18, and time spent in Canada, do not count toward that 10-year look-back. An officer can still ask for a certificate covering any period since the person turned 18.
For the country an applicant currently lives in, the certificate has to be issued no more than 6 months before the application is submitted. For any other country on the list, it has to be issued after the applicant's last stay there of 6 months or longer.
This means a family that has lived in more than one country over the relevant period may need certificates from each of them. It is not only the certificate for the country they live in now. Working out the full list of countries that apply is often the first step before requesting any certificate at all.
The 60-day deadline after an invitation to apply
An applicant invited to apply for permanent residence has 60 days to submit the application. A police certificate for Express Entry is one of the documents expected within that window. Certificates can take time to arrive, particularly from a country the applicant no longer lives in.
A certificate that is not ready within the 60 days can be replaced for the time being. The replacement is a letter of explanation and proof that a genuine effort was made to obtain it. That proof can be a receipt or a tracking number from the issuing authority.
Processing times for a police certificate are not fixed and vary by issuing authority. That is part of why the 60-day window and the fallback of a letter of explanation both exist.
How must a police certificate be submitted?
Police certificates have to be submitted as colour scans of the original documents. IRCC does not accept certified true copies or unauthorized copies, and submitting one instead of the original leads to the application being rejected.
A certificate that is not already in English or French has to be submitted with a copy of the original document. It also needs a translation completed by a certified translator.
Both rules apply regardless of which country issued the certificate. So an applicant with certificates from more than one country follows the same format and translation rules for each one.
Police clearance certificate for Canada from India
From India, the document IRCC needs is a Police Clearance Certificate, or PCC. It can be obtained from a local district police station, a Passport office, an Indian embassy or consulate, or a BLS International Centre.
IRCC does not accept an Indian Character Certificate in place of a Police Clearance Certificate. It also does not accept a police clearance certificate that is limited to a particular jurisdiction or time period, rather than covering the applicant fully.
The naming can be confusing. A Character Certificate and a Police Clearance Certificate are issued by similar-sounding processes in India. But they are not treated the same way for a Canadian permanent residence application. Only the Police Clearance Certificate meets the requirement.
Police character certificate for Canada from Pakistan
From Pakistan, IRCC accepts a Police Character Certificate or a Police Clearance Certificate. The procedure differs by province. In Punjab, it can be requested at any Police Khidmat Markaz centre. Those centres are available across all 36 districts of the province, regardless of which district the certificate needs to cover.
A Pakistani citizen living outside Pakistan applies through the nearest Pakistani embassy or consulate. Alternatively, a relative in Pakistan can apply on the applicant's behalf, using an affidavit on Rs 20 judicial stamp paper together with an authority letter. The Canadian High Commission in Islamabad does not assist in obtaining the certificate itself.
The procedure differs by province, and it can be requested through a relative rather than only in person. So applying from abroad follows a different practical path than applying while living in Pakistan. The underlying document required is the same either way.
The short version
- A police certificate is needed for any country lived in for 6 months in a row or longer, within the last 10 years. This is counted from age 18.
- The current-country certificate has to be issued within 6 months of applying; others must post-date the applicant's last long stay there.
- IRCC accepts only colour scans of original certificates, translated by a certified translator if not already in English or French.
- India's accepted document is a Police Clearance Certificate; IRCC does not accept an Indian Character Certificate.
- Pakistan's accepted documents are a Police Character Certificate or Police Clearance Certificate, obtainable from abroad through an embassy or a relative.
Every figure on this page is cited to the government source it was read from, and was checked on September 19, 2026. Rules change, and a source is the authority where this page and the source disagree. This guide is general information about how the process works, not immigration advice about your own situation, and reading it creates no consultant-client relationship.