Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ellegarden]

[yingwenlaoshi]

[yingwenlaoshi]

[bmcmullin]

My name is Bill McMullin. I am the owner of TrueCheck, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

I asked Dave Sperling if I could join the forum to provide facts and information to E2 applicants and those renewing regarding the requirement for a Canadian criminal record check. There is considerable confusion and many inconsistencies emanating from this new requirement, as you already know.

Although we do provide an online service that allows Canadians to conveniently order criminal record checks from a police agency in Canada, some Canadian and Korean government officials do not endorse its use, although some do. To be clear, TrueCheck is simply the conduit to police. Customers using our service receive a police-signed certificate issued on police letterhead. We have facilitated over 6,000 criminal record checks for Canadians in Canada and around the world and the overwhelming majority of our customers and their employers are delighted we exist. That said, we have seen a few situations, such as in Korea, where a government will dismiss our involvement without first doing the appropriate due diligence.

As we are well versed in the domain of Canadian criminal record checks and have received hundreds of inquiries of from E2 holders, I thought that contributing information via the forum would be an efficient way to reach those impacted by this new CRC requirement. Also, we/TrueCheck have been the subject of some discussion on this forum and I want to address some questions that have been raised.

I realize the post is long but that is because the details matter. Ironically, there wouldn't be such confusion if Korean and Canadian government officials acquired, analyzed and presented more information and defined a process in the first place. And, since a small mistake or oversight in getting your criminal record check can be very costly and inconvenient to redress, a few minutes of extra reading and planning will more than likely pay dividends.

I first want to say that it should not be so difficult to meet what should be a basic compliance check, even for people not physically in Canada. While the requirements and process for E2 holders in Korea are less than clear, the same is true elsewhere. The domains of criminal records and criminal record checks is confusing and obscure even at home for people in Canada. The police and the RCMP are generally not business driven, transparent, or advanced in their use of the Internet for service and information delivery to consumers like you. TrueCheck exists because of these shortcomings. Consumers screamed loud and clear for an alternative to making one or more trips to a police station to get a criminal record check; so we invested and built a convenient conduit to police; one that improves both the convenience and security of the process. Unfortunately, a few police agencies and government officials have not taken the time to investigate our approach, rather, opting to summarily dismiss what is the logical evolution of service delivery in the domain of criminal record checks. The impact of this ignorance is inconvenience and extra expense for you.

At present, assuming you are not in a big hurry, I would suggest you look to the Winnipeg Police Service, as they will accept requests by mail. Google: "Winnipeg Police criminal record check" (not in quotes) and see the first hit for complete instructions. You do not need to have been a resident of Winnipeg. You can request a Vulnerable Sector check as well, but the latest information I have is that IF you are in Korea renewing your E2 visa, you do not need to include the Vulnerable Sector option. The Vulnerable Sector option is apparently still required for those in Canada applying. In recent days we/TrueCheck have received and processed requests for individuals renewing their E2 visas, who explicitly asked and confirmed with their their "Immigration officer" that ordering via our service was acceptable.

I realize this is not consistent with the Canadian Embassy's response as I am fully aware that the Embassy of Canada in Korea will not accept a statutory declaration from a Canadian for police-signed certificate ordered through our service. The Embassy of Canada has justified their actions on the basis that the Korean Ministry of Justice - Immigration Bureau has told them they will not accept "online checks" from "private companies". To be clear, the criminal record checks ordered through our service are performed by police, signed by police and issued by police. TrueCheck is simply the conduit to police. In fact, certain Korean Consulates in Canada actually recommend our service to E2 applicants in Canada.

TrueCheck has spent more than a half-million dollars to modernize the criminal record check ordering process. Rather than have people photocopy and mail photo-ID back to Canada (which is completely insecure and subject to tampering), we use modern and proven electronic ID verification system, the same system used by Canada Post and one that is endorsed by the Canadian Government in the Proceeds of Crime (Anti-Money Laundering) Terrorism Financing Act for the explicit purpose of verifying the identity of an individual who is not physically present. We actually verify names, addresses and dates-of-birth to make sure they are authentic - which is more reliable than face-value-acceptance of what is printed on a photo ID, not to mention a photocopied one.

The Korean government has never asked a single question about the operation our service or the security measures we impose. They obsess over notarization, sealed envelopes and statutory declarations as a means to ensure authenticity, when in fact, non-serialized documents are not secure and difficult or impossible to prove authentic. They seem to have ignored the obvious and modern solution; verification from source. TrueCheck did what anyone would do to ensure authenticity, serializing documents so they could be easily verified from source. We print a unique serial number on each certificate for the police, which allows any holder to go online and see the actual original as issued by police. It is not the physical paper that is important, rather the authenticity and validity of the information printed on it.

There is no basis in logic why Korean officials are discriminating against the use of 'the Internet' or 'private companies' in facilitating criminal record checks and the Canadian government (specifically DFAIT) should be stepping up to represent Canadians in Korea. I would encourage E2 holders to speak out. We will continue to try and get through to Korean and Canadian government officials in hopes that they will eventually recognize that we are simply a convenient yet secure conduit to police in Canada. Individuals like you are being penalized because we use the Internet to make an arduous process efficient.

I am happy to answer any questions you may have directly via email or through this forum.

Regards,

Bill McMullin
CEO
TrueCheck Inc.
bill(at)truecheck.ca

[pandemic902]

asked my Dad to call the Halifax PD and this is what they told him:

[endo]

Do we even need the criminal check with finger prints?

I heard we didn't from a few sources.