Irish Naturalization - Should I submit my police clearances in advance?

[easylad]

Hello Friends,
Just wanted to quick hear your thoughts.
I've been going through the immigration board, and it seems that most cases are requested police clearances from Garda and law enforcement from countries that the applicant has lived in the past.

Before coming to Ireland, I lived in two countries in the past 9 years. I am wondering if it would be beneficial for the naturalization application if my police background checks from these jurisdictions were provided as supplementary documentation.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

[Vorona]

On the form, there is a question:
"Have you ever committed any offences against the laws of Ireland or any overseas country?"

If you have answered "Yes", then just send those as a proof of offence/conviction and provide as much details as you can. If you have never been convicted or found guilty of any offences then there's no need to provide such documents.

[sugeie]

Hello

I don't believe this is accurate. Ive lived in Ireland for 20 years and i still had to provide a police clearance cert from my home country irrespective of the fact i hadn't been indicted or convicted of any crime. I don't believe this is an honour system where you word is enough to the question of past criminal activity. The police clearance form is proof your answers to those questions were truthful. I think its best (in my humble opinion) to get police clearance certs of every country you have lived in so as not to risk delays or rejections.

[Vorona]

I don't believe this is accurate.

This is accurate. Police certificates are not listed in guidance. They are are optional and will only be required if requested or if the persons have convictions to disclose.

You can still send it, no harm in doing so, but it's not mandatory.

[littlerr]

Unless it's going to be very time consuming for you to obtain a police cert, there's no need to do it unless requested by INIS.

[easylad]

Thanks everyone
I've never committed a crime, but it seems like protocol after reading so many citizenship updates that for those who resided for an extended period of time in other countries in the last 9 years, police clearances from Ireland and other jurisdictions are required.

And as you may already know, police clearances can take up to 3 weeks to obtain along with the hassle of the paper work and delays. Rather than having my application case abruptly paused for these police clearances to be submitted, I thought it would be better practice to just submit them along with my application beforehand.

I'll try this in the coming months when I submit my application and let you know on this thread on whether it helped. Hopefully, they don't get the impression that it's suspicious for sending the police clearances beforehand XD

[Vorona]

Thanks everyone
I've never committed a crime, but it seems like protocol after reading so many citizenship updates that for those who resided for an extended period of time in other countries in the last 9 years, police clearances from Ireland and other jurisdictions are required.

It depends. When I applied for my D visa several years ago I had to provide police certificate and it was part of the visa process so there was no point of asking for the same thing again when I applied for citizenship since I haven't lived anywhere else after that.

Again, there's no harm is sending those but it's not a requirement.