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Enhanced Reliability Check (ERC) - Merged

my ex g/f was from South Africa and she only lived here for 3 years and she joined. Reserves mind you.
 
kinda odd that more than 1 person at CFRC has told you diferent things. I think it depends on the person, and from what dalredane said..SA isnt a country of security concern.

I dont think Reserves and Regular forces recruitment standards would be different..
 
Shortbus, no offence bud, but how would you know if RSA was a country of security concern or not?

RSA went through a lengthy period where they were barred from the Commonwealth due to humanitarian concerns (Apartheid). After political changes, they have undergone major internal changes and the country‘s urban centres are some of the most violent in the industrialized world.

And while the RSA may not be a hotbed of international terrorism, for security clearances a lot depends on the availability and accessibility of criminal and intelligence information and how much of that information canbe shared with our own authorities.

Some countries do not share information, and for that reason security checks will take much longer, or cannot be completed at all.
 
Originally posted by Sh0rtbUs:
[qb] from what dalredane said..SA isnt a country of security concern.
[/qb]
I never gave facts and claimed that they were true or not...I simply relayed what dalredane said. I dont see what it was that i said that was wrong..
 
Well, its not so much the apartheid thing, it is more to do with whats been going on since 911 that seems to be a concern. But if its more of an issue of sharing information it shouldn‘t be too much of a problem as there is enough of an infrastructure to do this, if anything it‘ll just take a bit of time.

Thanks for the comments; if anyone has any more opinions I'll appreciate them.
 
Is it normal for the background check to be done first if CFRC knows about a criminal record?

If so how long will it take to get back? I‘m asking because CFRC decided to my background check before anything else and it has been out for nearly 2 months now and I am just wondering what is happening with it.
 
agree, for myself, I passed all tests on Jan 2004, and I called them, they just sended my secrity check papers to ON. And they said it may take around 6 mon to 18 mon for that part. However, I know that some of my friends just took around 3 weeks. But keep phoning them to find out what is ur status.
 
It can take a while for the check to be done if you got a criminal record. I‘ve heard even for some people who don‘t have a record, it still takes months.
 
Actually, they send your finger prints to CSIS.

They are then sent a hard copy of your criminal record and depending on the seriousness of your offence they will either accept a verbal explaination, or put you through a process to determine wether or not to grant you Enhanced Reliability Status.

Receiving your finger prints can take from a relatively short time, to a really long time depending. I was informed by the Captain reviewing my file that he could expediate the process "if he so choose to do so". In the end he did, but I had a weapons restriction still in effect at the time, and my file was closed because you need to be 6 months free of ANY obligation to the judicial system.

Anyway, back to the present, I have been through the process to determine my Enhanced Reliability Status, and I can tell you that if they find your criminal record to be sufficiently serious, they will make you go through the process too.

You will be asked to retrive a number of documents including: All legal documentation in regards to your conviction, letters from your parole/probation officer/s, letter from your cousellors detailing nature of treatment your progress etc., additional letters of reference from your previous employers over the last 5 years, and a letter from you detailing every nuance of the incident in question, why you did what you did, and what you learned from it.
They then convene a board to either grant you "ERS" or deny it to you. At this stage your file will be scrutinised by a senior officer, in my case a Lieutenant-Colonel.
They will of course verify everything you submit, and what they are trying to determine is if you have sufficiently proved yourself to be trustworthy in the context of National Security and Defense.
Honesty is not the best policy, it is the only policy, get caught omiting anything here and you‘re done for good.

To answer the question "Is it normal for the background check to be done first if CFRC knows about a criminal record?"

Yes it is normal, because if your Enhanced Reliability Status is in question it is a total waste of time and effort to allow you to proceed with your application until you have been granted this status.
It doesn‘t really matter what stage of your application you are on, if they discover a criminal record, everything will cease until this issue is cleared up.
Example, you are schedualed for a PT/Medical test 2 weeks away, but they discover the criminal record and decide to give you questionable status, they will almost certainly cancel those appointments, until a decision is reached.

In my case it took me twelve weeks to gather all the required information to make my case.
In the end I proved myself to have made sufficient progress in my life, and have demonstrated reliability and trustworthiness in employment to such a degree that they felt I would not be a security risk. I was granted ERS

Now after almost 2 years of trying, I‘m at the waiting stage (all my testing/interviews are done) Only I‘m holding my breath moreso than most other people because of the criminal record. It‘s a pretty significant minus to have on your file, and a lot of people will be selected ahead of me because of it. I‘m crossing my fingers for a big recruitment season.
The reason I‘m telling you this is to let you know that the criminal record is likely to slow down your recruitment process considerably, and you need to be prepared to dig in and fight for yourself.
This is assuming that your record is "serious" of course. I‘ve heard other people say that they were able to explain away their convictions without having to go through the ERS process. You should probably already know which it will be.

Anyway, good luck.
Keep at it no matter what and you‘ll get through.
 
hey Graham D. What do you think a conditional discharge will do to my process, no serious crime, just pety stuff. Will that slow my process down considerably? I have an interview on the 31st
 
What is an advanced backround check? I was talking to the recuriter yesterday and he told me once they get my pt results and my edvanced backround check then everything else is smooth sailing. Thnaks in advance
 
Did he say advanced or "enhanced"?

Every potential member of the Canadian Armed Forces must be granted "Enhanced Reliability Status" before they are eligiable for employment.
The CAF does a detailed backround check on every induvidual to determine if the candidate is worthy of this status.
Basically they do a criminal record check, follow up on the references that you provided them, and do a credit history check. As long as there is no problems in any of those areas, then it should still continue go fairly smoothly for you.
 
what do they look at in the credit history??

im making payments osap and well my credits not that great :( but i dont owe anyone money
 
I just went today and did my applications forms, and they said that i need to do the normal bakground check first, then do another check because i was not born in Canada although I have my Canadian Citizen Ship.
The guy said the process will take a long time for that because of the two background checks, which sucks becuase I am not be gareented to go to basic this summer. :(
 
From what I know about the credit check they are looking more for whether you will be able to pay your cuurent loans off with the pay you will recieve. As for student loans, it is not a big deal because almost everyone has them in one form or another. I think they are looking for more bouncing checques once a month and maxxing out credit cards at the same frequency and not paying them.
 
This might help. I had to do an upgrade last week.
It sounds like a security check..

http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/tbsf-fsct/330-47_e.asp

Cheers::
 
has anyone been through the process of having a enhanced reliability check on them?? myself, i have 3 assaults and went for my interview today. i am now told that i will have to wait 3 months for my fingerprints to come back, at that time my file will go in front of a review board where they will decide if  i am trustworthy enough to be accepted into the military. i also have to provide them with all my prior court documents as well as probation reports.
has anyone been in my shoes?? what outcome should i expect? my interviewer told me the interview went very well and i was an above average applicant..........help please!!!!!
 
Well, I have been through this process also. I have talked about it in a few threads, I‘ll try and track them down and link to them later.

I can‘t really tell you what to expect in the long run.
I can tell you that they ultimately granted me Enhanced Reliability Status after they reviewed all my information.
However I‘m in the waiting process right now so I have no idea if they are going to give me a job offer or not.
I guess I‘ll have a better idea if I don‘t hear from them in the next 8 weeks or so.
 
i appreciate the help from you and all others, they say not to expect anything to happen for 6 months. is your situation similar to mine by chance?
 
Well I originally applied about 2.5 years ago now.
I had a weapons restriction still in effect at the time so they closed my file.
I petitioned a judge to remove my weapons restiction, which he did, but when I took the legal documents to the CFRC they told me I had to wait for 6 months to reapply (because you need to be 6 months clear of legal obligations to the courts).

I was disapointed but I decided it was a good chance to work on my fitness.
The 6 months elapsed during a long weekend and I was really excited to reapply the following Tuesday.
However on the Sunday I broke my leg in a skydiving accident. It was a pretty serious break and required surgery to put in a bolt and reattach all my ligaments.
I was in a cast for about 4 months and had more surgery to remove the bolt.
I spent about 6 months after that in physio trying to condition my leg back to a degree where I could realistically cope with the rigors of life in the infantry.
It was a nice stroke of luck that my physio therapist was an ex medic from the CAF, and seeing him several times a week afforded me a lot of insight and motivation toward continuing to pursue this carrer choice.

Anyway, so when I finished with physio I started back into trying to condition myself to surpass the minimum requitements handily. Unfortunately my cardio fitness level is not where it was before the accident, but I passed that portion and did 34/40 on pushups/situps.

When I was ready to reapply finaly, They made me go for allergy testing because of a few bad bee stings I had as a kid (3 months for blood work) and when I got that squared away, that‘s when they sprung the Enhanced Reliability Status thing on me. It took me about 3 months to get that sorted out.
So finaly about 3 weeks ago now I went for my interview and handed in a medical document that I was still missing. They shipped my med file to Borden that day. I went for a second PT test because the first was outdated (6 months) about 2 weeks ago, and with that my file is totally up to date.

They said when the med file comes back (it should have by now) that they will send my complete file back to Borden and hopefully I‘ll hear something soon.
So I‘m hoping to something any day. They quoted me "within 8 weeks". If I don‘t hear something by then I should call in and see whats happening.
Although I have a feeling that if don‘t hear something in that time frame that its going to be bad news when I call in.

Thats my situation.
 
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