Skip to content
For hiring teams

Criminal record checks for employers in Canada

Searched against the RCMP National Repository through accredited police partners, not a private database. Most results return in about 15 minutes, with identity verification included in the price.

Get started Free to sign up. No credit card. See your pricing before you create an account. Checking your own record rather than a candidate's? Get a personal criminal record check.
~15 min
Typical result
RCMP
National Repository
Included
ID verification
No fee
Canadian access fee
Check detail Cleared
Sarah Connor
Enhanced criminal record check · Ordered by Miles Dyson
Identity verificationVerified
Consent on recordSigned
Criminal record searchClear
Court ordersNone found
Source: RCMP National Repository 14 MIN
Identity verified
Included, not billed separately
Provenance

How a Canadian criminal record check actually works

A Canadian criminal record check is a search of the RCMP National Repository of Criminal Records, carried out through an accredited police partner. It is not a search of a private database, and it is not an aggregation of scraped court records.

That distinction matters more than it sounds. A result sourced from the national repository through a police partner is defensible if a hiring decision is ever challenged. A result assembled from a commercial database is not, because the employer cannot show where it came from or how current it was.

See every check type Credibled runs

What it searches

The check matches the candidate's name and date of birth against the national repository. It returns whether a criminal record exists for that identity.

What happens on a possible match

A name-based search can return a possible match rather than a confirmed one, because more than one person can share a name and date of birth. When that happens, confirming or ruling out the match requires fingerprints, submitted in person at a police service or accredited fingerprinting agency. That process takes considerably longer than 15 minutes and sits outside the online flow.

Most checks do not reach this stage. Being upfront that some do is better than a candidate discovering it mid-process.

Consent

Canadian law requires the candidate's informed written consent before an employer runs a criminal record check. Credibled collects that consent as part of the candidate flow and retains it in your audit trail, alongside a record of who ordered the check and when.

Chain of custody

Where the record comes from, step by step

A database aggregator starts at step four with a copy.

Copied. Cached. Close enough. Searched. Not scraped.

RCMP National Repository · Accredited police partner

Every Credibled criminal record check is run through an accredited police partner against the national record itself, with the candidate's consent and verified identity attached to it. The source is the whole
argument.

Run your
first check
Two products

Basic or Enhanced: which one you need

Priced separately. You choose per candidate.

Level 1

Basic criminal record check

A name and date of birth search returning criminal convictions where no record suspension has been granted.

Level 2 · CRJMC

Enhanced criminal record check

Also called a Criminal Record and Judicial Matters Check. It returns everything a Basic check does, and adds:

  • Outstanding charges and warrants to arrest
  • Absolute discharges within the one-year disclosure window, and conditional discharges within the three-year window
  • Findings of guilt under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, within disclosure windows
  • Court orders against the individual

Which to choose

If a client contract, regulator, or insurer specifies a level, use that. Otherwise Basic answers whether a candidate has a conviction. Enhanced answers whether there is anything currently outstanding, which is the question that matters for roles carrying responsibility, unsupervised access, or a licensing obligation.

Three things worth knowing about Enhanced checks

Consent is handled for you
Ontario's Police Record Checks Reform Act requires two-stage consent, where the candidate consents to the check and then separately consents to the release of the result after seeing it. Credibled automates both stages in the candidate flow. Done manually, this is a second round of paperwork.
Results are portable within reason
An Enhanced check can generally be relied on across roles for a period, unlike a vulnerable sector check, which the Criminal Records Act requires per position.
Results can travel
Subject to the candidate's consent, an Enhanced result can be shared with an overseas parent or partner organization. This matters if you are a Canadian subsidiary reporting screening to a head office abroad.
Before you commit

What the result looks like

Almost nobody publishes this, and it is the thing a first-time buyer most wants to see.

A Basic check returns one of

Negative
The candidate disclosed no convictions, and the search found none.
Confirmation of a criminal record
The candidate disclosed one or more convictions, and the search confirmed that disclosure is accurate.
Incomplete
The search and the candidate's disclosure do not line up, or the search could not be completed on name and date of birth alone and a fingerprint check is advised. The RCMP does not release the reason for an incomplete result to third-party providers.

An Enhanced check returns one of

Clear
No records were found.
Not Clear
Records were found. This can include summary convictions, pending or stayed charges, conditional and absolute discharges, wanted or accused person information, probation, court orders, undertakings and release conditions, restorative justice diversions, persons of special interest, and deportation or border entry charges.

Above both, an overall status: Cleared or Review. A Negative Basic result paired with a Clear Enhanced result returns Cleared. Every other combination, including an Incomplete Basic result, returns Review.

Review does not mean the candidate has a record. It means a human at your organization needs to look at the result before a decision is made.

How to read a Canadian criminal record check result
Included, not an add-on

Identity verification is included

A criminal record check is only as good as the identity it was run against. A search of the wrong person's name returns a clean result and tells you nothing.

Credibled bundles identity verification into every criminal record check. Government-issued ID and a biometric selfie match, covering 13,500+ ID types. It is included in the price rather than billed separately.

Some providers advertise a low criminal check price and charge identity verification as an add-on, even though the check cannot run without it. Compare the two line items, not the headline number.

How identity verification works
One order, one price
Government-issued ID
13,500+ ID types supported
Checked
Biometric selfie match
Live capture matched to the document
Matched
Criminal record search
Run against the verified identity
Linked
Identity verification line item Included
The most common confusion

Enhanced check or vulnerable sector check?

This is the most common point of confusion in Canadian screening, and getting it wrong costs weeks.

Credibled does not provide vulnerable sector checks. No third-party screening provider does. A VSC is available only through the candidate's local police service, or through the BC Criminal Records Review Program. If a role legally requires a VSC, the candidate must obtain it directly.

What Credibled does provide is the Enhanced check, and for a large number of roles that is the appropriate one. The two are often assumed to be interchangeable. They are not, in either direction.

What both checks cover equally

  • Criminal convictions where no record suspension has been granted
  • Findings of guilt under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, within disclosure windows
  • Outstanding charges and warrants to arrest
  • Absolute discharges within the one-year window and conditional discharges within the three-year window
  • Court orders against the individual

Where the vulnerable sector check goes further

  • The pardoned sex offender database. Schedule 1 offences where a record suspension has been granted. Post-2012 amendments to the Criminal Records Act, at s. 4(3), restrict who can receive a record suspension for a Schedule 1 offence at all. Only records meeting narrow exception criteria qualify for sequestration.
  • Findings of not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder, for certain offences within disclosure windows.
  • Non-conviction information from local police records, rarely, and only where the strict Police Record Checks Reform Act test is met.

Where neither check reaches

Worth knowing before you assume a VSC closes every gap.

  • Sex-related offences committed outside Canada
  • Provincial or international sex offender registries

The practical difference

Enhanced criminal record check compared with a vulnerable sector check.
Enhanced (CRJMC)Vulnerable sector check
Available fromAccredited third-party providersLocal police only, or BC CRRP
Typical turnaround15 minutes to a few hoursDays to weeks
Candidate experienceFully digital, mobile, no in-person visitOnline intake in many jurisdictions, in-person visit often required for fingerprinting
FingerprintsRare, only for identity matchFrequently required, triggered by a name, gender and date of birth match against the pardoned database
Multi-province hiringOne national workflowFragmented by jurisdiction and local police routing
Reuse across rolesPortable within reasonRequired per position under the Criminal Records Act
Two-stage consentAutomated in the digital workflowHandled manually at police intake
Sharing outside CanadaCan be shared with overseas parent or partner organizations, subject to consentReleased only to organizations located in Canada

How to choose

These are not better and worse versions of the same thing. They serve different purposes under different legal frameworks.

If the role involves work with vulnerable people and a VSC is legally required, the candidate must obtain one from their local police service. Credibled cannot substitute for it, and neither can any other provider.

Where a VSC is not legally mandated, an Enhanced check delivers the same core criminal record information in minutes rather than weeks, across provinces, without an in-person appointment. Pairing it with a public records search extends the picture further.

About public records searches

Choose based on the role, the risk, and the regulatory requirement, not on turnaround time.

Beyond Canada

US criminal record checks

Hiring across the border, or screening a candidate who lived in the United States, works from the same account.

Broad
National criminal database search
Broad coverage across US jurisdictions, used as a first pass to identify where to look more closely.
Targeted
Single county court search
A direct search of the court records in one county, typically where the candidate lived or worked.
Complete
Unlimited county court search
County-level searches across every relevant jurisdiction in the candidate's history.

US criminal court searches carry a pass-through access fee charged by the court supplying the record. These are published in advance. See published access fees.

Screening outside Canada and the US

Candidates who have lived elsewhere can be screened across 200+ jurisdictions through the same account and the same process. Coverage, turnaround, and available check types vary by country.

International coverage by country
Transparent by default

Pricing

Basic and Enhanced criminal record checks are priced separately, and your exact rates appear in your account during signup, before you create anything.

See your pricing
No subscription, no minimum, no platform fee
You add a payment method when you run your first check and you are only charged for checks that complete.
No access fee on Canadian criminal record checks
Access fees apply to education verification, employment verification, and US criminal court searches only, and all of them are published in advance.
See published access fees
Programme rates applied automatically
Registered non-profits and eligible Canadian startups get programme rates applied at signup, with no application form and no approval wait.
Your rates before your account exists
Every check type available to you, priced in your currency, shown during signup and before your account is created.
Security & privacy

Your data stays in Canada

PIPEDA compliant, hosted in Canada, built by Canadians.

Hosted in Canada
All candidate data is stored on Canadian AWS infrastructure and does not leave the country.
PIPEDA compliant
Provincial requirements handled, including Quebec's Law 25.
Consent on record
Informed written consent retained in your audit trail with every check.
Full audit trail
Who ordered the check, when, what came back, and who viewed it.
Duplicate detection
If someone on your team already ran a criminal record check on this candidate, Credibled stops the order before you are charged.
FAQ

Criminal record check questions, answered

01Process and turnaround

How long does a Canadian criminal record check take?
Most return in about 15 minutes once the candidate has completed identity verification. Results that require fingerprint confirmation take significantly longer and involve an in-person appointment.
Is this a real RCMP check or a database search?
It is a search of the RCMP National Repository of Criminal Records, carried out through an accredited police partner. It is not a search of a private or scraped database.
Do I need the candidate’s consent?
Yes. Canadian law requires informed written consent before an employer runs a criminal record check. Credibled collects and retains that consent as part of the candidate flow.

02Choosing the right check

What is the difference between a Basic and an Enhanced criminal record check?
A Basic check returns criminal convictions where no record suspension has been granted. An Enhanced check, also called a Criminal Record and Judicial Matters Check, returns everything a Basic check does and adds outstanding charges and warrants to arrest, absolute discharges within the one-year disclosure window and conditional discharges within the three-year window, Youth Criminal Justice Act findings of guilt within disclosure windows, and court orders against the individual.
Can Credibled run a vulnerable sector check?
No. Vulnerable sector checks are available only through the candidate's local police service, or the BC Criminal Records Review Program. No third-party screening provider in Canada can run one.
What is the difference between an Enhanced check and a vulnerable sector check?
Both return the same core criminal record information: convictions without a record suspension, outstanding charges and warrants, absolute and conditional discharges within their disclosure windows, Youth Criminal Justice Act findings within disclosure windows, and court orders. A vulnerable sector check additionally queries the pardoned sex offender database, findings of not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder for certain offences, and in rare cases non-conviction information from local police records. Neither check covers sex-related offences committed outside Canada or provincial and international sex offender registries.
Can an Enhanced check replace a vulnerable sector check?
No. Where a VSC is legally required for a role, only a VSC satisfies it. Where one is not required, an Enhanced check returns the same core criminal record information in minutes rather than weeks and works consistently across provinces.
Why does a vulnerable sector check take so long?
It is issued by local police rather than a national workflow, so routing varies by jurisdiction. Fingerprints are frequently required, triggered when the candidate's name, gender, and date of birth match an entry in the pardoned database, and that step is done in person.

03Reading your result

What does a "Review" result mean?
It means someone at your organization should look at the result before making a decision. It does not by itself mean the candidate has a criminal record. Only a Negative Basic result paired with a Clear Enhanced result returns Cleared, so a Confirmation or an Incomplete Basic result also produces Review.
What does an "Incomplete" result mean?
It means the search and the candidate's disclosure do not line up, or the search could not be completed on name and date of birth alone and a fingerprint check is advised. The RCMP does not release the reason for an incomplete result to third-party providers, so Credibled cannot tell you which of those applies. How to read your result
Does a criminal record check tell me if a candidate is charged later?
No. A criminal record check is a point-in-time search reflecting the record on the date it was run. It does not monitor for future changes. If you need periodic re-screening, run a new check.

04Pricing and coverage

Does the price include identity verification?
Yes. Identity verification is bundled into every criminal record check and is not billed separately. How identity verification works
Are there additional fees on a Canadian criminal record check?
No. Canadian criminal record checks carry no pass-through access fee. Access fees apply to education verification, employment verification, and US criminal court searches only. See published access fees
Can I run a criminal record check on someone outside Canada?
Yes. US national and county-level searches and international checks across 200+ jurisdictions run from the same account. International coverage

Still deciding? The help centre covers the candidate experience step by step.

The check that has to stand up is the one that came from the right place.

Create your account today. Pay per check, no subscription, no contract.