International criminal record checks
Search the criminal record in the country your candidate actually lived in, from the same account you use for Canadian checks. 225 jurisdictions, with the price and average turnaround for every one of them published below.
- 225Jurisdictions, priced individually
- Per checkNo subscription, no minimum
- 1 reportHowever many countries
What each jurisdiction costs, and how long it actually takes
Most providers answer this with "cost varies" and "turnaround varies by country." Both are true, so here is the whole table.
Prices run from $29.10 CAD for Guam to $480.07 CAD for Cuba. Turnaround runs from under one business day in Colombia to 41 in the Netherlands Antilles. Germany takes 22 business days. That is not a figure we enjoy publishing, but you would rather know it before you make the offer than after.
The countries you hire from most are the cheap ones.
103 of the 225 jurisdictions sit at a standard $186.47 CAD, and 54 cost less than that. The three largest sources of new workers in Canada are all in the cheaper group: China at $62.16, the Philippines at $85.96, and India at $99.19. Ireland is $63.48 and comes back in 2 business days.
- China $62.16
- Philippines $85.96
- India $99.19
- Ireland $63.48
Tick every country your candidate has lived in to price the whole file at once.
Turnaround is an average number of business days, counted from the point the candidate has given consent and supplied any documents the jurisdiction requires. Some jurisdictions require notarised documents, fingerprints, or a current or former address in the country. A few charge a government fee that is passed through at cost. If your jurisdiction is not in this table, ask us. We cover more than the table shows.
A Canadian criminal record check is silent about the rest of the world
A Canadian criminal record check searches Canadian police records. That is what it is for, and it does it in about 15 minutes. What it cannot tell you is whether someone was convicted of something in Manila, Lagos or Bucharest before they moved here.
The result comes back clear. It is accurate. It is also incomplete, and nothing on the report tells you so.
If your candidate has lived outside Canada in adult life, the only way to close that gap is to search the records in the country they lived in.
Canadian criminal record checkWhat changes from one country to the next
What the record shows
Depending on the jurisdiction, an international check can return convictions, arrests, outstanding charges and warrants, court records, and entries on national registries such as sex offender registries. Not every jurisdiction returns all of these.
How far back it goes
Lookback periods are set by the jurisdiction, not by us. Some countries return a full adult record. Others limit results to a fixed number of years, or to unspent convictions only.
What the candidate has to supply
Every jurisdiction needs a full legal name and a date of birth, and most need an address history. Some require notarised documents, fingerprints, or a current or former address in the country itself.
What it costs beyond the check price
A small number of jurisdictions charge a government or court fee. Where that applies, it is passed through at cost and not marked up.
How it works
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1
Name the country, or let the address history name it
Order it yourself from your account, no rep required. Two ways to do it, and both sit alongside any other checks you are running on that candidate.
Specify the jurisdiction yourself
Pick the country you want searched. The candidate must have, or have had, an address there for the search to run.
Or specify nothing at all
Leave the country open and the candidate is screened automatically in every country their declared address history covers.
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2
The candidate completes their part online
They receive a secure link by email or SMS, give consent, confirm their address history, and supply whatever that jurisdiction requires. No appointment and no office visit.
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3
The result lands in your dashboard
Status is visible while it runs, and the finished report sits with the rest of that candidate's file.
Turnaround, to scale
Pick a corridor and watch it fly at its real speed
Every flight below takes as long, relative to the others, as that jurisdiction's average turnaround. Colombia is across before Germany has cleared the runway.
What the report actually contains
Every international check returns a single PDF with a clear result at the top and the underlying evidence below it. Here is what is in it.
A result you can act on
The report opens with an overall status and a per-country clearance label, so the answer to "did this candidate clear" is on page 1 and not buried.
The address history the search was run against
Every address the candidate declared, with country, dates and postal code. The search is only as good as the address history behind it, and having it on the report is what lets you show a regulator or a client which countries were covered and which were not.
The issuing authority, named
Each country block names the authority the result came from, the date the authority issued it, and the authority's own reference number. Australia comes back from the Australian Federal Police, with the AFP reference printed on the report.
The verbatim outcome
The authority's own wording is reproduced, not paraphrased into a colour.
More than one country in one report
If a candidate lived in three countries, you can run three searches and receive one report covering all of them, rather than three separate files to reconcile.
What employers usually run alongside this
An international criminal record check answers one question about one country. It is rarely the whole file. Here is what most clients pair it with, and why.
If you add one thing, add the Public Records Search.
A jurisdiction check is deep and narrow and takes days. The Public Records Search is instant and covers everywhere at once. Run both and you have a same-day global signal while the country-level search is still running.
Public Records Search
Instant, and it covers everywhere at once
An instant search across more than 200,000 databases in over 200 countries, covering global sanctions lists, watchlists, court records, sex offender registries and adverse media.
This is the one that pairs best with an international check, because the two do opposite jobs. If your candidate has lived in four countries and you are running a jurisdiction check in one of them, this is what covers the other three.
Not available for US-based screening, with limited exceptions. $12 CAD per check.
Identity verification
The check is only as good as the name it runs against
An international criminal record search is a name and date of birth matched against a foreign registry. If the name is wrong, a clear result means nothing.
Identity verification reads and validates more than 13,500 government document types, in Latin and non-Latin alphabets, and matches the document to a live selfie. It is the step that makes a foreign passport usable as the basis for a search.
Included in the price of a Canadian criminal record check. Available on its own.
Education verification
Confirmed with the institution, not a database
Degrees and diplomas are confirmed directly with the issuing institution, including institutions outside Canada. Where the institution charges a fee to respond, that fee is passed through at cost.
Employment verification
We contact the employer, wherever they are
Job titles and employment dates are confirmed with the employer directly. There is no third-party database involved, which is why it works for an employer in another country as well as one down the street.
Reference checks
Referees abroad answer on their own schedule
Referees receive a structured questionnaire by email and answer in writing, with automated reminders every 24 hours for up to 10 days. Time zones stop being your problem, which matters more when the referee is 12 hours ahead.
$9 CAD per candidate, covering every referee for that candidate.
Canadian criminal record check
For the Canadian part of the history
Run against Canadian police records through an accredited police partner, with most results back in about 15 minutes. Identity verification is included in the price.
Questions we get asked
What is an international criminal record check?
Which countries can you run checks in?
How much does an international criminal record check cost?
How long does an international criminal record check take?
What do you need from the candidate?
Does a Canadian criminal record check cover offences committed abroad?
How far back does an international check go?
Can I run checks in more than one country for the same candidate?
Do I need a contract or a minimum volume?
Screen the whole history, not just the Canadian part of it
Create an account and order your first international check today. No subscription, no minimum, no contract.