Rolled ink fingerprints on whichever fingerprint form the requesting authority has given you, in the uncommon case that prints are asked for, taken at our RCMP-accredited Barrie office to the quality standard that gets a card accepted rather than returned. Walk-ins welcome; about 10–15 minutes.
Book Ink Fingerprinting →A ACRO Police Certificate from the United Kingdom is issued by the ACRO Criminal Records Office — not by us, and not by any fingerprinting company in Canada. What the process needs from this side of the ocean is a set of rolled ink fingerprints on a physical card, taken well enough to be read and accepted.
That is the step that most often fails. A card rolled too lightly, too heavily, or with a smudged core comes back rejected, and the applicant loses weeks — sometimes months — restarting a process from another country. We roll to acceptance quality, check every impression before you leave, and take a second card if your process wants a spare.
If you've lived in the United Kingdom and you're now in Canada, a clearance from your time there is commonly required for:
Applying for Canadian PR or citizenship and need the Canadian side too? That one is digital, not ink — see police certificates for IRCC.
Two government-issued photo IDs, plus whichever fingerprint form the requesting authority has given you, in the uncommon case that prints are asked for if your consulate supplied one. No card? We keep standard blank ink cards and FD-258s in stock.
An RCMP-accredited technician rolls each finger by hand, checks every impression for clarity, and re-rolls anything that isn't clean. Roughly 10–15 minutes.
You send the completed card to the ACRO Criminal Records Office following their process. We hand you a card that will stand up to their review.
People often arrive asking for "the digital one" because it's what they had done for a Canadian check. It won't work here: digital LiveScan submits electronically to the RCMP and produces a Canadian result. It never produces a physical card, and it doesn't communicate with any foreign authority.
| Digital LiveScan | Ink / FD-258 Card | |
|---|---|---|
| How it's taken | Fingers scanned electronically — no ink | Rolled by hand in ink onto a physical card |
| Who accepts it | The RCMP, and Canadian bodies that rely on RCMP results | The FBI, most foreign police authorities, some employers and licensing bodies |
| Typical uses | Canadian employment checks, immigration and citizenship, record suspension (pardon), US entry waiver, vulnerable sector submissions | FBI Identity History Summary, foreign police clearance certificates, overseas employment and licensing, international adoption |
| What you leave with | Nothing to carry — the submission goes electronically to the RCMP | A completed physical fingerprint card that you submit yourself |
| Turnaround | RCMP results typically in days | Card is ready the same visit; the receiving authority sets its own processing time |
| Appointment length | About 10–15 minutes | About 10–15 minutes |
We take ink prints for police clearance processes worldwide. If your country isn't listed, call us — the card format is nearly always one we already stock.
All foreign police clearance fingerprinting → · Every kind of ink fingerprinting we do →
This certificate goes by several names depending on who is asking — you may see it called ACRO Police Certificate, ACRO Certificate, UK Police Certificate, ACPO Police Certificate. They all refer to the same document, and we take the fingerprints for all of them.
Ink and FD-258 work is a specialist service — and we are the only RCMP-accredited office in Simcoe County open seven days a week, with evening appointments to 9PM by arrangement. Read the reviews →