Certified vs uncertified Ontario driving record: the difference

The two records contain the same information. The difference is the ministry's seal, and the seal is what makes it slow: ServiceOntario issues the uncertified 3-year record as a PDF by email immediately, and states that a certified order "will be processed within 15 business days and then sent by regular mail via Canada Post". If a court has asked you for a certified copy, nothing about ordering the uncertified one faster will satisfy that.

The only difference is the seal

There is no extra information on a certified record. It is the same search, on the same data, printed with the Ministry of Transportation's certification on it so that a third party can rely on it as an official copy rather than as something that could have been edited after download.

That is also exactly why it cannot be instant. An emailed PDF cannot carry a seal in any meaningful sense, so the certified version has to be produced and posted, and the ministry quotes 15 business days for it. The two turnarounds, and why there is nothing between them, is the whole of the timing question.

Who actually needs the certified one

The ministry does not publish a list of who must have a certified copy, and we are not going to invent one. What can be said is the shape of it: a certified copy exists so that a body which will act on the record - typically a court - can treat it as proved without calling the ministry.

The practical rule is to ask whoever requested the record whether they need it certified, and to believe their answer rather than a guess. Ordering the wrong one costs the fee twice and, if the certified one is needed, fifteen business days on top.

Two products, on two pages, because they arrive differently

We sell both, and deliberately not on one page. The uncertified record is issued by the ministry immediately and emailed to you; the certified one is processed for 15 business days and posted by Canada Post to the name and address you give us. Those are two different products with two different timelines, and selling them under one price and one "how long does it take" answer would misstate both. So the uncertified record is on the front page at $40.00 all in, and the certified one has its own page at $46.00 all in, with the ministry's own fifteen business days as the timing quoted.

Nothing about ordering through us shortens those fifteen business days: we place the same online order the ministry offers everyone. What you get is one charge instead of two, the licence number checked before the fee is spent, and a page that says plainly which record you are buying.

Common questions

Is an uncertified record an official document?

It is issued by the Ministry of Transportation and contains the ministry's data. What it lacks is the ministry's certification, which is the thing that lets a third party rely on it without verifying it themselves.

Can I get a certified record by email?

No. ServiceOntario states that a certified order is processed within 15 business days and then sent by regular mail via Canada Post, whether it was ordered online, by mail or in person.

Can I certify an uncertified record myself?

No. Certification is the ministry's, not a notary's or a commissioner's. A notary can attest that a copy matches a document you showed them, which is a different statement from the ministry certifying its own record.

Where does the certified copy get posted to?

To the name and mailing address you give on the order form. The ministry posts it by Canada Post after processing it within 15 business days; it is not emailed, and it never passes through us.

What we could not confirm

These are things this page would have liked to tell you and could not find on a Ministry of Transportation or ServiceOntario page. Rather than guess, they are listed.

  • Which bodies require a certified rather than an uncertified record. The ministry does not publish this, so the guide describes the distinction and tells the reader to ask the requester rather than naming institutions.

Sources

Everything on this page is checked against a page published by the Government of Ontario or the Ministry of Transportation. Nothing is taken from another commercial site.

Checked .

Next: how to get a certified driver's abstract in Ontario, and what the seal changes , or how long does an Ontario driver's abstract take? .

This is a guide, not a sales page, which is why there is no price on it. If you want us to order one for you, start at our Ontario certified driver's abstract page.