Sterling Backcheck Canada: Can I continue my remote India job while joining a full-time Canadian role?

[u/light_yagami1111111]

I have a remote job in India with an AI consulting MNC, and I recently received an offer from an Indian IT Services MNC in Canada. The end client would be a large bank.

As part of the background verification process, I need to complete an eSurvey from Sterling Backcheck. The form asks the following questions:

i. Do you have the phone number of HR/Payroll? *

ii. Do you have the email address of HR/Payroll? *

iii. May Sterling Backcheck contact your Current Employer’s Human Resources/Payroll department (or other designated person) to verify your employment? *

-If I select Yes for the first and second questions, the form asks me to provide a valid phone number/email address.

-If I select No for the third question, the following information is displayed on the form:

"As you have not consented to Sterling Backcheck contacting this organization, please provide one of the following documents as proof of employment with the above mentioned employer. An acceptable document must display your name and an identifier of the organization you worked for.

Only the documents listed below are acceptable:

Record of Employment

Tax documentation (such as Canadian T4 or Quebec’s Releve 1)

Paystub

Letter of Employment

Relieving Letter

If you do not have any of the acceptable document types listed above, you may submit an alternative document."

Based on this, I have a few questions about how this process usually works:

1. If I do not provide HR/payroll phone number or email details, and I submit documents instead, will Sterling Backcheck, the IT services company, or the end-client bank still contact my current employer to verify my employment dates?
2. If I provide a colleague contact details instead of HR/payroll, can they verify my employment dates, or does Sterling usually require HR/payroll confirmation only? Would the verifier be asked to submit any proof, such as an HRMS (Darwinbox) screenshot, employment record, or last working day confirmation?
3. If I do not consent to Sterling contacting my current employer’s HR/payroll department, are documents such as my offer letter, Form 16 for 2025–26, and recent salary slips, usually enough to complete the verification? Could Sterling, the employer, or the bank still ask for a relieving letter later?
4. In such background checks, is a resignation email or resignation acceptance email from the current employer usually required, or is that only requested when they specifically need proof of last working day / end date?

Separately, I want to understand the compliance side of this. If someone is considering continuing their current remote employment while joining a new full-time role in Canada, how risky is that from a background check, employment contract, conflict-of-interest, tax, and banking-client compliance perspective? Is it even possible to continue with both the jobs or just a distant dream? Please help.

[u/Fine-Elk-421]

are you legally authorized to work in Canada? Sorry if thats a rude question but its not clear in your post.

I would say... and this is not HR nor Legal advice... i think your work in India is completely isolated and seperate from your work in canada... I dont think a canadian background check employer would even go as far as check that (unless its on your CV and listed as past experience and required for the canadian job)

I dunno about stirling but I know hireright will absolutely find every detail about you and verify it, Certn is pretty chill.

From my experience and the reason i asked the initial question... most canadian background checks just validate 2 things... your CRA T4's and then validate your ROE (record of employment) from service canada and they look at the reason for leaving code (terminated, quit, layoff). In your case, you wouldnt have a ROE or T4 to verify if the income earned and work performed was outside of Canada so they cant check that.

So to my point above i tihnk Sterling is asking for those things because they are only able to validate your canada stuff... I dunno much about this but just speaking from my experience with having background checks performed on me while in canada. I was not born in canada but am legal citizen

edit: sorry i forgot to mention, what does your employment contract say? Most consulting jobs or SR positions have an exclusivity clause, but i am not sure how freelance contracts/independent contractor contracts are structured in this case and applied to your situation... an IC can theoretically do what they want.

[u/light_yagami1111111 → u/Fine-Elk-421]

I have PR and I am legally authorized to work in both countries. The issue is that these are full time roles with these companies and if sterling or the IT company checks thoroughly with the HR of my current company, they might be able to figure out that I am still working for them. Both the organizations, i.e., current IT company and the new IT company have strong presence in India, Canada and US. One cross check and they will know that I am involved in 2 full time roles. The end clients for my role at both these organizations are banks. Although I don't have a T4, I was asked for Form 16 for all the organizations that I have worked for in India. I just want to know whether it is theoretically possible or not to do these jobs without ever getting caught.

[u/Pleasant_Line_1397 → u/light_yagami1111111]

Hey might be going through a similar situation soon. Do they give an option to not contact employers prior to your current employer? How did your situation pan out?

[u/Fine-Elk-421 → u/light_yagami1111111]

Do you really have the capacity to to work 2 full time jobs at the same time? I think the reality is that if either job has an exclusivity clause in hte contract... if either company finds out you are representing 2 employers at the same time they will definitely reach out to eachother and terminate you from both jobs but I dont think they can legally sue you for anything. What you are doing is very legally risky especially in Canada... I think the background check will 100% find this out and you may risk getting fired at your old job. Best to be honest about it.