Police Report - home country only?

[ECWilloughbys 7]

Hi all, I have a question. My fiance was born and currently lives in England, and has for the past eight years. Before that he lived in Australia for a year, but since age 16, he's lived all over the world, due to his parents' jobs moving them around all the time. Does he need to get a police report from every single city he's lived since age 16? Obviously we'll do that if we have to, but right now this task seems rather daunting.

Thanks!

[Y&E 12]

He needs to get a certificate for every country that he's lived in for 1 year or more since the age of 16. I just received an RFE for my NZ one (kiwi living in England) because the NZ consulate applies on the beneficiary's behalf for the cert (and the UK follows that practice) and you don't have to get it yourself. You may want to check on the country specific forums if there's anywhere else that does that too.

[ECWilloughbys 7]

He needs to get a certificate for every country that he's lived in for 1 year or more since the age of 16. I just received an RFE for my NZ one (kiwi living in England) because the NZ consulate applies on the beneficiary's behalf for the cert (and the UK follows that practice) and you don't have to get it yourself. You may want to check on the country specific forums if there's anywhere else that does that too.

Thanks so much for the quick response! At one point, he was still a minor and his parents were separated, so his mother had an address in England while he was staying with his father in Thailand. I wondered if maybe since he wasn't there a full year, not enrolled in school, and his mother was still in the UK, we might be able to skip that one, but I don't want to do anything out of laziness if it might bite us later.

[Y&E 12]

My attitude is, when dealing with any bureaucrat in the US, go further than they ask in the first instance in order to avoid any unnecessary delays later.

That said, as I mentioned above, I've got an RFE for the NZ police report despite having already applied for it and it being on the way. In your case if your fiance was over the age of 16 when he was in Thailand then I'd get the report.

And please accept my apologies, it might only be 6 months residence in each place, not 1 year.

[trailmix 77]

According to the instructions at the Dept of State it is "Police certificate from all places lived since age 16". This is different from the CR1/IR1 instructions, where the person is only required to get a PC if they lived in the place for a year or more.

To get details of how to obtain police certificates from different countries and what is acceptable, you can look at the reciprocity tables, just choose the country from the drop down list, then on the next page that follows scroll down to the document descriptions:

http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/reciprocity/reciprocity_3272.html

[A + M 29]

My attitude is, when dealing with any bureaucrat in the US, go further than they ask in the first instance in order to avoid any unnecessary delays later.

That said, as I mentioned above, I've got an RFE for the NZ police report despite having already applied for it and it being on the way. In your case if your fiance was over the age of 16 when he was in Thailand then I'd get the report.

And please accept my apologies, it might only be 6 months residence in each place, not 1 year.

Correct !

[LovelyKris81 0]

It also depends on the consulate. Some say 6 months, some say 1 year. Email them directly for an answer. Honestly, I wouldn't want to deal with getting a police report from Thailand (or anywhere I'm not living for that matter) unless it was really necessary. Unless you are somehow flagging them that he lived in other places (work history, other visas, etc.) they're not likely to go delving into his past to call you on this. Especially not if this is London. Good luck, just my opinion.

[ECWilloughbys 7]

It also depends on the consulate. Some say 6 months, some say 1 year. Email them directly for an answer. Honestly, I wouldn't want to deal with getting a police report from Thailand (or anywhere I'm not living for that matter) unless it was really necessary. Unless you are somehow flagging them that he lived in other places (work history, other visas, etc.) they're not likely to go delving into his past to call you on this. Especially not if this is London. Good luck, just my opinion.

Thank you! That was my thinking... he was 17, out of school but not working, so no real paper trail of having been there other than stamps on his old and expired passport.

According to the instructions at the Dept of State it is "Police certificate from all places lived since age 16". This is different from the CR1/IR1 instructions, where the person is only required to get a PC if they lived in the place for a year or more.

To get details of how to obtain police certificates from different countries and what is acceptable, you can look at the reciprocity tables, just choose the country from the drop down list, then on the next page that follows scroll down to the document descriptions:

http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/reciprocity/reciprocity_3272.html

Thanks so much for this! Bookmarking.