police certificate

[vinnette 1]

good day to you all we sent in our ds-230 nvc recieve them may 7.we get RFE for missing documents hewas in canada some years ago and spent 8 months there and nvc want police certificate from canada.i thought that if you spent a year in another country then you have to get a pc from that country.am i right.we are in f4 category

[kokobearus 4]

It says that you have to show police certificate for any place where she/he had live since age 16.

[trailmix 77]

It says that you have to show police certificate for any place where she/he had live since age 16.

No it doesn't actually, the guidelines state that if you lived in a foreign country for 12 months - you must present a police certificate.

Lived in a different country for more than 12 months - was 16 years or older at that time - the police authorities of that locality.

There seems to be some confusion about this lately, I don't know why, don't know if the rules have changed and they haven't bothered to update their information.

Anyway, you have two options. You can call NVC, ask to speak to a supervisor and determine if you really need to send it or they have made a mistake.

You can go ahead and get the Canadian Police Certificate. Because your relative is no longer in Canada, they will need to get the full fingerprint version of the police certificate. This can take up to 4 months to obtain. So you may as well speak with a supervisor as it could save you a lot of time.

Details on how to obtain that police certificate from the RCMP are here - just scroll down to Police Records / Outside Canada.

If you do contact a supervisor at NVC, please let us know what you find out.

Oh and one other thing - double check the RFE, they can be misleading sometimes. If you make a mistake on dates, for instance they don't account for a period of time or you forgot to put "to present" on the most recent, they also send a blurb with the RFE about police certificates.

That does not necessarily mean they require one - what it means is that if you messed up the dates and now require one - send that too.

Edited May 15, 2010 by trailmix

[vinnette 1]

Thanks very much for your timely response.I will make the call on monday and let you know.Thanks again