police certificate, less than six months old?

[lyzdude 2]

Hi all,

I am not sure if anyone has experience a similar thing as what I am about to relate, but I have searched all over the place to find this rule in any written form other than what the embassy told us, but failed.

Anyway, here's the story. My wife went to the US Embassy in Singapore for her immigrant visa interview on 18 Sep. 2013. Neither of us is Singaporean and she's applying for the visa on the ground that she's married to an American (me). We both worked and lived there and in fact met there. So we felt that it was going to be a routine interview and she could expect to get her visa approved that day, as we thought that we had prepared all documents carefully and there should not be any more problems.

But much to our chagrin, her visa was not approved. One thing that they wanted was some updated financial information from me. Well, fair enough, the information they have is over half a year old and I can provide this information immediately. The other thing they wanted was what bugged me the most. They wanted her to get a new police certificate from her country of citizenship (Russia), because the one she had provided before is over six months old (it was issued about seven months ago).

So now she needs to go to her embassy in Singapore again to get a new certificate, which will take 2 to 3 weeks. I'm already in the US and started a new job, anxiously waiting for her to join me. Yet this latest debacle will delay our reunion for another month or so.

Now here is thing that really frustrated me. Maybe I am wrong, but in the letter we received from the NVC on what documents she should bring to the interview, it specifically states that she must bring

"A new police certificate from your current country of residence, if you obtained the police certificate more than one year ago."

I emailed the embassy after my wife's interview and they quickly responded that

"Police certificates from the applicant’s country of nationality and country of residence must be issued within the last six months."

Now when I emailed back, with the NVC letter attached, highlighting that nothing is mentioned in the NVC letter about the police certificate from the country of citizenship and the currency requirement for that from the country of residence is one year, NOT six months, I got nothing back. They generally respond quickly in my past experience.

I also search online a bit and cannot find anywhere this six-month requirement and the letter from the NVC states rather clearly the currency requirement is one-year. So I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, or did the Embassy in Singapore simply made up this rule as they were interviewing my wife.

We would have easily prepared all the documents, had we known what was required of us. But we were not informed of this six-month rule. Yet it is not simply an error of omission on the part of the Embassy/NVC, because we were clearly and unequivocally told a one-year rule and yet now we are told something different. Even if the rules changes after our receipt of the NVC letter, I am still under the impression that our federal government operates under the confines of the constitution which explicitly forbids the enactments of act post facto regulations (laws cannot be enacted retroactively and hence new rules can only be applied to new applicants, not applications already under process or possibly completed applications).

Anyway, notwithstanding our anger and frustration, does anyone else know about this six-month rule for the police certificates or had a similar experience? Can someone direct me to a place where this six-month rule is written?

Thanks a lot in advance.

[lyzdude 2]

Another question I have is that is it possible to change consular processing (outside of the US) to change of status process (in the US) while the consular process is on-going? Does anyone know how long it'd take to have this switch?

I suppose that my wife could join me in the US using her tourist visa and then change her status here. But I suppose that this will take months and we might as well bite the bullet here and wait for a few more weeks with the consular processing.

[Segs 2]

I think the validity of the Police certificate is 6months, after which you apply for a new one. If within the period of 6 months, one has not been called for interview.

http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3195.html

[Ryan H 3,855]

Anyway, notwithstanding our anger and frustration, does anyone else know about this six-month rule for the police certificates or had a similar experience? Can someone direct me to a place where this six-month rule is written?

Embassies and Consulates do have the discretion to ask for a police certificate that has been issued i the last 6 months. I learned this from material I received from this law firm: http://www.arctec.com/ (note, I did not retain this firm or any other, I only requested material from them when I thought I was going to go down the K1 path).

Another question I have is that is it possible to change consular processing (outside of the US) to change of status process (in the US) while the consular process is on-going?

No

Edited September 20, 2013 by Ryan H