Apostille for criminal record check necessary?

[Bryonym 33]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to ask about the criminal record checks and whether they need to an apostille? I need to get 3 separate ones from different countries so it’s going to be a bit tricky to arrange if that’s the case!

Thanks so much,

Bryony

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

No.

[Pennycat 880]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to ask about the criminal record checks and whether they need to an apostille? I need to get 3 separate ones from different countries so its going to be a bit tricky to arrange if thats the case!

Thanks so much,

Bryony

Definitely not from your own country (or, rather, the country you're interviewing in) but maybe for the others. Do you have your embassy checklist yet? Ours said "If any of the civil documents that you will submit: birth, divorce, death, single or police certificates are from another country and not from the Registro Civil of Costa Rica, these documents must have the apostille certification or has to be authenticated by the US Consulate in the country where these documents were obtained".

It doesn't explicitly say, but US documents don't need apostilles. Only third countries. This is because Consular Officers can be expected to know what US legal documents and normal seals look like and are trained to know the same from the countries they're serving in, but cannot be expected to know it for all the countries. That's why you have have the documents authenticated at the US Consulate in the third country or get an apostille (which is basically an internationally transmittable notarizaction. Like a passport for documents).

I'd say: probably. But check your embassy instructions.

[Bryonym 33]

Hi Catherine,

That's what I was thinking, but hoping it wasn't the case as it's so expensive! I don't have my checklist yet, but police checks and notarisation etc. take time so I thought I'd start sorting it out now. I'm from the UK, but I'll have my interview in Seoul because we're currently living in South Korea. We also lived in NZ for over a year so I need one from there too. I'll check with the Seoul embassy to see what their process is.

Thanks so much for your help

Bryony

[Pennycat 880]

Hi Catherine,

That's what I was thinking, but hoping it wasn't the case as it's so expensive! I don't have my checklist yet, but police checks and notarisation etc. take time so I thought I'd start sorting it out now. I'm from the UK, but I'll have my interview in Seoul because we're currently living in South Korea. We also lived in NZ for over a year so I need one from there too. I'll check with the Seoul embassy to see what their process is.

Thanks so much for your help

Bryony

No worries and yes it could be a pain. It is possible that Seoul has a different policy than San Jose (but honestly I do doubt it). Maybe see if you can find other people on VJ who have recently passed through Seoul and ask them if they can forward you the checklist or at least tell you what it says about this issue? You can search by country and their last activity here: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?app=members&section=view&module=list I've found that most people are very helpful over direct message.

Be careful with ordering the police certificates too early. I know most people want to have the next step assembled and ready to go out the door the day NOA2 comes in, but those police certificates have limited validity (it's either the embassy's choice or they really do "expire" after a certain period of time). So I'd wait at least until after NOA2, perhaps a bit later, to get the ball rolling on that. I'd think of it as "wasting" a few weeks now vs being prepared too early, having the documents expire, going to the interview and finding out they've expired and needing to do it all over again (adding more than a few weeks, and actually wasting time and money, rather than "wasting" time by just not jumping the gun as quickly as some do).