Greek Penal Record for Greek born

[TandD2016 12]

Hello everyone,

Here is a very tough one that I will appreciate if anyone can help.

I am a Greek born who moved to UK when I was 19 years old and I have British nationality. i will be applying for K1 visa and going through the American embassy in London. Now according to the State Department website, I will need to provide a police certificate from my time in Greece. Specifically for Greek born applicants this will be the Penal Record for Judicial purposes.

The Greek authorities are prohibited by law to provide such a record to an individual and can only provide such a document to specific authorities (foreign embassies is one of them), For Greeks going through immigration via the American embassy in Athens, they are provided with a standard letter (also referred as form DS-2002) as part of packet 3 so that they can request from the Greek authorities to send the penal record directly to the American embassy in Athens. As far as I know, the penal record is in greek but the American embassy in Athens will accept documents in greek or english without requiring translation.

In the State department website it mentions that Greeks living outside of Greece can request such certificate from the closest consulate authorities, this is not the case as the Greek embassies and consulates stopped accepting applications for penal records as of 01/Apr/2014. I have a representative in Greece that can request my penal record on my behalf but the question is where do I request to be sent. I am not sure whether the embassy in London will accept it as it will be in Greek and I cannot take the document to be translated as it is illegal for such document to be given to individuals.

Any help from any Greeks that had to deal with this issue will be greatly appreciated!!!

[jan22 3,056]

As you indicate, the State Department website still says to go to the Greek Embassy and fle a written application for the Penal Record for Judicial Use (https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/fees/reciprocity-by-country/GR.html). They are usually good at updating any change in requirements when notified of a change (especially more than two years later!). Do you have an official source you could copy and cite? If so, perhaps a letter explaining why you could not submit the record along wth the copy of the official record would be accepted?

Or, there is another avenue that appears to be available. Since you have UK citizenship now (assuming that's what you meant when you say UK "nationality"), and are using your UK passport for the US visa, you could use the "Penal Record for General Use" method as described on the State Department site. Someone could apply for that on your behalf. It is provided ot the indvidual, so you could get it translated. Of course, Greece might not consider you a "foreigner", so that might not be a possibility for you either.

If neither of these work 9(i.e., you don't have an official source to cite regarding the change in procedure and Greece will not consider you a foreigner), I would go through the process necessary to get the record for judicial use and have it sent to the US Embassy in London.

As you indicate, the State Department website still says to go to the Greek Embassy and fle a written application for the Penal Record for Judicial Use (https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/fees/reciprocity-by-country/GR.html). They are usually good at updating any change in requirements when notified of a change (especially more than two years later!). Do you have an official source you could copy and cite? If so, perhaps a letter explaining why you could not submit the record along wth the copy of the official record would be accepted?

Or, there is another avenue that appears to be available. Since you have UK citizenship now (assuming that's what you meant when you say UK "nationality"), and are using your UK passport for the US visa, you could use the "Penal Record for General Use" method as described on the State Department site. Someone could apply for that on your behalf. It is provided ot the indvidual, so you could get it translated. Of course, Greece might not consider you a "foreigner", so that might not be a possibility for you either.

If neither of these work (i.e., you don't have an official source to cite regarding the change in procedure and Greece will not consider you a foreigner), I would go through the process necessary to get the record for judicial use and have it sent to the US Embassy in London.

Edited August 24, 2016 by jan22

[TandD2016 12]

Jan22 thank you very much for your reply, the official source that I got of the change in the procedure at the Greek embassies is the website of the Greek embassy in London see link below and telephone enquies that I have made with both the Greek embassy in London and the Ministry of Justice in Athens Greece.

http://www.greekembassy.org.uk/en-gb/consular/certificates

In terms of what penal record I need, it comes down to how the American embassy in London classifies me and since I was born in Greece (independently of my British Nationality) I still need to provide a Penal Record for Judicial Use. I have already obtained my Penal Record for General Use but I don't think that will be accepted as suitable.

The latest that I got from the Greek Ministry of Justice was that my Penal Record for Judicial Use needs to be sent directly from the Greek MoJ to the American Embassy in Athens Greece and then to be forwarded from the embassy in Athens to the American Embassy in London.

Not sure how this will work as the document will be in Greek and I cannot send the document for translation as the Greek MoJ will not physically give me the document.

So the question is how will I make this happen? I have already emailed the American Embassy in London but it's been two weeks and I had no reply...please help!!!

[jan22 3,056]

I would follow the procedure the Greeks have told you, so the certificate is sent to the USEmbassy in London. If nothing else, at the interview they can request the translation and you can say you would be happy to provide one if they can give you a copy of the document to translate! If you haven't already done so, I would suggest you contact the USEmbassy in Athens and ask them how they would suggest you handle the issue of the translation, since the certificate will be passing through their hands first.

I would also have a copy of the Greek Embassy page handy to support my submission of the General Use certificate available at the interview.

Hope you manage to get this sorted out soon!

[TandD2016 12]

Jan22, thank you very much for the comprehensive reply. I haven't received a reply from the American embassy in Athens yet but I will make sure to post on here the outcome so that any fellow members with the same issue know what to do.

[TandD2016 12]

Just for any Greek born members that will come up with this situation in the future requiring a Greek police certificate (Penal Record for Judicial purposes) but having to interview in an US embassy/consulate other than the one in Athens, this is what you need to do:

1) Wait till you obtain your NVC case number (i.e. LND2016xxxxxx)

2) Apply to the Greek Ministry of Justice for your Penal Record for Judicial purposes in person or via representative to be sent to the US Embassy in Athens and make sure that your NVC case file is included in your application.

3) Penal record will be sent directly to the US Embassy in Athens from the Greek Ministry of Justice within 2-3 working days.

4) Contact the embassy/consulate that will be interviewing you and ask them to request your Penal Record for Judicial purposes from the US Embassy in Athens so that it is available to the Consular officer during your interview. I personally wrote a letter to the US Embassy in London so that I had a record of the request made.

5) Your Penal Record for Judicial purposes will hopefully arrive at your interviewing embassy/consulate before your interview and you will have no problems. If it hasn't arrived make sure that you explain the situation to the Consular Officer and insist that they need to request it from the US Embassy in Athens. I say this because apparently Greece is the only country (as the consular officer that interviewed me said) that will not provide such certificate to individuals and will only send it directly to authorised government agencies/departments.

Hope this helps.

[grammarly 1]

What is a reasonable charge to have an attorney in Athens fill out the Penal Record for Judicial Use form?

 

Thanks.