Hong Kong police certificate - tips for K1 visa applicants

[Dowbs 11]

Hi everyone,

When I was starting my K1 application I worried quite a lot about obtaining a police certificate from Hong Kong (where I lived for 3 years), so here are some tips I've learnt during the process. This will be helpful particularly for those who are no longer living in Hong Kong and/or are interviewing for their K1 visa at the US embassy in London. Hope it helps others!

If you have lived in Hong Kong for 6 months or more at any time in your life, you need a police certificate from the Hong Kong Police for your K1 visa application. The Hong Kong Police send the certificate directly to the embassy you are interviewing at - not to you directly. It takes the police four calendar weeks to do this, and the certificate should ideally arrive before your interview.

To apply for the certificate, you must have a list of documents (see http://www.police.gov.hk/ppp_en/11_useful_info/cert_no_crime.html#oversea ):

1. Application form
2. Photocopy of your Hong Kong ID and/or passport
3. Full set of certified fingerprints (see the website for full details of this because there are exact instructions that need to be followed)
4. A bank draft or Hong Kong cheque for HK$210
5. "A photocopy of a letter from the relevant Consulate / Immigration Authority / Government Authority, which contains his or her name and clearly indicates that the production of the Certificate is required" ---> this is what caused me a lot of worry, because we only receive such a letter with packet 3.

The US embassy in London can be slow to send out packet 3. For example, my NOA2 was 22 August, but I only received packet 3 on 28 September. So if I had waited for packet 3 to apply for the Hong Kong police certificate, then considering it takes a few days for the application to get to Hong Kong, I'd have had to schedule my interview for early November. (Because the interview has to be after the embassy receives the certificate, and the certificate takes 4 calendar weeks. Phew!)

To speed this up, you can use an email from the NVC that contains your case number, name and embassy address, plus the list of documents that the embassy requires.

• To get the email from NVC, a few days after you get your NOA2, email asknvc@state.gov and enquire about the status of your petition (include your WAC number). When NVC has received your petition from USCIS they should reply with all the info you need.
• Then download the list of documents required for a K1 visa interview from your embassy website. (For example, here is the relevant page of the London embassy: https://uk.usembassy.gov/visas/fiancee-2/required-documents/ .)
• Send the email and list along with your other documents in your application to the Hong Kong Police. If you want to double-check that this will be sufficient before you post it, you can email eo-cncc-ib@police.gov.hk to check (attach a PDF of the NVC email and documents list).

Doing this saved me several weeks, as I got my NVC email at the beginning of September.

Hope this helps a little! Good luck to everyone!

[AnnyCui 1]

This is awesome! Thank you Dowbs. I am also applying for Hong Kong police clearance, probably in a few weeks. Right now still waiting for my NOA2.

Your tips are so helpful! Looks like they will help save a lot of time.

 

 

[May & Mickey 11]

On April 24, 2018 at 7:44 PM, AnnyCui said:

This is awesome! Thank you Dowbs. I am also applying for Hong Kong police clearance, probably in a few weeks. Right now still waiting for my NOA2.

Your tips are so helpful! Looks like they will help save a lot of time.

 

 

Hi Anny, how was your visa application? We are currently waiting for our NOA2 as well. So we can get the HK police certificate. How long did you take yours?

 

Thank you,

May & Mickey

[AnnyCui 1]

23 hours ago, May & Mickey said:

Hi Anny, how was your visa application? We are currently waiting for our NOA2 as well. So we can get the HK police certificate. How long did you take yours?

 

Thank you,

May & Mickey

Hi May & Mickey, I applied for the HK police certificate in person at the HK police headquarters, after I got my P3 letter. They will give you a receipt, which you can bring to your interview. Then HK police will send it to the US Consulate in a month. In my case, I applied for it on June 15, and the US Consulate (Guangzhou) received it on July 17th (according to their reply to my email enquiry).

 

Btw, a small tip: you may email or call the HK police, like three weeks after your application, to get the tracking number of the registered mail. Good luck!

[May & Mickey 11]

On September 10, 2018 at 3:56 PM, AnnyCui said:

Hi May & Mickey, I applied for the HK police certificate in person at the HK police headquarters, after I got my P3 letter. They will give you a receipt, which you can bring to your interview. Then HK police will send it to the US Consulate in a month. In my case, I applied for it on June 15, and the US Consulate (Guangzhou) received it on July 17th (according to their reply to my email enquiry).

 

Btw, a small tip: you may email or call the HK police, like three weeks after your application, to get the tracking number of the registered mail. Good luck!

Thank you Anny!

[siulamvb 16]

I went to the police department in Wan Chai to apply for the police clearance in person. It was really fast, takes me 5 minutes only even I did not make an appointment from the telephone system.

 

In the NVC system, my case number was assigned on Sept 13,2018 and changed to transit on Sept 19,2018. My fiancee received the email from NVC on the same date. 

 

So I print out the attached letter from the NVC email with my ID card to the police clearance on Sept 19,2018. The officer did not even look at my NOA2 or the checklist of the k1 visa downloaded from the Hong Kong US consulate.

 

The office told me that the police clearance will be sent to the US consulate directly in 3-4 weeks. Since this document takes almost a month, I decided not to wait for the package 3 and go to apply for the police clearance with a copy of NVC letter.

 

It works!!!  So when I recieve the package, I will mail back to the Hong Kong US consulate in one day. The waiting has been to long!!

 

By the way, my NOA 1 is Jan 8,2018.