Police Certificate Validity

[bcking 3,157]

My wife has her medical on Friday and her interview on April 5th.

 

The NVC website and the US Embassy in the UK (Her home country) both say the police certificate needs to be within 1 year.

 

However when she looks on the US Embassy under "Medical Examination" it says the Police Certificate should be valid in the last 6 months

 

https://uk.usembassy.gov/visas/family-immigration/medical-examination/

 

"For applicants aged 16 and over, a UK police certificate (known as an ACRO) issued within the past 6 months"

 

Interestingly, on the next section labelled "Required Documents" it says:

 

"UK police certificates are valid for 12 months only."

 

Anyone have issues with these sorts of discrepancies before? I've always heard 12 months and for the interview it seems 12 months, but now the exam (why does the doctor even care?) needs 6 months. Her certificate expired yesterday (4 days before the exam).

[KierenHby 899]

12 mos validity is the default. 

[bcking 3,157]

10 hours ago, KierenHby said:

12 mos validity is the default. 

I realize that is the default, but the UK Embassy website under Medical Examination states:

 

"For applicants aged 16 and over, a UK police certificate (known as an ACRO) issued within the past 6 months;"

 

So I was wondering if anyone has any experience. I'm asking in the UK specific forum.

[Amshep 0]

A lot of police certificate are valid only for 6 months, and also the period of time that they are valid by the embassies.

 

Maybe the US embassy take it like that because they consider you need one from every place you were living for over 6 months.

 

For UK it shouldn't be hard to get one right now so it will be still valid for the interview.

[bcking 3,157]

2 minutes ago, Amshep said:

A lot of police certificate are valid only for 6 months, and also the period of time that they are valid by the embassies.

 

Maybe the US embassy take it like that because they consider you need one from every place you were living for over 6 months.

 

For UK it shouldn't be hard to get one right now so it will be still valid for the interview.

The actual certificate doesn't say anything about validity on it. There is no expiration date.

 

The US Embassy in the UK considers 12 months sufficient for the interview itself, but on their page about the exam they list 6 months.

 

The email my wife got from the doctor's office also said 12 months.

 

Just not sure why a doctor would want a more up to date certificate than the embassy. I guess as a TB risk factor but still it seems this is all just a error on a website.

 

Her medical is tomorrow so she could not get a new one in time. Her interview is April 5th, but the interview documents say 12 months so it wouldn't matter for that. This only came up when she received an email from the doctor's office on Tuesday which had a link to the embassy website. She is thorough so reads everything and noticed the discrepancy (the email she received said 12 months but the website they link to says 6).

 

I just wish people would do their jobs and make sure everything is clear. This whole process has been a slog through incompetence. NVC people and now this.

[Amshep 0]

Are you sure you read that correctly?

It says:

Police Certificates for the United Kingdom:  If you have resided in the United Kingdom for 6 months or more since the age of 16, you are required to obtain a police certificate from the ACPO Criminal Records Office (ACRO).  Further information is available from their website at www.acro.police.uk.
Note: The police certificate must list all names and aliases by which you have ever been known, e.g. maiden name, alternative spellings of names used on legal documents etc. UK police certificates are valid for 12 months only.  

 

So they are valid for 12 months if she lived there for over 6 months 

 

 

[bcking 3,157]

9 minutes ago, Amshep said:

Are you sure you read that correctly?

It says:

Police Certificates for the United Kingdom:  If you have resided in the United Kingdom for 6 months or more since the age of 16, you are required to obtain a police certificate from the ACPO Criminal Records Office (ACRO).  Further information is available from their website at www.acro.police.uk.
Note: The police certificate must list all names and aliases by which you have ever been known, e.g. maiden name, alternative spellings of names used on legal documents etc. UK police certificates are valid for 12 months only.  

 

So they are valid for 12 months if she lived there for over 6 months 

 

 

Click on the link I provided in my first post, make sure you are on step 6 (medical examination).

 

Then scroll down and click on "required documents".

 

"For applicants aged 16 and over, a UK police certificate (known as an ACRO) issued within the past 6 months;"

 

I agree in other places it says differently. The website contradicts itself.

[Amshep 0]

Yes, now I see it 

Did you tried to call the place where she will get the medical examination?

So she knows if she is going to be fine with those or if she has to change the appointment.

 

Maybe is a preventative time in case the rest of the process after medical examination takes longer so the police certificate still valid?

 

 

[bcking 3,157]

Just now, Amshep said:

Yes, now I see it 

Did you tried to call the place where she will get the medical examination?

So she knows if she is going to be fine with those or if she has to change the appointment.

 

Maybe is a preventative time in case the rest of the process after medical examination takes longer so the police certificate still valid?

 

 

Her interview is in about two weeks so if she had to reschedule the medical it would only be pushed back a few days. The police certificate took about 1-2 weeks to get when she applied the first time so she would likely have to push the interview back, which seems ridiculous when the interview itself only requires 12 months.

 

Her/My hope is that if she brings copies of all of the other places where 12 months is stated (NVC, Embassy, the email from the doctor) that if they argue with her she can argue her case. She won't bring it up unless they do.

[Amshep 0]

But make a phone call to the doctors, and make sure. I think is probably the best, so she will be sure about it.

 

She has 3 weeks before the interview. Pushed back a little but going to the interview with everything ready should be better, but I understand that you don't want to risk that. So make the phone calls to see if you get something before.

 

Also, no way you could expedite the police certificate?

[bcking 3,157]

2 minutes ago, Amshep said:

But make a phone call to the doctors, and make sure. I think is probably the best, so she will be sure about it.

 

She has 3 weeks before the interview. Pushed back a little but going to the interview with everything ready should be better, but I understand that you don't want to risk that. So make the phone calls to see if you get something before.

 

Also, no way you could expedite the police certificate?

No expedite for police certificate that I'm aware of.

 

If she has to reschedule the exam to get a new police certificate she will need to reschedule her interview as well. The exam needs to be like 5-7 days before so there is just no way.

 

If she calls now and they tell her yes 6 months then she will be forced to reschedule.

 

My feeling is if she shows up and they say "oh you need 6 months" she can say "well actually here is a copy of the email you sent, the NVC website and the embassy website that all says 12 months" and there is a chance she can get past it. Calling and being told ahead of time means she can't make the "well i went off this information" excuse.

 

If she goes and really does need to reschedule, she will reschedule tomorrow which is really only a day difference to today. Will still need to push interview back in either case.

 

Bottom line I'm not surprised about any of this given how idiotic the NVC team has been. I wouldn't expect anything more from the next stage.

[Amshep 0]

Well, I hope in that way she get a good result.

 

I just read in the ACRO website:

How long is my Police Certificate valid for?

There is no set period of time for which the Police Certificate is considered to be valid. The Police Certificate is only truly accurate on the date of issue. Embassies, high commissions, consulates or other authorities will usually require you to produce a Police Certificate which has been issued less than six (6) months before your visa interview.

 

 

 

 

[KierenHby 899]

Perhaps UK specific forum might produce relevant responses. 

[TBoneTX 45,288]

Thread is moved from the CR-1 Process forum to the UK regional forum.

[bcking 3,157]

4 hours ago, Amshep said:

Well, I hope in that way she get a good result.

 

I just read in the ACRO website:

How long is my Police Certificate valid for?

There is no set period of time for which the Police Certificate is considered to be valid. The Police Certificate is only truly accurate on the date of issue. Embassies, high commissions, consulates or other authorities will usually require you to produce a Police Certificate which has been issued less than six (6) months before your visa interview.

 

 

 

 

That is the problem. There is just a lot of conflicting information. Some places say 6, some say 12. The NVC website says 12 months for your embassy interview, the embassy says 12 months for the interview, but under the exam it says 6 months. The actual clinic's email said 12 months, and the website seems to say 12 months. There is no consistency.

 

I am wondering if anyone has gone to Knightsbridge with a police certificate older than 6 months and whether they said anything. The only reason why it is older than 6 months is because it took the NVC 11 weeks to review our case the first time, and then 12 weeks the second time after an error that, surprise surprise, stemmed from misleading information on the website.

 

As I said before if we call and they say 12 months we are fine. If we call and they say 6 months then we are clearly not fine and will have to reschedule. However if we show up and they say it should be 6 months at least since we are already there we could argue our case since the Embassy and the NVC both say 12 months. There is a chance that they would let it slide since the interview clearly only needs 12 months. So I'd rather not ask the clinic so that we have a chance to argue our case if it is a problem. If we really need to reschedule it pushes the interview back which is just ridiculous.