Necessity of exceedingly difficult to obtain police records

[Horus 6]

So the title says it all, basically we're out here in Cambodia right now for the last little over a year now and my fiance (not a local cambodian) needs police records from here as the last place before the interview stage at the consulate.  We didn't anticipate how much of a hassle this would wind up being since Cambodia has zero electronic government record keeping and does everything by paper, so the first hiccup we ran into at the ministry of justice was them telling us that our lease agreement wasn't proof we'd been living where we've been living all this time, and that we needed something else from what basically amounts to the local city council office (it's a tiny ### hole in the wall building on a crowded street where nobody speaks english, so we had to use a local friend from work to translate over the phone and talk with the guy), anyway once we got there of course they also told us that the lease agreement wasn't sufficient to get the paperwork from him regarding our residency, and wound up having to bribe him to write out a short list of instructions to give our landlord, who of course doesn't live in the building so we had to give it to his grandson (we took a picture so I can print new copies) who'd hand it off when he came by in the morning (the dude comes by like twice a day, usually when we're at work).  Basically I found out that our lease agreement isn't officially legal because the guy never filed paperwork on it with the local office, probably because he didn't want to spend money on it, so now i've got to pray he's willing to take care of it for us now instead. 

My question is, if say my landlord drags his feet or just flat out refuses to file the paperwork, is it likely to get us shot down for lack of a criminal records here due to them being an exceedingly difficult if not nearly impossible task to obtain as foreigners? I'd read that difficult to obtain police clearances had the potential for being waived, but i know that's usually for countries of previous citizenship, does anyone have any insight to shed on the matter. (even assuming everything does go well, cambodia so far is turning out to be the most expensive and convoluted and longest to obtain police clearance out of all of them). :/  I guess I should note she has no criminal record history in any of her previous countries (we have the records, but no crimes committed) but I don't know if that'd factor into whether they'd waive the cambodian one since it's or most recent location and we're filing from within the country.

Edited April 22, 2017 by TBoneTX
To remove bad language

[geowrian 22,338]

You can always try to explain the situation and why you are unable to obtain the police certificates. However, that's usually a long process for them to review and verify, and it needs to be because you are unable to reasonably obtain them...not because it's hard to do so. For instance, in Belgium, a user lived there but never registered his residence (as he was required to do). As such, they were unable to issue the police certificate to him. He eventually did get them to waive that requirement, but it added the better part of a year to his timeline IIRC (and required a new medical because that's only valid for 6 months). Another case is such as that with Saudi Arabia...if you are not a citizen and do not have an existing visa to enter (KSA does not have tourist visas), then you have no means to obtain the certificate since they must be requested in person. Even then, you have to jump through several hoops of letters with the embassies (with an appointment) to get another appointment to then request the police records. If you left KSA and did not obtain a police certificate beforehand, then it may be impossible to do so afterwards and therefore can be waived. This is listed in the reciprocity schedule, and if you meet those conditions, the certificates can be waived.

 

Back to your case...Cambodia's reciprocity schedule states that they are available (https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/fees/reciprocity-by-country/CB.html). If you are unable to obtain them, you can still proceed and explain why (showing proof that you are unable to obtain them). That said, I'd highly suggest to keep at it because having it waived can be a lengthy process, and Cambodia is considered a pretty high fraud / difficult embassy already.

 

Good luck!

[Horus 6]

4 minutes ago, geowrian said:

You can always try to explain the situation and why you are unable to obtain the police certificates. However, that's usually a long process for them to review and verify, and it needs to be because you are unable to reasonably obtain them...not because it's hard to do so. For instance, in Belgium, a user lived there but never registered his residence (as he was required to do). As such, they were unable to issue the police certificate to him. He eventually did get them to waive that requirement, but it added the better part of a year to his timeline IIRC (and required a new medical because that's only valid for 6 months). Another case is such as that with Saudi Arabia...if you are not a citizen and do not have an existing visa to enter (KSA does not have tourist visas), then you have no means to obtain the certificate since they must be requested in person. Even then, you have to jump through several hoops of letters with the embassies (with an appointment) to get another appointment to then request the police records. If you left KSA and did not obtain a police certificate beforehand, then it may be impossible to do so afterwards and therefore can be waived. This is listed in the reciprocity schedule, and if you meet those conditions, the certificates can be waived.

 

Back to your case...Cambodia's reciprocity schedule states that they are available (https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/fees/reciprocity-by-country/CB.html). If you are unable to obtain them, you can still proceed and explain why (showing proof that you are unable to obtain them). That said, I'd highly suggest to keep at it because having it waived can be a lengthy process, and Cambodia is considered a pretty high fraud / difficult embassy already.

 

Good luck!

 

Yea that's our plan, trying to power through the process because I know waiving ####### generally adds more wait time, it's more of a backup in case our landlord in uncooperative in the matter as in this case it was his responsibility to file the paperwork and having not done so is what's holding us up.

[TBoneTX 46,409]

The first line of the second paragraph of the opening post was edited to remove bad language.  Horus, the VJ moderators aren't editors, so expect complete removal of future posts that contain non-family-friendly language.

[Phillary 45]

That's insane. I just got done from doing 2 police checks for friends here in Phnom Penh. I took their lease agreement, in Khmer, and a completed form, in Khmer, to the sangkat police and got it all stamped and sealed. Took that and the MOJ application form, passport copies, visa copies and the fee to the MOJ and done.

Do you have a contact at the MOJ? Have you seen Kimluch there? Let me know if you need help.