Important changes regarding police certificates for those who have spent a short time abroad.

[Matt&Court 0]

Hi guys,

 

Just has my K-1 interview today and it did not go well. Apparently since April 2018 if you have lived in another country for more than 6 months (no longer 12) you will need a police report from that country. Unfortunately for me it still states 12 months online and I had spent 8 months living in New Zealand. The interviewer I was unlucky enough to get could not care less and I am frustratingly now stuck waiting up to another 6 weeks to get this sorted.

 

I have let the website administrator know their information is out of date, as I truly hope this affects no one else.

 

All the best with your applications.

 

Matt

[AnaidAaron 42]

Hi, I'm sorry this happened you, whoever, you shouldn't have just trusted this site only as not everything is updated, but instead, read the infomation directly from the source. On this official website, under required documentation, it says very clearly it is 6 months, this is the general information for applications worldwide.

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/family-immigration/nonimmigrant-visa-for-a-fiance-k-1.html#6

 

I hope your applications goes through soon. 

Edited June 1, 2018 by AnaidAaron

[Limey 551]

I'm not sure this is new. I'm sure it was 6 months when I did it back in 2014/15.

[Matt&Court 0]

33 minutes ago, AnaidAaron said:

Hi, I'm sorry this happened you, whoever, you shouldn't have just trusted this site only as not everything is updated, but instead, read the infomation directly from the source. On this official website, under required documentation, it says very clearly it is 6 months, this is the general information for applications worldwide.

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/family-immigration/nonimmigrant-visa-for-a-fiance-k-1.html#6

 

I hope your applications goes through soon. 

Thanks for sending me that. It does clearly state there however unfortunately I was going directly off the UK embassy which I was told to follow in my letter.

 

https://uk.usembassy.gov/visas/family-immigration/required-documents/

 

I really wish I had seen that before to save my heartache.

 

Matt

[milimelo 4,570]

NOthing new. It’s always been the case if you spent 6 months or more in a different country you have to get a police certificate from that place(s) as well. 

[Matt&Court 0]

Seems like everyone but me knew it was 6 months. I was following the London’s embassy page which is linked to in the K-1 letter.

 

https://uk.usembassy.gov/visas/family-immigration/required-documents/

 

I see now on other websites that it states 6 months. They informed me this was a new update with London as of April 2018.

[shumway1756 304]

Yes, it is 6 months, but it's no doubt incredibly frustrating when an official government website (like the embassy) presents inaccurate information. I'm sorry that you ran into this. I would definitely default to the travel.state.gov site (as some have linked above) moving forward to be safe.

Edited June 1, 2018 by shumway88

[Matt&Court 0]

11 minutes ago, shumway88 said:

Yes, it is 6 months, but it's no doubt incredibly frustrating when an official government website (like the embassy) presents inaccurate information. I'm sorry that you ran into this. I would definitely default to the travel.state.gov site (as some have linked above) moving forward to be safe.

Thank you! I will be sure to use that instead in the future.

[geowrian 22,338]

23 minutes ago, Matt&Court said:

Seems like everyone but me knew it was 6 months. I was following the London’s embassy page which is linked to in the K-1 letter.

 

https://uk.usembassy.gov/visas/family-immigration/required-documents/

 

I see now on other websites that it states 6 months. They informed me this was a new update with London as of April 2018.

You used the wrong link. That's for immigrant visas. See the Fiancee visa page on their website:

https://uk.usembassy.gov/visas/fiancee-2/required-documents/

"Required for all countries where you have lived for more than 6 months since the age of 16 and any country where you have been arrested, even if you were not resident there."

 

1 hour ago, Matt&Court said:

The interviewer I was unlucky enough to get could not care less

Sorry, but the CO has to follow the law and policies. It's not their job to care if you didn't know (even if the website actually had been wrong).

Edited June 1, 2018 by geowrian

[O&O 330]

3 minutes ago, geowrian said:

You used the wrong link. That's for immigrant visas. See the Fiancee visa page on their website:

https://uk.usembassy.gov/visas/fiancee-2/required-documents/

" Required for all countries where you have lived for more than 6 months since the age of 16 and any country where you have been arrested, even if you were not resident there.  "

Wow.. thanks for the clarification...was getting worried .. about my spousal visa.. since my husband was living in another country  for 9 months

[Matt&Court 0]

9 minutes ago, geowrian said:

You used the wrong link. That's for immigrant visas. See the Fiancee visa page on their website:

https://uk.usembassy.gov/visas/fiancee-2/required-documents/

"Required for all countries where you have lived for more than 6 months since the age of 16 and any country where you have been arrested, even if you were not resident there."

 

Sorry, but the CO has to follow the law and policies. It's not their job to care if you didn't know (even if the website actually had been wrong).

Case Closed! I don’t know how I got to that rather than the page I was supposed to be on. I can’t tell you how many times I closed off and reloaded to double check. 

 

I said the exact same thing to my officer, “I know it’s not your fault and you have to follow the rules”. She still wasn’t too friendly towards me even from the start. But everyone else there was great.

[geowrian 22,338]

K-1s are non-immigrant visas. However, they are handled by the immigrant visa unit at the embassies/consulates. Sometimes they re-use the same templates for K-1s as immigrant visas in emails and such, which may incorrectly refer to the DS-260 and/or slightly different requirements. I don't know if that's the case here or not, but has been the case with other consulates that I've seen. Always double check or ask, just in case.

[ST_RO 309]

This might be a dumb question to ask, but does this also apply to US police certificates?

I am the beneficiary and stayed in the US as an exchange student when I was 16-17 in 1994. Given that they are running background checks anyhow, would I still have to get the police certificate from Oregon?

 

In case someone can help: thank you!

[lilit829 368]

2 hours ago, ST_RO said:

This might be a dumb question to ask, but does this also apply to US police certificates?

I am the beneficiary and stayed in the US as an exchange student when I was 16-17 in 1994. Given that they are running background checks anyhow, would I still have to get the police certificate from Oregon?

 

In case someone can help: thank you!

No, you dont't need to get a police certificate from the U.S.

 

[TNJ17 1,329]

It has been 6 months or more for a looooooong time. We did ours way before yours and we knew that was 6 months or more.