Need a police certificate from Egypt

[Jaysonit 1]

I am American, and I am petitioning for my Italian wife to get a green card. We are at the stage where we are applying with the NVC. My wife lived in Egypt for over six months, so she needs to get a police clearance certificate from Egypt. But she is no longer living in Egypt. To complicate things, she never had any form of ID or residency. She stayed on a tourist visa for 6 month stints, leaving shortly and then returning. She never stayed illegally, but she was always there on a tourist visa. 1. Does anyone know if she can get a police certificate? 2. If so, do you recommend traveling to Egypt to do this? Our Egyptian friends say this is an easy document to get for a citizen but the are not sure about foreigners obtaining one. 

[Redro 4,611]

25 minutes ago, Jaysonit said:

I am American, and I am petitioning for my Italian wife to get a green card. We are at the stage where we are applying with the NVC. My wife lived in Egypt for over six months, so she needs to get a police clearance certificate from Egypt. But she is no longer living in Egypt. To complicate things, she never had any form of ID or residency. She stayed on a tourist visa for 6 month stints, leaving shortly and then returning. She never stayed illegally, but she was always there on a tourist visa. 1. Does anyone know if she can get a police certificate? 2. If so, do you recommend traveling to Egypt to do this? Our Egyptian friends say this is an easy document to get for a citizen but the are not sure about foreigners obtaining one. 

One only is required to obtain a police certificate if they lived in a country for over 1 year. 

If your wife lived in Egypt for more than a year then she will have to see if it is possible to obtain a PCC. 

She might be able to clear NVC stage by uploading a statement indicating she is unable to obtain a PCC because she was a tourist and not a resident. 

She should contact her nearest Egyptian consulate to see if it is possible to obtain a PCC. As even if she does clear NVC the CO at her interview might request she obtain official documentation. 

Good luck~ 

 

[Crazy Cat 41,884]

1 hour ago, Jaysonit said:

She never stayed illegally, but she was always there on a tourist visa.

Then, why would she need a police report if she was visiting?  Has NVC specifically asked for a police report?

Egypt (state.gov)

"Available:  Both Egyptians and foreigners, who were born in, permanently reside in, or have resided in Egypt in the past may obtain police certificates."

Edited May 9, 2023 by Crazy Cat

[Jaysonit 1]

19 minutes ago, Redro said:

One only is required to obtain a police certificate if they lived in a country for over 1 year. 

If your wife lived in Egypt for more than a year then she will have to see if it is possible to obtain a PCC. 

She might be able to clear NVC stage by uploading a statement indicating she is unable to obtain a PCC because she was a tourist and not a resident. 

She should contact her nearest Egyptian consulate to see if it is possible to obtain a PCC. As even if she does clear NVC the CO at her interview might request she obtain official documentation. 

Good luck~ 

 

Because she lived in the country in total for more than a year, we have been advised by an immigration lawyer, that we need the police certificate, even if she was there on a tourist visa. 
The lawyer has been helpful, but he knows nothing about whether it’s actually possible in Egypt to get this police certificate or not. 

[Crazy Cat 41,884]

5 minutes ago, Jaysonit said:

Because she lived in the country in total for more than a year, we have been advised by an immigration lawyer, that we need the police certificate, even if she was there on a tourist visa. 
The lawyer has been helpful, but he knows nothing about whether it’s actually possible in Egypt to get this police certificate or not. 

I don't think she can get one.  Just explain this to NVC.

Egypt (state.gov)

"Procedure for Obtaining:  In order to obtain a criminal status record certificate, an Egyptian must present a national ID card."

Edited May 9, 2023 by Crazy Cat

[Redro 4,611]

30 minutes ago, Jaysonit said:

Because she lived in the country in total for more than a year, we have been advised by an immigration lawyer, that we need the police certificate, even if she was there on a tourist visa. 
The lawyer has been helpful, but he knows nothing about whether it’s actually possible in Egypt to get this police certificate or not. 

Unfortunately this conundrum is something several in members have encountered in the past. They are truthful and state their primary residence was in a country they were just visiting (for an extended period). Some countries will furnish foreign nationals with PCCs even if they were not residents others will not provide PCCs because they don’t expect tourists to remain in a country for 1+ year. 
You should be okay at NVC level if your upload a statement stating PCC is not available because your wife was a tourist and not a resident but the CO at interview might want the actual document. 

 

40 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

Then, why would she need a police report if she was visiting?  Has NVC specifically asked for a police report?

Egypt (state.gov)

"Available:  Both Egyptians and foreigners, who were born in, permanently reside in, or have resided in Egypt in the past may obtain police certificates."

I’ve noticed NVC automatically requests PCCs if you mention you resided in any country regardless of period of stay

Edited May 9, 2023 by Redro

[BenNomad 88]

On 5/9/2023 at 10:53 PM, Redro said:

I’ve noticed NVC automatically requests PCCs if you mention you resided in any country regardless of period of stay

Yes, in fact I listed Egypt as our current address as of April 2023 (only one month!) and was surprised to see that the NVC wants a police certificate from Egypt. 

 

On 5/9/2023 at 10:28 PM, Crazy Cat said:

"Procedure for Obtaining:  In order to obtain a criminal status record certificate, an Egyptian must present a national ID card."

Egypt issues plastic "Foreign Residence Cards" to tourists who've extended their tourist stays (can be up to one year). The card can be used a photo ID and it says "residence" on it, but whether it counts as a National ID is questionable. I'm going to ask at the police station here (since I am in Egypt) and if I get a clear answer I'll post here again. A comment on Google says that no one at the police station speaks English though...👮‍♂️😕

[Jaysonit 1]

53 minutes ago, BenNomad said:

Yes, in fact I listed Egypt as our current address as of April 2023 (only one month!) and was surprised to see that the NVC wants a police certificate from Egypt. 

 

Egypt issues plastic "Foreign Residence Cards" to tourists who've extended their tourist stays (can be up to one year). The card can be used a photo ID and it says "residence" on it, but whether it counts as a National ID is questionable. I'm going to ask at the police station here (since I am in Egypt) and if I get a clear answer I'll post here again. A comment on Google says that no one at the police station speaks English though...👮‍♂️😕

Unfortunately, my wife through these cards away a while ago, so we don’t even have those

[BenNomad 88]

@Jaysonit I hope the Egyptian embassy has been able to help you get the police certificate. To anyone else who may be interested, I was able to get the certificate at a regular police station in Egypt (in Hurghada) and it was ready the next day. It cost 80 EGP. They took my wife's fingerprints and took a photo. They needed a photocopy of her passport and they wanted to know our local address but thankfully didn't require any proof of where we are living. The two things they were most interested in were how to spell my wife's name in Arabic (I used an online translator for this) and also what the certificate is needed for (who requested it). I put all of that into a letter that I translated into Arabic and took with me to the police station. The officer spoke a little English and we basically had no problem getting it done.

 

I then paid for a professional translation of the certificate into English and the NVC has accepted the document already.

[Jaysonit 1]

We ended up applying through the Egyptian embassy in Rome. It seems like we were the first non-Egyptian ever to apply for this document through the embassy. They did not know what to do with us at first. But after a long process of talking back-and-forth, they allowed us to apply for it they said it would take at least three months, but it arrived after two months. The hardest part was that we had to travel to Rome for applying for it and for picking it up (5 hour drive).