melissaroo

That's correct. The Japanese police certificate envelope must remain sealed until your wife gives it to them at her interview. It shouldn't be necessary to send them the police certificate before the day of her interview. When my husband had to upload his Japanese police certificate to CEAC, he only needed to upload a scan of both sides of the envelope. (Actually, it got rejected the first time because the person who reviewed it wasn't aware that Japanese police certificate envelopes have to remain sealed to be considered valid, so in response, we re-uploaded the scan and included a letter explaining what was on the Document Finder as well as a screenshot of the section explaining about Japanese police certificates.) On the day of his interview, he brought the Japanese police certificate, still sealed in its envelope, and submitted it to them at the intake window. If all of your required documents are accepted (and you have nothing else that needs to be corrected/submitted), your wife's interview should be scheduled in the next few weeks. Once her interview is scheduled, she can contact the Embassy to double check on the police certificate.

Oops, I'm so sorry, I forgot to actually say thank you!!! Did exactly what you said and our case got DQ'ed earlier this month! (The police certificate with the Reciprocity page reference was easy enough to upload, but my husband also needed to obtain the unabridged version of his birth certificate from Brazil, so that took about a month to actually get and then translate.) His interview has been scheduled for July, so now we're in the process of preparing for his interview as well as scheduling his medical exam.

Hello everyone! My husband (beneficiary) and I have applied for IR-1, and our case is currently at NVC. Today, we received a message regarding his Japan police certificate that he uploaded to the CEAC website: "Please replace this with an acceptable police certificate from a correct issuing authority. Please use our Document Finder at https://nvc.state.gov/find for acceptable documents guidelines." When my husband went to the prefectural police headquarters to obtain his Japan police certificate, they informed him that he couldn't open the sealed envelope--that he needed to keep it sealed and take it as such to his interview. We also checked the NVC website, and it says the same thing regarding Japan police certificates: "Japanese Police Certificates are issued in a sealed envelope. If the seal is broken, the certificate is considered invalid. Visa applicants should not open a sealed envelope containing a Police Certificate. The applicant must bring the original Police Certificate in a sealed envelope to the U.S. Embassy/Consulate at the time of his/her interview. Applicants should only send a photocopy of the sealed envelope to the National Visa Center, but not the actual police certificate itself." (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/Japan.html) So, I'm not sure what's the problem. The photocopy of the envelope is clear and legible. On the envelope, it's indicated that it's a "Certificate of Criminal Record" for my husband from the "________ Prefectural Police Headquarters," and it also states "To be opened by the addressee only." The addressee is indicated as "The Authorities Concerned, United States of America." What do we need to do? Do we need to contact NVC? Or re-upload the photocopy of the envelope and indicate what's stated on the NVC website regarding Japan police certificates?