Gauchos

Our RFE specified state police clearance records as an alternative so I took the path of least resistance and got the free background check offered by the county. The State of Ohio BCI report seemed like a hassle. The local or county-level report may or may not be an option for you, but I imagine you aren't terribly excited to do more legwork since you've already ordered one from the state.

This happened to us in March. We resubmitted the police certificate from our K1 (+translation) and a criminal background check from the county in which we live now. Our county background check was literally just a short request form that we filled out, witnessed by the receptionist at the county jail, and an ink stamp stating that no records were found. We were approved 10 days after they acknowledge receipt. Yes, send certified copies by mail.

I would think in your case you would want to mail it all in one package. If I understand correctly, they want the I-693 medical from you, which needs to be sealed, and a copy of your marriage certificate, which probably should be a certified copy. I suppose you could split the response so the proof of ongoing relationship is uploaded, but I personally would stress out that some jerk might decide that you didn't provide a complete response when only looking at the online or mailed portion.

Thank you! April 26, 2022.

Green card approved! They are really dedicated to getting fingerprints - the approval came with a notice that we may be required to do biometrics again.

Thank you, that is great advice.

I’m probably just looking for some validation here. We had our AOS interview and learned at the end that biometrics was unable to get my wife’s fingerprints twice. We now have to get certified copies of police certificates from every place that she’s lived in the past 5 years. The RFE states in bold letters that the documents must be certified original or certified copies. It also specifically calls out Brazil and the location where we now live as locations that she has lived in the past 5 years. The police certificate in Brazil is obtained online. We still have a copy of the one that we submitted at (and was accepted by) the consulate in Brazil for her K1. Obviously, it doesn’t have a stamp or a seal since it’s obtained online, but it does have a digital signature that can authenticated. It is still valid since it’s within the 2 year period (and she hasn’t returned to Brazil). The US Department of State specifically lists certified copies as not being available in Brazil (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/Brazil.html). Am I overthinking this? I should be safe to include the police certificate from the K1?

I'm just following up in case anyone runs into the same situation. We had to file with the local courts in Brazil and pull the entirety of the cases. One court put an ink stamp on documents, while another court would not. We ended up getting the documents authenticated with an apostille in Brazil. Our IO remarked that the apostille stamps were fancy and accepted the documents as certified. He didn't really seem to care about the foreign court records, to be honest. There also didn't seem to be any issue with not disclosing anything on the K1/DS-160 vs disclosing for AOS since there were no arrests or convictions. It didn't even come up. We have to get more police certificates due to being unable to get her fingerprints at biometrics appointments, but I'll litter VJ elsewhere with those complaints.

Yeah, tough break, but it could always be worse. They explicitly told us that we were called for an interview because of the fingerprint issue, so if you've had two biometrics appointments then I suggest you get police certificates ready for your interview. They didn't even tell us the issue until the end of the interview. They would have accepted police certificates right there, but of course how were we to know that we needed them?

We just had the GC interview. Unfortunately, it turns out the reason why we were selected to go to the interview is because they were unable to get her fingerprints twice as well as at the interview itself. So now we will get an RFE to provide police clearance records for the past 5 years. I really, really hope that we can just resubmit a copy of the police certificate used at the K1.

I recall some other folks on here getting RFEs for I-693 medicals and then quickly getting their GCs approved without an interview so this may actually be a good sign for you.

EAD and AP approved. I’m not sure if it’s normal to issue both right before the green card interview. I hope it’s just a coincidence and not some indication that they anticipate a long approval process after the interview.

I don’t expect the crime to be an issue - offending the honor of someone else. We might call it the US version of defamation, but criminal instead of civil. These cases can be registered without the cooperation of a prosecutor. Essentially, she was accused of calling someone names and the case was dismissed. No. She was never arrested.

She provided her police certificate. This was blank as she had never been convicted (or arrested) of anything and there is a process to remove dismissed cases from appearing on the certificate. The I-485 is much more specific in what it asks. We disclosed everything on the I-485 and included documents that were available to us, but not “certified” documents unless the ones from TJRS will be considered certified.

I'm hoping someone can help - my wife has her AOS interview coming up and she was charged with a crime that was dropped. The Court of Justice of the state of RS hosts a site for its court cases (TJRS) and the documents that declare the final dispositions are available for download. These documents contain a 'certification' at the bottom with a URL and a code that can be used to verify that the submitted document is authentic. My wife is a lawyer in Brazil and assures me that this is the only document that the court will provide. They will not certify the document in any other way or provide a signature, stamp, seal, etc. We also have counsel in Brazil who says the same thing. Does anyone have experience with court documents from Brazil or Rio Grande do Sul? Will USCIS accept a document that's 'certified' this way?

I've been sitting around, jealous of @Carlos.Brazil and their I-485, and shockingly discovered that we were scheduled for interview today. Now I'm going to be furiously pressing refresh on myuscis until the document appears with the interview date. I can't believe we didn't get an RFE.

You aren't alone.