Hi fellow VJ members.....

I have a couple important questions regarding the DS-230 and Police Certificates and I'm hoping you guys can help me out.

Regarding Question #20 on the DS-230: First of all, if my husband lived in different cities of Germany (all in the north), would he have to list each city where he lived from the time he was 16? What if he can't remember exactly?

Secondly: Must he provide police certificates for each city he lived in, or did I read it correctly that it goes by country? So that would mean that he would only need the one police certificate from Germany?

Lastly: On questions 21a. and 21b. I am the US citizen I will not be joining him before of after his arrival to the USA. Would I simply just write none seeing as no one will accompany him to the USA?

Thanks for your help.

Kind regards and a wonderful weekend,

Przy

Interesting questions, would like to see what others think too, but here's what I'd do:
1. I think you would need more than one police certif, but call the NVC and ask, or the embassy even, I think it varies for each country.
2. Yeah, put None, I think it refers to other immigrants, not the petitioner.

Przy this is really a diffcult subject(police record) .

I think you need to go thourgh this link http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/reciproc...ocity_3567.html

Thanks Roza. I have already emailed the NVC asking them the question. I hope it can be answered by them. I don't really understand the recriprocity website for Germany. I understand all the visa and what not, but it fails to answer my question specifically. According to what I have read, he will only need one police certificate recent within the last 6 months. Anyway, I appreciate the help and lets see what the NVC says.

Regards,

Przy

Hey Przy,

Just contact the Consulate in Frankfurt or have your husband contact them and ask. They should be able to tell you exactly what is required, and this can vary from country to country. (Here in Belgium they only request one Certificate from the Central Criminal Register, so that's easy, but maybe Germany has different requests.)

Hi -
just went through all this myself:
your husband has to give information on every city (though not if the different addresses within one city) he lived in since he was 16 for more than 6 months, yes! Don't leave anything out and make sure all the dates meet ends!
A German police certificate (Polizeiliches Führungszeugnis) covers all the places lived in Germany, so you do need only one. However, the guys at NVC don't always know that, so with your application, include a letter, explaining that. My first DS-230 was rejected because we did not think of that, so you can avoid trouble if you take care of that ahead.
After that happened, my lawyer contacted the U.S. Embassy in Frankfurt about the issue, and they did confirm that the German police certificate covers all places lived in Germany. Besides, I did contact the "Bundeszentralregister" and they were kind enough to also send me a letter confirming this. In my second application I did include all this, and it eventually (after they were losing my passporfotos and I had to send new ones) went through.

All the documents need to be in English or in German. However, you can avoid trouble by obtaining a "Internationale Geburtsurkunde" - (international birth certificate) from your local Standesamt - costs slightly more, but states everything in all common languages. (Praise to the EU ;-))

Concerning "accompanying persons" you only have to state the people who along with you also apply for a visa, such as your children etc. - since you (as the wife) are U.S. citizen that does not apply to you. Though, I don't think I would mention that you only join later, other than they ask for it. Avoids confusion.

Oh, and another advice: Make sure you have several issues of all original documents or copies you send in - they keep losing things and request extras - saves you time and trouble (though not money ;-) )

Good luck & lots of patience,
Julia

THANK YOU, Julia! No worries about all the copies... I have about a 3'' thick binder full of all of our paperwork... including tonnnnnsss of copies. *g* Thank you for answering all of my questions! Concerning the Fuehrungszeugnis, as an American citizen, am I allowed to request a letter from the Bundeszentralregister confirming that the German police certificate covers all around Germany? Or must my husband do that?

Ich danke dir!

Hi again -
glad to help you . Think because of Datenschutz your husband should better call there, explain the situation and request that himself, maybe they also are kind enough to write him the letter at the city office where he orders the Führungszeugnis. I did offer the Bundeszentralregister to send them a stamped and addressed envelope, which I did, and they used.
BTW: the USICS states everywhere, that all documents have to be in English or in the language of the country where the immigrant resides/comes from, so our docs can be English or/and German...
Drück mir die Daumen - am having my interview in Frankfurt tomorrow - after almost one year of waiting : ~- )

dann drueck ich dir die daumen. viel glueck aber wird schon!

My husband obtained his Fuerhungszeugnis already, but that was back in January, so by the time we even get our interview scheduled, it's going to be expired. I will just have him take care of everything then. again, your help is greatly appreciated... especially because you are in germany you know the exact situation. nochma dank und viel glueck mit dem interview! *knutsch*