Police Clearance Certificate in Gujarat India

[kman 0]

I have two Questions. Little Background. Married my wife in Feb 2,2008. Came back to US and filed a I-130 petion on Feb 25th. At the same time, she applied for a passport and has received it (Mid April). My wife's permanent address has always been with her parents in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. She went to college in another city, Rajkot, Gujarat, India. She lived in Rajkot during the semester while she complete her BSc. I am anticipating a December interview on histrorical average.

Question 1) Does she need anything besides police certficate from Local Passport Office?

Question 2) If she does need additional police certificate from District Police, does she need them from both locations, Gandhinagar and Rajkot?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

Edited April 14, 2008 by kman

[YuAndDan 153]

Depends on how long ago the passport was issued.

Police Records

Indian Police Clearance Certificates should be obtained as follows:

• All Indian IV applicants aged 16 and above, residing in India, should obtain police certificates from the local Passport Office. These are usually more dependable than those obtained at a local level and indicate that the subject had no serious criminal convictions on record at the time of passport issuance. Applicants whose Indian passport was issued within the past six months may present just the Passport Office Police Certificate, and need not obtain additional police clearances.

• Applicants over age 16, whose passports were issued more than six months previous to visa application, must also obtain a police clearance from the District Police Office serving the applicant's place of residence.

• Indian passport holders applying for visas outside India should obtain a statement from their local embassy or consulate confirming they have no criminal record.

• Non-Indian IV applicants residing in India should obtain police certificates from the District Police Station serving their area of residence.

• Indian police certificates are not available for foreign (non-Indian) applicants applying outside India.

http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/reciproc...ocity_3582.html

[CarolynRitesh 0]

Hi kman!

She will need the Police cert from her local office and the PCC is good for 6 months only - if it takes more than 6 months for her to get the interview from the time her passport was issued, she will need another PCC. Check the timelines for your visa type under India to get an idea of how long it will be for you guys so that you are prepared - our PCC took 5 weeks and a lot of stress and running around to get it right before the interview, so plan in advance! (I belive the local cert. is good for one year, but check on that to be sure!)

Good luck with your process, keep posting regarding your experiences!

[kman 0]

Her passport was just recently issued. So that means we should start gathering the PCC from regional passpost office and local office when the NVC process has started?

[mgk 0]

Hi,

Your wife should get police clearance certificates from Gandhinagar and Rajkot. Also, she has to apply for police clearance certificate from regional passport office(probably Ahmedabad).

Hope this helps.

Cheers

[CarolynRitesh 0]

Hi mqk,

There was a lot of confusion for us as well regarding the PCCs and Local Certs. as Ritesh grew up in Delhi (until the age of 24) and then moved to Bangalore. The only 'local' cert. that we had to get (we got an email response from Chennai Consulate) was for the current address in Bangalore. I don't think you will need two 'local' certs, just the one from her family residence location, but you can check with your interviewing Consulate to be sure of their requirements.

Having a 'fresh' passport, the PCC is NOT required unless your interview is 6 months later than the issuance of the passport. (Just having the passport be so new IS having a PCC) For example, if the passport was issued on Feb. 1st, she would not require a PCC unless the interview was after August 1st. Once you check the timelines in VJ, you can guess when the interview might happen, and do the PCC about 2 months in advance to be sure you get it. (Some places issue the PCC within days, our situation was more complicated!)

I hope this is more clear!

Edited April 15, 2008 by CarolynRitesh

[Sanjiv Patel 13]

All PCCs are valid for 12 months, not 6 months.

See: http://mumbai.usconsulate.gov/ivpolicecertificates.html

You don't need to get one from Regional Passport Office, as your passport has just been issued in mid April 2008. (within 6 months, and you don't need cert from RPO.)

You do need to get two PCC: one from Gandhinagar and one from Rajkot. I have read somewhere in this Forum that if you lived > 6 months in more than 2 places, you need to get at most 2 PCCs from the most recent 2 cities.

Also, when DS-230 needs to be filled, do include Rajkot as one of the places she lived.

If she lived in Hostel, she will need letter from Wardon of the Hostel to get the PCC from Rajkot. If she lived in private house / apartment, she will need rent receipt or letter from association chairman, if there is one, or two witness. I know, it sounds complicated, but trust me, these things delayed PCC for my nephew by 10 days.

Regards,

Sanjiv Patel

[kman 0]

the website above says that if you passport was issue within the past 6 months, then they only need PCC from the regional passport office and not anywhere else. Am I reading this clearly? If so, can we get the PCC from the regional passport office just before the 6 months and turn that in since it is valid for one year?

[Jigi 0]

hi,

If i am not wrong gujarat doesnt issue police clearance certificates from the police stations....

So she will just need the PCC from the passport office

Jigi

[kman 0]

that makes it a lot easier right. Would NVC know this info or would they send an RFE if we send only PCC from passport office?

[CarolynRitesh 0]

All PCCs are valid for 12 months, not 6 months.

See: http://mumbai.usconsulate.gov/ivpolicecertificates.html

You don't need to get one from Regional Passport Office, as your passport has just been issued in mid April 2008. (within 6 months, and you don't need cert from RPO.)

You do need to get two PCC: one from Gandhinagar and one from Rajkot. I have read somewhere in this Forum that if you lived > 6 months in more than 2 places, you need to get at most 2 PCCs from the most recent 2 cities.

Also, when DS-230 needs to be filled, do include Rajkot as one of the places she lived.

If she lived in Hostel, she will need letter from Wardon of the Hostel to get the PCC from Rajkot. If she lived in private house / apartment, she will need rent receipt or letter from association chairman, if there is one, or two witness. I know, it sounds complicated, but trust me, these things delayed PCC for my nephew by 10 days.

Regards,

Sanjiv Patel

I definitely agree that any addresses she has lived in should be included on any forms for immigration - the I-130/G-325As, the DS 230, etc. - and they must be consistent with each other.

It is interesting that on Ritesh's Passport Clearance Cert., it states that it is valid for 6 months, while the Mumbai Consular site says it thinks any police cert. is valid for 1 year. Perhaps Gujarat/Mumbai Consulate is different in the way that it handles things for District and Regional Passport Offices from B-lore/Chennai Consulate, but when we asked about all the different locations where Ritesh had lived, and if we needed separate police clearance forms, we were told NO, only the Bangalore District Police Office and Regional Passport Office - even though his passport was issued in Delhi.

The best thing might be to get it straight from the Consulate, clearly spell out your situation, and send it in an email - just to be on the safe side!

[Jigi 0]

hey,

Embassies dont reply to emails... thats the problems.. NVC thinks we are at fault. I think the VFS , Mumbai COnsulate and the NVC are not updated to the same guideline platform yet. Thats where all the confusion STARTS! ! ! !

Jigi

[Sanjiv Patel 13]

kman,

You are right. As per the previous link I provided, you are not required to produce anything but RPO clearance, as you just got a new passport. However, because of Dec 2007 change of Indian consulate and embassy from "Standard" Post to "Appointment" Post, NVC now collects all the civil docs, PCC, RPO cert, etc. So, you have to follow NVC's guideline and not specific consulates'. As Jigi correctly pointed out the mismatch between VFS, Consulates, and NVC, the requirements are slightly different and creates a lot of confusion (see separate thread on this: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=115809&st=0&p=1660414entry1660414).

NVC's guideline for PCC: http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3195.html#police

It does not have different guideline for people with new passports. So, to be on safe side and to avoid any RFE, I would suggest that you request PCC from both Gandhinagar and Rajkot.

Jigi,

I know of at least two major cities (Ahmedabad and Baroda) that provides PCC for immigration. I know Mumbai Consulate states that there seems to be unwillingness to provide PCC on part of some other districts in Gujarat. But, I am not sure which cities/districts these are that don't issue PCC. My sister had to get one from Baroda and my nephew had to get one from Baroda and one from Ahmedabad.

Regards,

Sanjiv Patel

[kman 0]

very helpful discussion. thank you all

[CarolynRitesh 0]

Wow, all I can say is that I am sorry that it is soooo complicated and that requirements vary depending upon the place you are coming from, the way that you are processing your visa (DCF versus Stateside, etc.) This would be a GREAT thing to make some recommendations on for CHANGE in the system!