Police certificates for interview

[wellwellwell 0]

Hi!

I am a Canadian, heading to Montreal hopefully in the next two months for my interview for my K1. I have received my Packet 3 letter stuff, and see that I require a police certificate from every country I have lived in for over a year.

My question is: I have lived in the UK before, on two occasions, each for less than a calendar year, and yet together those experiences tally to over a year (8 months first time, 11 months and a few weeks, second time). Do I need a police certificate from the UK if I have never lived in the UK for a year or longer at a time? Or are they saying having lived in the country for a year or over "in toto"?

I contacted the Immigrant Visa Unit at Montreal, and they just sent me the wrote information, without interpretation, regardless of me explaining my confusion (so helpful.... ugh....):

"Each visa applicant aged 16 years or older must submit a police certificate from each country in which the applicant has resided for one year or longer. The certificate(s) must be issued within one year of the date of the visa appointment. NOTE: An applicant must present a police certificate from his/her country of current residence and country of nationality, if residence in such country exceeds 6 months.

For specific information regarding the police certificate required for each country, please visit http://travel.state.gov/visa/fees/fees_3272.html. Some countries also require a specific Police Certificate Request form to properly request and obtain Police Certificate(s). The Reciprocity by Country page indicates those countries.

Police certificates from certain countries are unavailable.

Present and former residents of the United States do NOT need to obtain any U.S. police certificates.

Canada police certificates are valid for a period of 1 year; applicants must present a valid police certificate on the day of the interview. Police certificates from other countries do not expire, unless the applicant has returned to the country in question after the issuance of the police certificate for a period of at least 6 months.

We hope that this information is useful."

Should I go ahead and assume that means that I don't need one? I am nervous about not having one, but also, if I don't need one, then I don't want to get one.

Thanks!

[jtron5050 0]

We are in a similar situation. My fiancee lived in China for 9 months a couple years ago, and she no longer lives there. What came of your interview? Hope everything went well.

I spoke to the NVC, who also said 1 year, but said I should talk to the US embassy in my fiancee's country just in case.

[wellwellwell 0]

We are in a similar situation. My fiancee lived in China for 9 months a couple years ago, and she no longer lives there. What came of your interview? Hope everything went well.

I spoke to the NVC, who also said 1 year, but said I should talk to the US embassy in my fiancee's country just in case.

I ended up getting the UK check just in case, because it's rather easy and I've had to do so before for other visas. It's not a full year, so you could plausibly just not get one, but if you wanted to be safe rather than sorry (i.e. have to wait longer if you get RFE'd) I'd at least look into the process of getting a Chinese police check.

Anyway, interview Wednesday. Finally. Ah!

[jtron5050 0]

Yeah good idea. Good luck with your interview, hope all goes well for you. I'm curious to know how it goes, if you don't mind sharing.

[wellwellwell 0]

Yeah good idea. Good luck with your interview, hope all goes well for you. I'm curious to know how it goes, if you don't mind sharing.

Shall do, however I would say that it'll probably be a slightly different experience for me as a Canadian than it will be for you as a Japanese/American couple. It seems a bit different from country to country.

[uscan1 0]

That's good,

Best of luck for your interview and future life.