Obtaining a Police Certificate from a foreign country

[Brookc 0]

Hello,

My K1 Fiancee Visa is at the Embassy being processed and we are collecting documents for the interview. We have run into some issues with trying to obtain a foreign police certificate and would like to see if anyone can shed any light on whether this certificate would even be required given the situation. The Embassy website states "a Police Certificate is required for all countries where you have lived for more than 12 months since the age of 16". My fiance worked in Greece for two 7 month periods, from April - November in 2011 and in 2013. We are unsure if the Police Certificate is required for Greece since neither period was over 12 months, but the total time over the course of 3 years totaled 14 months.

The Dept. of State Reciprocity states the police certificate can be obtained at the Greece Consulate in London, yet, after a visit to the Greece Consulate, we were informed the information on the reciprocity is outdated and in order to obtain the certificate we must appoint a representative in Greece to request the police certificate in person in Athens which will cost a significant amount of money. We want to be sure it is necessary before hiring representation. We have contacted NVC as well as the U.S. Embassy in London and have yet to be given a straightforward answer from either. Any insight on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

[almost_umrican 53]

significant amount of money , i do not think so dear. i do not know a lot about greece and how its administrative services work.assuming there is not a lot of red tape involved in the process, it can be done fairly simply without spending chunks. Your representative does not need to be a lawyer. it could be anyone designated by you to speak on your behalf to the local police station.you two might have to prove to the police that you are the people you are actually claiming. i come from a third world country which US recognizes as a high fraud country.if i needed this, there is a lot of red tape, harassment and corruption involved. assuming it will be little less in greece (even though greece's economy is falling down exponentially,which encourages corruption), you will be able to do this fairly easily.

[Oida 1]

On 4/29/2016 at 0:41 PM, Brookc said:

The Embassy website states "a Police Certificate is required for all countries where you have lived for more than 12 months since the age of 16". My fiance worked in Greece for two 7 month periods, from April - November in 2011 and in 2013. We are unsure if the Police Certificate is required for Greece since neither period was over 12 months, but the total time over the course of 3 years totaled 14 months.

 

 

 

I realize this is over a year later, but could you tell me if it was necessary for him to get the police certificate from Greece? My fiance is in a similar situation - he lived in Austria for 9 months, then moved back to England (home country) for 3 months, then spent another 10 months in Austria. We're hoping he won't need an Austrian police certificate since it wasn't 12 consecutive months. 

Thanks!

[disobedientavocad 6]

2 hours ago, Oida said:

I realize this is over a year later, but could you tell me if it was necessary for him to get the police certificate from Greece? My fiance is in a similar situation - he lived in Austria for 9 months, then moved back to England (home country) for 3 months, then spent another 10 months in Austria. We're hoping he won't need an Austrian police certificate since it wasn't 12 consecutive months. 

Thanks!

If he/she was there legally and registered in any way , then yes you will have to get a certificate. I have lived in 5 countries so far and I had to get a certificate from each one. It was a pain in the ### but, honestly if you follow the state reciprocity website on it or just google it, should be pretty easy. In my case for some countries it was an online application and some I had to mail it to.

Good luck!

[Oida 1]

36 minutes ago, disobedientavocad said:

If he/she was there legally and registered in any way , then yes you will have to get a certificate. I have lived in 5 countries so far and I had to get a certificate from each one. It was a pain in the ### but, honestly if you follow the state reciprocity website on it or just google it, should be pretty easy. In my case for some countries it was an online application and some I had to mail it to.

Good luck!

Thank you for your response - this was very helpful!