Difference between traveling and living in a different country for more than 6 months?

[aclarant 8]

My fiancee stayed in Ukraine initially as a tourist but then stayed about 9 months traveling between different cities.

 

The Brasil Consulate website says

           

Quote

IF the applicant * lived in a different country for more than 6 months or currently resides in another country for more than 6 months AND was 16 years or older at that time, THEN the applicant needs a police certificate from the police authorities of that locality.

 

and the DS-160 had a similar question but said to declare countries that you "resided" in more than 6 months. Residency is more specific and refers to where your home is (for example establishing tax residency). Since she was traveling and her home was in Brasil she answered "no" to that question.

 

But now she is worried because she called the Ukraine consulate in Sao Paulo and they said they do not provide police certificates. She is also worried that they think she lied on her DS-160.

 

Anyone have any experience with that?

 

 

 

[Greenbaum 12,258]

9 minutes ago, aclarant said:

My fiancee stayed in Ukraine initially as a tourist but then stayed about 9 months traveling between different cities.

 

The Brasil Consulate website says

           

 

and the DS-160 had a similar question but said to declare countries that you "resided" in more than 6 months. Residency is more specific and refers to where your home is (for example establishing tax residency). Since she was traveling and her home was in Brasil she answered "no" to that question.

 

But now she is worried because she called the Ukraine consulate in Sao Paulo and they said they do not provide police certificates. She is also worried that they think she lied on her DS-160.

 

Anyone have any experience with that?

 

 

 

I suggest you get a PC so that you have your bases covered. If you need it it's with her at the interview. If it is not asked for then keep the document in your files. Here is how to get a copy:

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/Ukraine.html

[aclarant 8]

6 minutes ago, Greenbaum said:

I suggest you get a PC so that you have your bases covered. If you need it it's with her at the interview. If it is not asked for then keep the document in your files. Here is how to get a copy:

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/Ukraine.html

I think the problem is that it says you need to get them from the regional centers in Ukraine and she is in Brasil. So its rather impractical for her to fly over there to retrieve it. We tried contacting a business who said they would send us a copy, but we were both pretty sure it was a scam.

 

How does something like that normally work?

[Greenbaum 12,258]

3 minutes ago, aclarant said:

I think the problem is that it says you need to get them from the regional centers in Ukraine and she is in Brasil. So its rather impractical for her to fly over there to retrieve it. We tried contacting a business who said they would send us a copy, but we were both pretty sure it was a scam.

 

How does something like that normally work?

If you have to be in person as noted by the "original passport" I would say it is very difficult if she is in another country and cannot travel. This can be presented to the CO at the interview that you would have to travel (print off the PC requirements to have at the interview as proof) back to the Ukraine to get the PC. This happens and the CO should either know this information or you can help "educate" with the presentation of the PC requirements.

 

Others may have a different point of view wait until the weigh in. Good Luck

[Prizm123 1,084]

there is a thread in the Ukraine, Belarus, Russian forums with several links to order those online

[Ryan H 3,790]

Moved from Progress Reports to Process & Procedures.

[aclarant 8]

On 2/28/2019 at 12:16 PM, Greenbaum said:

If you have to be in person as noted by the "original passport" I would say it is very difficult if she is in another country and cannot travel. This can be presented to the CO at the interview that you would have to travel (print off the PC requirements to have at the interview as proof) back to the Ukraine to get the PC. This happens and the CO should either know this information or you can help "educate" with the presentation of the PC requirements.

 

Others may have a different point of view wait until the weigh in. Good Luck

As an update, we contacted all the consulates in Brazil, chicago and new york to see if we could get a written answer that they dont do the police certificate so we could take it to the interview. None of them responded (its been almost 2 weeks). On the Ukraine consulate website for Sao Paulo, they do not list police certificates as one of the services.

 

I called the US consulate in Rio and they said to send the question via email.

 

I contacted the visa department in the Rio US Consulate, explaining the situation and they simply copy and pasted the section from the website, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/Ukraine.html

 

So I replied and clarified the question (my email was liter and asked if it would be acceptable that she did not bring the police certificate because of the extreme difficulty of flying to Ukraine in person to retrieve the document, they again responded with the same information (copy and pasted from the website with 0 clarification). It was pretty frustrating to ask very straightforward question and get a generic response of information we already had and included in the email. But its reasonable they dont want to put themselves in a position of making a judgment call over email.

 

So I dont want to contact the US consulate again (I'm afraid of bringing "too much" attention to our case), so our current plan is to print out all the emails I wrote to all the Ukraine consulates (which is 7) (however I dont have any responses since nobody replied), and then the emails I wrote to the US consulate in Rio. If they happen to ask she will tell the truth that she was a tourist and her primary residence was always in Brasil, but she made a good faith effort to get the documents.

 

My fiancee is kinda freaking out at this point. 10 months of stress and it all can be for nothing because nobody can respond to emails... I think we are both feeling pretty on edge.

 

 

Edited March 11, 2019 by aclarant

[Greenbaum 12,258]

17 hours ago, aclarant said:

As an update, we contacted all the consulates in Brazil, chicago and new york to see if we could get a written answer that they dont do the police certificate so we could take it to the interview. None of them responded (its been almost 2 weeks). On the Ukraine consulate website for Sao Paulo, they do not list police certificates as one of the services.....

 

 

I'm going to give you the same information as RIO consulate gave you as it has all the information required to complete this step. Ignor it and you will still be going around in circles.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country.html

 

Once you land on the page, review the left column and select the first letter of the country you want to access. Then select your country and once you land on the page for the country your looking for scroll down a bit and find "Police, Court, Prison Records" tab and select it. First thing you want to know is if you are not physically in the country to request your PCC will they provide one. If they don't provide one because of the requirement that you have to be personally in the country then you will not need one from that country. Take a screen shot and print the page off to bring with your to the interview. Most CO's know which country's you can get a PCC from without to much trouble. In the event the CO does not know this for one of your country's you can offer the screen shot in your defense.