Expired Police Record at the Interview

[northusa44 4]

Hi all! Back again, this time with a question on supporting document submission to the NVC for my parents-in-laws' green card app (through my wife, consular processing in Guangzhou, China):

 

From what I can tell (these sites are thoroughly confusing), her parents need to submit their birth, marriage, police, and identity card documents, as well as proof of their relationship with my wife, their medical exam and the I-864s to the NVC. Fair enough. The consulate site states that the police certificate must be from the last 24 months. (see here U.S. Consulate General Guangzhou, China - GUZ (state.gov) It does not say whether the police certificate has to be valid or not. My parents-in-law called, and the police station said that the police certificate (certificate of no criminal record) is valid for only three months after issuance. So there is a good chance that it will have expired by the time they actually have their interview if they apply for it now. Does anyone have experience with China and know whether or not the consulate will require that they get a second police certificate that is valid at the time of the interview? I suspect that they purposefully did not include the word 'valid' for just this reason, but want to make sure.

 

Unless someone knows for sure that the embassy needs a second, valid police certificate, our plan is for them to get the certificate now so that we can upload this (to confirm, we must upload now, correct?) and then have them take this police certificate to the interview. If I understand correctly, the worst thing that can happen is that the interviewing officer asks them to provide a new, valid police certificate, which would only delay rather than cause the cancellation of their application. Am I right?

 

There are multiple reasons to avoid too much interaction with the police in China regarding this sort of thing, and so they prefer to only go once if at all possible, thus the query. Many thanks for all replies/views!

 

[nelmagriffin 148]

Greetings!

If I am correct, if her parents already submitted a police clearance through NVC by scanning and was accepted, and are just waiting for the interview, then they do not have to submit or scan a new one to NVC online, but rather bring an original one that is current during the interview. On the link below choose civil documents and read police certificates until the very bottom. I emphasized it by underlining the important key words. 

"  If at the time of your interview the following three items are all true, you must bring a new police certificate to your visa interview:"  

wherein her parents are still living currently in China then they have to have a current police certificate. " You still live in the country that issued the certificate."

 

Read the following: 

 

reference: Civil Documents (state.gov)

 

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

Important: Police certificates expire after two years, unless the certificate was issued from your country of previous residence and you have not returned there since the police certificate was issued. If at the time of your interview the following three items are all true, you must bring a new police certificate to your visa interview:

• You are more than 16 years old;
• The police certificate submitted to NVC was obtained more than two years ago; and
• You still live in the country that issued the certificate.

Edited January 18, 2022 by nelmagriffin

[nelmagriffin 148]

Just my two cents.

It makes sense. as how will the US Embassy know that you committed a crime whilst waiting for your interview. So, it has to be current.

[northusa44 4]

On 1/17/2022 at 5:50 PM, nelmagriffin said:

Greetings!

If I am correct, if her parents already submitted a police clearance through NVC by scanning and was accepted, and are just waiting for the interview, then they do not have to submit or scan a new one to NVC online, but rather bring an original one that is current during the interview. On the link below choose civil documents and read police certificates until the very bottom. I emphasized it by underlining the important key words. 

"  If at the time of your interview the following three items are all true, you must bring a new police certificate to your visa interview:"  

wherein her parents are still living currently in China then they have to have a current police certificate. " You still live in the country that issued the certificate."

 

Read the following: 

 

reference: Civil Documents (state.gov)

 

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

Important: Police certificates expire after two years, unless the certificate was issued from your country of previous residence and you have not returned there since the police certificate was issued. If at the time of your interview the following three items are all true, you must bring a new police certificate to your visa interview:

• You are more than 16 years old;
• The police certificate submitted to NVC was obtained more than two years ago; and
• You still live in the country that issued the certificate.

Many thanks for this. But per the information at the bottom (thank you for quoting this) my understanding would be that they do not need a new certificate? The police certificate will be well within the 24 months (probably 5-6 months old by the time they have the interview). The issue is that their local police station writes an 'expiry date' on the certificate of 3 months after issuance, and I am wondering if the consulate will take issue with this. My suspicion is that the US consulate at Guangzhou is aware of this and thus purposefully did not write 'valid' police certificate in their info, instead putting the bit about 24 months. Let me know your take; if anyone has experience with this in China would love to hear from you as well. Thanks!

[northusa44 4]

On 1/17/2022 at 5:56 PM, nelmagriffin said:

Just my two cents.

It makes sense. as how will the US Embassy know that you committed a crime whilst waiting for your interview. So, it has to be current.

But as the other poster wrote, they seem to only want one from the last 24 months... And I suppose no police certificate that anyone could take would truly be current, unless somehow issued on the day of the interview? But perhaps I am understanding this incorrectly. (either way, thank you for your reply!)

Edited January 19, 2022 by northusa44