Sails941

Yes, and yes. Well first go to a notary to pick up the PCC application, and then the local police.
The first 2 days were long and involved close to 10 visits to different agencies throughout Suzhou. Take notes, names of who you talked to and their call back phone number. We received so much conflicting information that without the call back numbers I'm not sure we would have succeeded. I believe their system is so jumbled even they don't understand it. At least most of them.
Also a motivate interpreter is essential, unless one of you speak fluent Chinese.
 
Good Luck!
Ken

Yes, and yes. Well first go to a notary to pick up the PCC application, and then the local police.
The first 2 days were long and involved close to 10 visits to different agencies throughout Suzhou. Take notes, names of who you talked to and their call back phone number. We received so much conflicting information that without the call back numbers I'm not sure we would have succeeded. I believe their system is so jumbled even they don't understand it. At least most of them.
Also a motivate interpreter is essential, unless one of you speak fluent Chinese.
 
Good Luck!
Ken

Greetings fellow Journiers,
 
In 3 days I'm flying to China to seek out the notorious PCC, or at least an official letter of Unobtainable PCC.
 
Background: The fiance (Paula) is Thai, and worked in China from 2007-2010. Her agency unfortunately handled all her paperwork and never gave her a copy of registering with the local police, or a residency permit. All she has is a letter from the employer stating a job well done, a physical certification of good health and passport stamps/visas. As a bonus the employer went out of business a few years ago. We tried using an agency in China to obtain the PCC or a letter of Unobtainable PCC, but for $300 they only produced a letter stating the local police required Paula to come in person and apply for the PCC. So off we go. This Saturday I'm flying from San Francisco, Sunday Paula's flying from Bangkok and we're meeting up in Shanghai before we hop a train to Suzhou. I'll be in China Sept 1 -14.
 
Obtaining these PCCs seem to plaque quite a few couple's so I thought I'd document my expensive attempt, and hopefully help someone in the future. Not a completely selfless act though as I may be asking questions along the way. For example... Can anyone recommend how I can hire a professional interpreter to assist at the notary and police station?
 
Please feel free to ask any questions, or add comments. Perhaps this can lead to a How to Obtain a PCC guild, or something.  
 
Kind regards,
Ken
 

Well Mission Accomplished!
 
What a crazy frustrating process this was! This would not have been possible for us without an Amazing interpreter who took the fight to all the police and notaries we had to deal with.
 
We visited 2 different notaries, about 4-5 different police stations and 2 police administrative offices. Many were giving contradicting information (for example the first notary insisted they do not provide the application for the PCC, but the second notary politely provided the application, helped us fill it out, and instructed us to take it to the police station to submit it) to the point that I started taking names and call back numbers and when the stories didn't jibe I'd call the notary who said one thing, and hand the phone to the police officer who was saying something else. 
 
After taking the PCC application to the proper police station we were given this to take back to the notary,
 

 
Returning to the notary all was going well until a supervisor stated we needed individual statements for everytime Paula left and returned to China, not just one stating No Criminal Record from 2007-2009. Our interpreter fought the notary hard on this, and eventually they caved.
 
The notary told us to come back tomorrow afternoon and just sign for the PCC, and then we could pick it up in 2 days.
 
The next afternoon at the notary, now texting our interpreter, we were told we had to go back to the same police station to obtain a Foreigner Residence Registration Form. The notary called the police station to ease the process. Once at the police station they were frustrated, and after putting them on the phone with the notary that just spoke to them, and sent us there, we were sent to another police administrative office. Once there they were super frustrated, so I got the last cop on the phone and had her speak to the lady who sternly gave us the Form.
 

 
We took this back to the Notary, paid 420 yaun and were told to come back in 2 days.
 
Here's what we ended up with.
Woops I've maxxed out the allowable upload data - see the following post...