Securing a police certificate from other countries

After your petition has been approved by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, it will then forward your file to the National Visa Center. The NVC then reviews your file and has its own set of requirements that you need to submit before you will be scheduled for the consulate interview.

One of the documents you need to submit to the NVC is a police certificate. You are required to submit the police certificate if any of the following scenarios apply to you:

a.) If you are 16 years old or older and have lived in your country of nationality for more than six months at any time in your life or;

b.) If you are 16 years old and have lived in your country of current residence for more than six months or;

c.) If you have lived in another country for 12 months or more and was 16 years or older at the time you lived there;

d.) Were arrested for any reason regardless of how long you lived in the city/country and no matter what age you were.

Thus, if Elena, a Filipina, after passing her Nursing education and board examination, married a Japanese citizen and lived with him in Japan for five years before transferring to Saudi Arabia where she presently works for about a year now, is required to submit three different police certificates from the authorities in the Philippines, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. In the Philippines, the National Bureau of Investigation is the NVC-recognized government office to issue the police certificate. Not your local city, town, or provincial police department. The US Department of State lists the names, addresses and procedures for each country helpful in obtaining a police certificate. Keep in mind that each country has its own requirements in obtaining police certificates. You must also consider the number of weeks for that specific office to issue the police certificate. Make it known also to the office that you are filing this request for police certificate for US visa application. Further, police certificates have a validity period of one year after submission to the NVC.

It would save you a tremendous amount of time if you obtain the police certificate as early as possible most especially if there are other countries involved. By the time the NVC alerts you that it is now ready to accept your documents, your process will be a lot quicker.

This column is not a substitute for professional legal advice obtained from a US licensed immigration attorney.

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The information contained herein does not constitute a warranty or guarantee or legal advice regarding a reader’s specific immigration case. No attorney-client relationship is and shall be established with any reader.

For any questions, comments and observations, please contact Atty. Marco Tomakin at mtomakin@ gmail.com