robnewman

Well... the good news is the new certificates arrive really quickly!

I paid the £35 fee for the "standard" service...

Sent the forms and stuff in on a wednesday... The certificate arived 3 days later on Saturday!

Almost like they gave me the "priority" service but didn't have to pay £70...

Still a pain in the arse, but at least it's quick...

tilley7

it wont be valid now. I had this problem when i went to my interview at the embassy today. It now needs apicture with it. You can get it in 2 days for £70 or 10 days for £35

thedudeabides

I sent mine off on Monday afternoon standard service and the certificate was waiting for me on the doormat when I came home from work this (Friday) evening. That is an excellent turnaround and quite unexpected being that I had read posts from people who had waited over a month. Which is a bummer, man.

meauxna

A friend from another board, who reads UK specific reports from around and about says "I have been reading reports of people at London being given 'conditional approvals' pending the submission of the new police certificate..so although the website says the old ones are being accepted until August that information cannot be relied on."

Nothing official, but proceed with caution if you are on a deadline for getting to the US. If you are 'conditionally approved' your visa will simply be held until you get them the missing document.

BritishGuy36

Sent off for my ACPO cert on Tuesday so should turn up next week sometime, going by what others have said about processing times recently.

BritishGuy36

Got my certificates this morning (I ordered a second copy as it was only a fiver extra) - NO TRACE - not that I was expecting anything else, being a law-abiding citizen.

That makes 6 working days from posting to receipt, or 4 working days for processing. Pretty good for the standard service when they say up to 10 days.

At least that's another thing off my "to-do" list.....

sselbie

Yes to confirm you DO need the NEW police form and it is £35..... more money but they were very fast returning the form.

The old one is NOT acceptable.

LynannC

In line with some of the other recent posts. I sent for my police certificate last week (Wednesday). I sent it recorded delivery so I could make sure it got there. It was delivered on Friday and I got it back today. That would make it less than 72 hours to process. And I'm in Scotland, but also lived at nearly twenty different addresses in both Scotland and England since turning 16. Considering how many addresses they had to check for me I was impressed at how quickly it was processed.

All I need to do now is get the right size photos and I can sent my DS-230 to my husband ready for filing when the fee bill comes through.

Lyn

abletsandtoast

I'm amazed that you're all getting your police certificates so quickly. My husband's certificate is still outstanding 10 weeks from the original application!

My husband originally applied for his police certificate (the £35 one) on April 2nd. Later that week he had a phone call to say that the person who signed the back of the photo hadn't completed their bit of the form correctly. So, we sent another, properly completed form to ACPO that day.

My husband hadn't heard anything by the beginning of May so he called ACPO to ask what was going on. They told him that they never received the second form so they had destroyed his application!

He immediately filled out a THIRD form, got new photos and got everything endorsed again. This was posted on May 10th. My husband rang ACPO a few days later to check they had everything. They told him all was well, his application was being processed.

Then, earlier this week, he got a letter saying that the form he sent in early April was incomplete and that they had repeatedly tried to contact him by phone and email but had had no response! My husband immediately called ACPO in a panic and said that:

1. They HAD contacted him by phone in April and he had sent the requested information.

and

2. They had later informed him that his application had been destroyed (which might explain why it was incomplete )

The lady on the phone again told him not to worry. The letter from ACPO was apparently a mistake - the application form he sent on May 10th was being processed.

So, I'm currently watching the letter box in the hope that the police certificate will arrive in today's post.

I shouldn't be surprised about this - we've had similar trouble at every step. IRS lost my tax transcript request (they confirmed the request on the phone but couldn't find any evidence of it one month later) and I'm still waiting for the second request to be processed. Our local register office lost my husband's request, made in person, for a copy of his birth certificate THREE times (he finally got it though). And apparently, a deed poll prepared by a solicitor is not legal enough :curse:.

I think I'll take a break from letter box watching and go check for stress-induced grey hairs .

mrs_sdp

Hi All

I'm new to the site and have been browsing a bit .. well a LOT .. if I'm really honest!!

We'll be applying for the K-1 visa sometime in October and I'm trying to learn as much about the procedures involved beforehand ...

I noticed on this post that someone said the new Police Certificate DIDN'T apply to Scotland.

So what do Scottish people do to get it?

Thanks!

LynannC

Hi

I think you may have misread, or not gone all the way through the thread. I have posted already that it DOES apply to Scotland as well. Because it's a new pilot project it applies to everyone in the UK.

I'm Scottish as well and got my ACPO Police Cert only a couple of weeks ago. It took less than a week, and was very straightforward.

Hope that helps.

Lyn

mrs_sdp

Thank goodness for that .. panic over ...

And thanks for clarifying that for me Lyn .. I must have jumped past the part where you mentioned it!!

I'm still at the stage of trying to get my head around the whole visa thing - it looks kind of daunting but I'm sure once I start putting the papers together it will be fine ....

Thanks again!

penguinbar

My fiancee is from Scotland and got his certficate in less than a week a few months ago.He originally paid 10 to get a local Tayside police certificate but then realised it was the wrong one and needed the national UK one. Its only an extra 5 to get a second one so I would suggest getting two just have an extra copy. Also take a photo copy of the certificate to the interview. They asked for and kept photocopies of his police certificate and his birth certificate. This was for the K1in London a few weeks ago but I think it's a good idea anyway as I have learned from posts on here!

penguinbar

I should clarify an extra 5 after paying the 35. My American computer does not have the pound on it just the $dollar sign!

TKO

Bollocks, thought I had deleted this.

Please disregard - it's not true. The website is not for Scotland, but the new certificate process is.

Apologies to anyone who acted upon my statement.

FWIW - my certificate arrived within a week using the standard service too. The officer in London took my Scottish and National certificates, though he didn't need the Scottish only one.