Police clearance in two countries?
 

Hi
I have been in Houston for the last 7 years and before that in the UK. My wife and we have got our 457's and are ready to head of for Perth for my new job.

A friend already over there said if I intended to get PR once in oz I would need police clearance from the US and the UK, as they need 10 years of history. She also said I should get my US clearance started before I leave the US. Is it really worth doing? I was concerned that if I jump through hoops to start the process in the US, it might not be valid if I apply for PR after a year or so.

Also, we will be stopping off in the UK for a few weeks to see familily, should I start any type of Police clearance while I am there??

I was curious to know exactly what comes up as a red flag??? Not to say I have any criminal records apart from driving offences and a caution for affray when I was younger and a lot more stupid than I am now. I am hoping this won't be an isse.

Thanks for the help.

Re: Police clearance in two countries?
 

They are only valid for one year so it is recommended to only get them when requested by dimia in Skilled visa cases I believe. UK one is easy to get when you are in OZ. I have no idea about the US one but I needed one for Japan that I did in the consulate. There is a PDF amongst the forms on the immi.gov.au website - Form 47P which tells you how you go about getting police clearance for all countries. Hope this was useful. Cheers

Re: Police clearance in two countries?
 

My experience is different. We had to get two, S.Africa and UK. We only had to worry about it expiring in the country we were currrently living in. If you are no longer resident in a particular country (in your case, the UK) then you can apply for it at any time.

Re: Police clearance in two countries?
 

We had to get FBI clearence from the US and UK (we're Brits, but moved to Australia from the US). The FBI check is basically a fingerprint check, so you have to go get fingerprinted (local police will do it). They give you the card with the prints on and you have to send them away to the FBI with $18 for each set I think.

Also, just to cover any possible delays in the PR (we're also here on a 457 at the moment....PR any day now....please!), we paid for two sets of fingerprints ($5 each) just in case we had to send off the FBI check again for any reason. Saves us having to go to a US consulate here to get fingerprinted again.

They took about 3 weeks to come back.

The UK one doesn' need fingerprints, just proof of address/identity documents. They took about 5 weeks from sending off to getting them back (they return the documents separately as soon as they receive and check them)

Hope this helps.

Re: Police clearance in two countries?
 

Here are a couple of old threads with information on doing a US police check (rap sheet).

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=239684

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=236088

Cheers,
Mrs JTL

Re: Police clearance in two countries?
 

Ozger, so if I am in OZ, I can go to the US embassy to get prints for US clearance? I guess there is nothing to worry about if thats the case.

As far as the UK one, it sounds pretty simple. Where do you apply to the UK one?? A local police station or to a central office somewhere.

Great info.
Thanks.

Re: Police clearance in two countries?
 

A US consular office will be able to do it, but in my opinion it will be much easier to get a couple of sets done before you leave. I don't think your fingerprint expire ;-) only the FBI clearance check does.

The UK one needs to go to the area where you lived, in my case it went to South Wales Police HQ.