Noortje

Hey guys,

Does anyone know how old the police certificate(s) can be at the time they are presented to the Embassy in a DCF-procedure?

Couldn't find anything really clear on this issue.

Thanks!

antjen

i belive its up to a maximum of 12 months old.

Ant

antjen

thought thats for british certificates - not sure about other countrys

Ant

mcjimbo

The one for the country your currently living/residing in can be no older than 12 months. If you have lived in other countrys and applied for those, but are no longer living there then they don't expire.

I got my British one last March, and have since had to order another in anticipation of my embassy interview. However i've also got an Australian one from last March which is fine, hope this makes sense.

SidAngelika

Hi,
we had our K3/k4 interview just a week ago in Germany.
My police certificate was 4 months old, my sons was even 10 months old. Both were excepted w/o questions. According to German standards a police certificate is considered stale here after 3 months...for German offices etc. We had an RFE so when I applied I had never thought it would take so long....my sons new current police certificate arrived 1 day after interview.
I guess if they are not older than 6 months...are even better not older than 3 months...you will be fine.
P.S. On our consulate letter no "aging" of police certs date was specified

Good luck!

Noortje

Thanks you guys,

I'm in Belgium and I will probably need those certificates in August, so I think I'll just try to get them by the end of June.

I know I'm clean... LOL. Almost a year ago, I did an internship with the Belgian Federal Police with the scientific police (fingerprints, composite drawing etc.) and they apparently thoroughly screened me (which I didn't know but which is pretty standard procedure I guess).
Speaking of fingerprints... another question just popped in my mind. With DCF in Western European countries, does the Consulate take fingerprints now too since that rule that people from the Visa Waiver Countries are fingerprinted too? What do they do with the fingerprints anyway? Is it only an FBI-check or do they also check the database of the original country of the immigrant (in which database I have several test tenprints and even one latent print. I was used as guinee pig for their little technical problems! )?

Phew, lots of questions!

Rete

There is no rule that people from VWP applying for US non-immigration (K visas) or immigration visas have to be fingerprinted for the FBI search.

I believe what you are thinking of is the fingerprint(s) and photograph that is taken at the US POE of visitors to the US. Different story altogether.

Rete

Bluegrass Lass

There was never anything specifically written that the police certs couldn't be any older than say 3 or 6 months. We were told that the UK Police cert was technically only good for 12 months I think. Also, I think the one from South Africa (fiance was born and raised there for the most part) had an expiry date of 3 months, or possibly shorter. So we didn't apply for that one until the last minute.

Noortje

Right... thanks Rete. I didn't know whether the rule that applies to visitors now also applied to immigrants.