coldasice_79

Hi, my fiancee has just posted off the forms from the states and now we wait. So what I am wondering about is this:

Since I was 16 I have lived in London, Lyon, Hamburg, and Takamatsu in Japan, as far as the police report is concerned am I going to have to get police reports from all of those countries?

ian-mstm

Yes, if you *lived* in each country for more than 6 months.

Ian

coldasice_79

great. that is not going to be fun.
can i get them done in advance or do i have to wait for the state department to ask?

Noorah101

You can start getting them done now. To my knowledge, the reports are good for a year.

Rene

ian-mstm

Just to clarify, the emphasis is on the word "lived". If you went to school if a foreign country, for example, and maintained a permanent address in some other country, then you did not "live" in the country where you attended school. Okay... hope this helps.

Ian

Noorah101

Are you sure about that Ian? My husband was working in Turkey for 9 years (citizen of Iran), but he had no permanent status in Turkey the whole time. He had permission to stay 90 days at a time, with an option of extending it to 6 months at a time, but however that worked out he also had permission to work there. But he had no real permanent address there, his home and residence were still in Iran. He "lived" and slept in the shop he was renting, or he stayed with different roommates in their apartments now and then.

He was still required to have a police report from Turkey, even though he was never considered a resident there, i.e., living there.

Just wanted to mention my scenario.

Rene

coldasice_79

well the ball has been set rolling; I have emailed the German embassy and am waiting for a reply. I have already spoken to the French embassy and now have to relevant forms. I spoke to the Japanese embassy and they want me to go get finger printed at a police station over here and then send my prints back to Japan. Hmmm, I wonder why that would be? I am guessing that they will probably try to match my prints to unsolved crimes in Japan. The Japanese tend to feel that foreigners are the greatest source of crime in their homeland.

The French one will take 2 weeks or so, but the one from Japan will take at least two months. I know it has to get there but come on...

ian-mstm

I definitely have a memory of Mr. F. mentioning something like this. Perhaps it referred *only* to someone who is in school in a foreign country as opposed to someone who is working in another country... not 100% sure about that.

Ian

ian-mstm

Sadly, the Japanese are not unique in this POV.

Ian