FBI/Police Certificates

Daniel wrote: "If I may, a question about the police clearance from Germany -- I have lived outside the U.S. as well. You said that you have it already; did you submit this with your application and this another one with a later date or is this the first time? The reason I ask is that it was hell getting this document for me and I have submitted it with our application. Will I have to go through that again because the first one 'expired'?" In response, I thought I'd post about that and clearances in general.

Unlike some of you, upon the advice of our attorney, we did not submit FBI, state, or foreign clearances/police certs with out original application. In April, 2006 - eleven months after applying - we were advised, in anticipation of the IA, to make application for FBI clearances. We did so and received them, date stamped 24 July 2006. As such, they will probably be sufficient for our visas because - barring some unknown disaster - they will be less than one year old when we submit remaining materials.

As I've probably mentioned, I was really, really, really hoping that we would not be asked to obtain state police certificates. The "official word" is that you will need them from each state in which you've lived for six months or more since the age of 18. For me that would have been six certificates. Ugh! But, again, we were advised to hold off because of the timeline. It also appeared - judging by those who have gone before, but gone recently - that they might not ask for them at all. That was, in fact, the case - and I hope it doesn't change or that will really throw a wrench into things!

Finally, I knew that having lived in Germany (then, West Germany) for over three years obligated me to get a police certificate from the Germans. Again, we were advised to wait a bit. Fortunately, the Germans were - no surprise - amazingly efficient. Clear info was available on-line and I received my certificate within two weeks of sending the application! It's amazing to me that I received the German cert from Germany in two weeks while the FBI cards took 13!

Funny side story - it cost 13 euros. It would have cost me $50 to get a wire for 13 euros so I took a 20 euro note that I had in my drawer and sent it in. I know it's risky to send cash through the mail, but I figured it beat paying my bank a small fortune. Not only was it no problem, but the Germans asked for the information they would need to wire 7 euros to my account. I've probably thrown the entire bureaucracy into a tizzy, but I took the "I'm so glad to have the cert, you can keep the 7 euros" approach. My German friend swears that some clerk is probably going buggy at not having received the exact amount or been able to post a credit.

I haven't seen info about expiration of foreign certificates, but here's my thought. What the other country is saying (you hope) is that you have no police record there. The request is based not on your travel to the country, but on having lived there. Thus, using my case as an example, although I have traveled to Germany since 1981, I've not lived there since 1981. So, if you can follow this logic, since they've already "reported" on my record, or lack thereof, for the period during which I lived there, it shouldn't "expire." Now, if I were living there now, I can see where that would be different. But, doing it again next year wouldn't produce a different result because the time period being addressed remains the same. This, of course, is not the case when it comes to living in the States and the FBI clearance. I feel like I should have written that better; hope you get the idea! All that being said, I don't know that logic prevails...

That's it for now! If you haven't visited in a while, be sure to scroll down as there's been a flurry of posting lately. Cheers!