Police certificates

[yave20b]

My fiancee and I are having a disagreement on the police certificate. She grew up in one place, went to college in another city, and now lives in a third place. My reading of the instructions seems clear to me.. she needs three police certificates. She says she needs only two. She says it is too impossible to get the police certificate from the town where she went to college because her ID card issues in China. I really don't understand this. I think it should be possible for her to go to each city where she lived since age 16 and get the police department of each town to give her the police certificate. Does anyone know if this is the case? Thanks.

[tonymasiello]

Hi Al,

 

My fiancee was in the same situation. She did end up getting all three certificates that she needed. For her university city, she first went to the university offices and got some kind of record from them. I believe it stated what years she attended, and that she had not had any disciplinary problems. She took this to the city police office, where they issued the police certificate. She explained at each office how far she had travelled to obtain these documents, and she told me that everyone was very accomodating, and she had everything done very quickly.

 

There are various opinions on the need to get the certificate for each city, but Quan and I decided it would be best for her to invest the time in getting them, and not risking a blue slip at the interview.

[yave20b]

Thanks Tony, that's very reassuring to know it is doable. My fiancee seems to feel that it is not doable. But I keep telling her we must do it. The instructions from the Consulate seem clear enough to me... a police report is need from each place where she has lived more than 6 months since age 16.

[warpedbored]

The issue is the residency card that each Chinese person has. Many people move to other cities and not bother changing residency because of the hassle. Without the official residency they don't officially live there. This can make it quite difficult to get the police certificate since many police depts won't comply, Your Fiancee could be right since she never officially lived there it wouldn't turn up in a police check. Tough call. Prudence says go the extra mile and get it. If it turns out impossible to get it will probably be a non issue. My experience is that Chinese seem to have a blase attitude about it . They don't seem to grasp the importance of all the nit picking details our government has.

[hlin]

Hm... I think my fiancee will be in the same boat. She went to school Malaysia for about 10 months. It is so much trouble and money to go there just to get a police record. I hope they can provide it via mail.

 

Hm... actually, it says here: http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/guangzho...u/iv/kvfaq.html

 

that if you live in another country less than 1 year, you don't need one. I hope that is the case for my fiancee.

[warpedbored]

Yes that is true. If she lived in another country for less than a year it is not needed. Bing lived in England for a little over 6 months and didnt need one.

[beijingjenny]

I've thought about this, and this is by no means an informed opinion, but it seems to be certificate from wherever they have hukou since 16 should be enough - my thought is if you get into trouble, police in your hukou place will certainly know about it! I would gather based on how things work here that after inputting info from ID it would go back to residency place...

[yave20b]

Yeh my fiancee went to the Chinese government notary public in Nanning yesterday and talked to them about this because somehow the government notary public is involved in obtaining the police certificates. They of course told her she has to go back to her hometown where she has her "hukou". And they told her she can only have one police certificate, not three. But they told her that the one police certificate will have reference to all three places she has lived. I'm not so sure I believe that. But what can you do? I don't worry about the "hukou" system in China. I worry about the Consulate in Guangzhou. Because I don't know if they will really be as understanding about the "hukou" system in China and is limitations as much as my fiancee believes they will be. If they were then they would change their instructions in P3 about the police certificates to read, "only one police certificate is required" instead of the "submit a police certificate from the police authorities of each locality..... where the applicant has resided for at least 6 months since attaining the age of 16".

[beijingjenny]

I've been wondering about this, as I've heard before someone say the police said only one is necessary. Would certainly make sense, but others say don't take the chance. I don't know if anyone out there has had any trouble with just having one/if it's been accepted by GZ?

[yave20b]

My fiancee, who often helped translate letters for girls into English for a Web site in China, has told me most girls she knew had only one police certificate and they got their visas even though they lived in more than one place since age 16. She does not know of a case of any girl who was able to obtain more than one certificate. She says it is quite impossible to obtain a police certificate from a place that is not where your "hukou" is located. And the government notary public has told her she needs only one for the US Consulate. Still, I feel uneasy about all of this.

[adeh]

I know this topic has been hashed through over and over. But please, I am at this stage at the moment, everything is looking great except the silly police certificate. Does someone have firsthand experience? Or have all the people that have gotten their visa already deserted this forum?

 

We are all in the same boat, the Chinese Hukou system clashes with the consulate directions that state an applicant must provide certificates from each place they have lived for more than 6 months. There must be some solution to this problem because obviously people are getting married and moving to the US.

 

We have heard of people doing the legwork and getting all ther certificates, we have also heard that getting one certificate is enough.

 

I want to hear from someone who has completed this process and can tell us that getting one certificate is certianly enough.

 

Thanks,

Adeh

[beijingjenny]

One was enough for us and for many here. Just make sure it says no record for all of China, not just the one location. You'll find many stated rules clash with what they actually accept.

[wulongtea]

My fiancee went to the local police station, here her hukou book is issued from. There she as able to get a single page report, stating that there are no criminal records for her in all of China.

 

I too thought that she would need to get separate reports from each place she has lived.

 

I checked with my lawyer about this questoin, and they said that the single report/statement saying that they have no criminal record in the whole country is sufficient. The lawer has processed many K1 visa applications in the past, so I am resting a little eaier.

[yave20b]

Yep I'm the one who started this thread back in September as I started to worry about this subject so much. My fiancee tried more than once to get a police certificate from each place she lived but was refused time and time again. They all told her she needed only one certificate from the place where she is registered presently. And that one certificate does cover police records for ALL of China. My belief is that the Consulate is aware their request for police records clash with the Chinese system and I'm guessing they let it slide. After all, it really is a Department of State thing, not just a US Consulate in Guangzhou thing. I have read in more developed countries such as in Europe the Consulates there do enforce that "one record from each police jurisdiction rule". Another reason they might let it slide is because my understanding is that in China the police are a national police system so there really is only "one jurisdiction" in China. Not sure if that is the exact case but that is my understanding. And my fiancee has many friends who were in the same boat as she but got only one police certificate and had their visas approved. And we had no trouble with the Consulate at all on this issue and my fiancee got her visa. Just get the one from wherever she is registered.

[steve&wei]

ONE will do it. Chinese Hukou is a centralized system, and everyone's

personal history record is hooked up with his/her Hukou. Say someone

resides in somewhere other than where his/her Hukou is, and a criminal

record is applied to this person, one of the first things the police will check

is this person's Hukou, sometimes this person could be sent back to where

he/she came from, but this record will be recorded to the person's history

data, which is bound to his/her Hukou. Therefore, the personal history

can and only can be accessed at the place where a person's Hukou is.

 

GZ is aware of this circumstance, and they do ease that "One place, one

certificate" rule in China. And GZ has been doing this for many years.

For instance, my parents are immigrations from China, though they had

been around all over the place in China, one police cerficate did the job.

 

My wife is now preparing the docs required by her P4, and one of them is

this police certificate. I never worried about it, since the notary public's

"no criminal record in China" statement solves the problem. Actually, I

think this procedure is somehow efficient, especially for people in our

situation.