The nest step in the process and police certificates

Hello everyone,

Last night Jon and I spoke with our lawyer at Masliah and Soloway, and went through what will be happening next in the immigration process.

I want to document it all here so that we can have a clear outline of what to expect after an I-130 petition has been approved by USCIS.

Our lawyers had emailed us in the early hours of the morning, UK time, on Thursday to inform us that our approval had came in "moments ago". It was around 8pm California time, which seemed odd anyway, but it was an electronic notification, and not a postal one. Since then we have spoken to our lawyer, and he said that the postal one may not arrive for several weeks yet. This makes me wonder, had we not used a lawyer, would we still be none the wiser now? Or if we had done it ourselves would there have been an electronic notification option for us, too? All I can say is, I am glad they got notified before the paper version came!

So now we have our approval, and we can move on to the next stage with the National Visa Center. First of all this involves us filling out a worksheet for our lawyer, with all the relevant information, which will then be transferred on to the actual document. The document in question is the DS-260, which is all about me.
The process should happen something like this, providing I understood it all correctly:
Jon and I fill out the DS-260 and pay our lawyers their fee and the government fee for the National Visa Center (NVC). The current government fee is $318 (US).
In the meantime our case is being transferred by the USCIS from them to the NVC. Once it is transferred, the NVC give us a case number and requests the fee from our lawyer, and the DS-260 is submitted also.
Once the NVC has received all of this, they process it all, and in due course we will get more forms to fill out, which at this stage I understand is to do with finances for the sponsor (Jon) with an affidavit of support to say he will support me. Tax returns for the past 3 years are also required, including a tax transcript which can be obtained easily from the IRS.
When those forms have been filled out, and we have our case number, we just wait to hear from them again.
To get the case number takes up to about 8 weeks currently, according to our lawyer. Once we have the case number have submitted the second round of forms in this stage, they will let us know when they move it to the consulate. Finally, we will hear from the consulate in London, which can take from 1 to 3 months.

I know that all sounds a bit confusing, but I tried to make as clear as possible. Unfortunately, as is the nature of anything to do with the government, nothing is simple, therefore explaining it can be tricky!

At some point during all of this, though, I have to request a police certificate to take along to my interview at the end of the whole process. Getting one in the UK is simple, but last night when we spoke to the lawyer, I almost had a heart attack.
He knows that I had spent some time in Canada on a work visa, and he said that I would need a police certificate for there too, since I was there for longer than 6 months. He said it should be as simple as getting one here. Of course, it isn't. When I started looking into it, there are a number of complicated procedures involved in getting a police certificate from Canada.
First off, you have to be fingerprinted. This can be done by local police in the country where you live, and fees can be high, although they are fairly easy to get. You then have to submit them electronically with you application to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. However, they only accept electronic fingerprints! They do not accept paper prints, which is what any police station would give you. Or at least if you get digital ones you must get a print out of them, which effectively makes them paper.
So, in order to get them digitised, you have to use a company authorised to scan the print out, who are based in Canada. Thankfully, they cover all costs, except the visit to the police in your home country of course, and submit your application with the digitised prints, and send the confirmation back to you. One company we looked at charged around $200 (US) total for this service.
Of course, whilst I was having a mini stroke about all this I found myself on the US Embassy in London website, looking at the police certificate requirements.

"Police certificates are required for all countries you have lived in for more than 12 months over the age of 16 years."

Basically, I do not have to get one after all!
I emailed our lawyer back, and he said that it is indeed 12 months. Of course, that was not what Jon and I heard on our call with him, otherwise why would we have put ourselves through this stress?!

My advice here is that, if you have lived in any other country continuously for exactly 12 months or more, be prepared to have to get police certificates for all those countries, and sometimes they are not easy to get. Our lawyer told us of a case where a man had lived in the Caribbean on business for a while, and had to get one from the country he was based in. Of course, being a developing nation they had no other means of doing it except in the country itself! Yes, the man had to travel to the Caribbean to get this document! Thankfully, had I needed one from Canada, I would have just used this authorised company, and paid the $200 for them to do it for me. Not ideal, but better than flying back to Toronto!

If you have any questions, I am more than happy to try and answer them.

Have a great Sunday everyone,

Dan.