Skip to content

Which countries' police certificates are needed?

Key answer

Certificates are needed from your country of residence, your country of citizenship and every country where you lived longer than a threshold - members cite both 6 and 12 months - plus anywhere you were arrested. Russian certificates have no statutory validity; the receiving body decides: the community reports 6 months (embassy support in Poland), one year (consulate website) and 24 months (Warsaw embassy website). The practical takeaway is to order the certificate when you are about to submit documents to the NVC, not in advance.

Community answers

The answers below are translated from the original Russian - the language of the community chats.

  • You need a police clearance certificate from the country you currently live in, from your country of citizenship, from all countries where you've lived for more than 12 months, and from everywhere you have had arrests, convictions, and other criminal records.

  • The attorney said that when applying, a certificate is required from all countries where you've lived for more than six months, and this was also mentioned in the list of documents on the website. The Russian police clearance certificate is valid for six months, so I recommend obtaining it right before you send the documents, rather than when you're gathering the case.

  • My attorneys requested a police clearance certificate, as well as a birth certificate and information about my marital status (I got a certificate stating that I'm unmarried). The Russian certificate is valid for one year, while in the U.S. all certificates are valid for two years by default, as far as I know.

  • The embassy in Warsaw has these requirements for police clearance certificates: currently, certificates are valid for 24 months (two years) from the date of issuance - this is stated on the embassy's website.

  • From the date of issuance, the certificate is valid for six months - after that, you need to get a new one, either someone obtains it for you, or you arrive in person. I called the U.S. embassy support service in Poland, and they confirmed the six-month validity. According to Russian law, it is supposedly indefinite, but each organization sets its own duration; for a residence permit in the EU, it's also six months.

The answers are anonymized community experience from the public chats, not legal advice. Officers may decide similar cases differently.

Sources

All questions on: Consulate and interviewAll questions on: Green cardAll questions on: Process and timelines

Related on this site

Similar questions

A reference page built from community experience, not legal advice. Requirements and practice change - verify on uscis.gov.

Did this answer help?