That picture’s nice, but not too clear, but someone told me she’s a cutie, and you’re very happy so congratulations. Don’t let the preparations stress you out too much. 
brian
I am told that the bloody Yanks can now:
go the AIT
pick up a fingerprint form
take it back to their local cop shop and be finger printed
return the card to the AIT
receive US National Police Administration clearance letter
Would somebody care to verify that?
I’m a U.S. citizen. Since I lived in Indiana for 15 yrs before coming to Taiwan, I got my Limited Crim History from the Indiana State Police. There is an online form: secure.in.gov/apps/isp/lch/
But be aware that they actually want $10.00 money order or bank check.
Fill out online and they mail you the needed fingerprint card.
We went to the cop shop in WanHua for fingerprint service, and all was going swimmingly until they learned that my official residence is recorded in XinDian. Suddenly, no go. Do people from the county usually have 17 fingers, and it’s just too much trouble? [I spose I should say that the fact that we arrived at the stroke of 5:00 pm probably didn’t help.]
Rather than go all the way to Ban Qiao I decided to go DIY. Went to an art store and got a brayer (small roller) and some oil based ink. Went home. Tried it out on some scrap paper, only to find that the ink was too thin. Went to a print shop and begged for some real printer’s ink. They gave me a dollop, which I carefully took home. Practiced a few times, then printed myself onto the card.
Mailed card with $10 check to Indiana State Police. They sent me back a very nice official letter stating that I had no criminal record. The letter has the Indiana State Seal AND is notarized. They also sent the fingerprint card with their stamp of NO CRIMINAL RECORD. I ran the English from the nice letter through an online auto translator, which spit out very rough Chinese. Took the Chinese to a coworker who hammered it into good Chinese.
With his good Chinese I printed out a nice copy formatted to look a lot like the original. Mailed the original, including fingerprint card, plus the Chinese copy, along with a check for US$45 to TECO in Chicago. TECO chopped both the nice letter ($15) and the nice translation ($30 (Even THEY find reading Chinese a pain?)) and returned both to me quite promptly.
The chops are fancy, consisting of a big blue rubber stamp (English on the English doc, Chinese on the Chinese doc) with details and signature written in by hand, a beautiful lithographed stamp with raised print and nice shading pasted on, and a smaller officializing seal. Also, they did their trick of fanning the three sheets slightly and putting another seal chop on the back so it hit all three. So the original letter, the Chinese translation and the fingerprint card now make one document. TECO did a bang up chop job. Makes you feel you are getting your money’s worth.
When doing the paperwork for my APRC last year, I did the following (in California):
- Went to the public services unit of the LA Sherrif’s Department.
- Got the certificate for about 45 bucks.
- Had a college kid in Taiwan do translation.
- Took it down to a public notary in Taiwan and had it chopped.
- Took it to the MOFA to have them notarize it.
- Took it to the police station as part of the application.
A lot of work, but seamless.
Anyone know the process for British citizens?
Search terms: united kingdom uk brit brits britain british england english wales welsh scotland scottish northern ireland irish criminal record records office bureau clean certificate proof good character police
Having done it earlier this year (I started the process in January and got the APRC in July), I can answer that as follows:
(1) Submit a request for information about you held on the police national computer. I submitted mine to the Metropolitan Police at the following address:
National Identification Service, Subject Access Office, Room 350, New Scotland Yard, Broadway, London SW1H 0BG.
You must fill in a form, provide proof of identity, and pay a fee (about ten quid if I remember correctly).
They’ll acknowledge receipt of the application and tell you that you may have to wait up to a couple of months before you receive the results of the search.
When they’ve done it, they’ll send you a document which should (you hope) say that “From the personal details supplied in your request there is no information held about you in the Person Record category of the Police National Computer.” That’s the nearest we can get in the UK to the requisite certificate, and is accepted here for the purposes of applying for permanent residence.
(2) Once you’ve got your certificate, the next step is to get it stamped (authenticated) by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. There’s another fee to pay for this (about ten quid again, I think). Also, because time is short, you’d best take the option of paying a few quid extra to have the thing sent back to you by express mail.
(3) When you get the certificate back with its BFCO stamp, you must send it off to London again, this time to the Travel Document Handling Unit of the Taipei Representative Office in the U.K., for legalization. You must fill out the appropriate form and send them proof of identity, a stamped self-addressed envelope, and another ten-pound fee (no cheques accepted this time, so I just enclosed cash).
(4) When you get the legalized document back, you must take it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for verification. This is actually free (whoopee!).
(5) Get the certificate and all the stamps and everything on it translated into Chinese.
(6) Take the translation and original to a notary public for notarization (i.e., they certify that the English translation is correct).
Then you’re all done and ready to add this document to all the others collected for your PR application.
So just to recap, the six steps are: (1) Certification, (2) authentication, (3) legalization, (4) validation, (5) translation and (6) notarization.
It’s a pain in the arse and you have to race against time, but it’s worth it when it finally gets you that precious APRC.
You can say that again. Thanks for the information.