In the continuous effort to apply for an APRC I applied for a Clear Criminal Record Form while back in the states last month. I first went to the local police, got a fingerprinting done and then sent it to the state capitol hoping it would get back in time for me have it notarized by the R.O.C. office in New York. Unfortunately it did not come back until after I left. My parents can take it to the office for me but I tried this last year and when they called they were told they had to bring a copy of my passport which had to be certified by some office here in Taiwan. My parents didn’t have any more time to pursue this as they were heading south for the winter so it expired and I had to start all over this year.
Can anyone tell me if they know if this is required (it is not in the APRC instructions and they could not tell me at the foreign police office). If it is, does anyone know where one would go to get such certification? Barring that does anyone know any other requirements they might have and could it possibly all be done by mail. This step has caused me great headaches and any help would be most appreciated. Many thanks in advance.
I was completing my application based on an official checklist that was a couple years old and apparently out of date. The English said nothing about having the criminal record statement notarized by TECO, but Foreign Affairs in Taipei County told me that they would not accept my Sacramento-issued statement unless it was taken back to the TECO office in San Francisco for certification (after which it must be translated and notarized again here in Taiwan).
I am trying to get around this is by getting a notarization stamp at AIT. They can’t notarize the original document. But they can notarize an attached affidavit (which I wrote myself asserting the veracity of the document). I then had this certified locally (and then translated and notarized). On my return to Foreign Affairs, they were reluctant to accept this (because it’s supposed to be the original document that gets notarized, not an attached statement), but after making a phone call to a superior, Foreign Affairs relented and has agreed to submit my application.
Of course this doesn’t mean my ap will be approved. I’ll find that out in a month or so. If you can get the TECO certifcation done through your parents in New York, I suggest doing that.
Your ccrd is required, and it has to be certified by a TECO office, not notorized. You will also need to have your ccrd translated and this will either need to be authenticated by a TECO office, or you can have the translation verified and notorized here by the Ministry of Foriegn Affairs. If your going to do another ccrd, I would recommend using the FBI. They got my ccrd back to me in two weeks.
Thanks Typhun and thebayou for your replies. I have more information on this for anyone who might need it. After first visiting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs I was sent to the Bureau of Consular Affairs. The girl at the visa desk did on inspire confidence in her ability to correctly answer my questions. There was a lot of consulting around with other desk attendants and she said I needed to write a letter that gives power of attorney to the person who is delivering the ccr, get that stamped by a notary public here in Taipei and then return to BOCA and have it authenticated. She then handed me a 2 page list of notary publics entirely in Chinese save for the telephone numbers. Big help.
Last night I called the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York and asked what is needed. The helpful woman on the phone said I had to go to the AIT and have a copy of my passport certified, then take that to BOCA for authentification and send these both to her. I also must include a letter stating who will deliver the ccr with contact information so they can call them when the documents arrive. She told me I need not have the letter notarized or authentificated (or whatever the verb is) but she stressed that the original letter with the ccr should be brought to the office unopened. She also recommended DHL or some other courier if was in a hurry, which I am.
Today I headed over to AIT, gave them my passport and a copy and told them I needed it certified. The woman at the counter said they would make their own copy and handed me a price list with the item checked that I needed to pay for. It said $30. I was relieved as I though it would be more like NT$200-400. However, at the cashier’s window I was informed that this was US$30 for them to take 10 minutes to apply their stamp to this piece of paper. My jaw dropped and I asked if she was serious. She said I was welcome to take the matter up at the next window (ha, ha).
On to BOCA to have it authenticated. Fill out the forms, make copies, bring it back to the window. The woman then gave me a payment slip and said go to counter 1 and bring the receipt back here. Another $400 payout and I came back to the window and she was gone. The people on the other line pointed out that I had to wait two working days until I could pick it up. Again, my draw drops. Two days to apply a friggin’ stamp to a little piece of paper. The woman returned and said if I was in hurry I could pay another $200 as a expedite fee. I told her I wish I had known that in the first place.
Bureaucracies absolutely fray my nerves raw. Thankfully it’s after 5:00 and the cocktail hour can begin to sooth them. Hopefully all the information I got was correct and there is no small hitch that someone forgot to inform me of. And to think this is just the beginning of the APRC process.
Did you have to take it to the TECO in Langley Virginia for certification?
Edit: Never mind–I just read in your other post that it’s Washington DC, not Virginia.
A third option is to get the ccrd through the State of California Department of Justice. According to other posters on Forumosa, this can be done regardless of whether or not you’ve actually ever lived in California. You would then need to have it certified at the San Francisco ccrd.
I found that the California DOJ had a pretty fast response time as well. Two weeks seems about right.
A fourth option apparently is to get your ccrd from the local municipal police station in whichever city you previously lived. According to another poster here, this can be as fast as same-day, so a potentially good option if you’re on a trip home and want to hit both the police station and the nearest TECO office on the same trip.
Some years ago, when my co-workerd was informed that she needed to provide a clean police
record, she brought her local sheriff to the CCNAA(now TECRO) Her local lolice didn’t have a
procedure for issuing such a document. Since she knew the sheriff, she asked the sheriff to go
with her… imagine the surprise on the CCNAA staff when the sheriff showed up in a cop car with
her… Needless to say, it was more than enough evidence that she was clean!
Needless to say, it was more than enough evidence that she was clean! 