[Lara Croft]

Apologies if this has been asked many times before, but can someone please advise me how I go about getting the Police Checks done? I am knee deep in paperwork for the ITA & NZQA, and I think I'm losing the will to live!!!

We are applying through the Skilled Migrant route, and are based in the North West (have always lived here).

Help and advice would be much appreciated....

[wiki]

Go to your local police station and ask for a form to get a criminal record check for emigration purposes - one for each person. Fill them out, attach a passport photo and come back to the police station with some ID and £10 for each check and the station will send them off and you'll get an acknowledgement letter saying they'll deal with it within 40 days - and then you'l get the letter saying what is or isn't held about you on the Police National Computer.

[Lara Croft]

Thanks Wiki, I hoped there would be a simple solution. You know when you just seem to be wading through paperwork, and nothing seems simple any more...

[migratory birds]

If you're applying from the US, go to a local police station to be fingerprinted (they have the official cards on which the place the prints) and send them off to the FBI in VA. I believe there was no need to send a photo with them as all identifying information is on the card and the police department is checking photo ID. When I applied nearly 2 yrs ago - it took about 4 mos before the FBI responded with the letter of clearance so it's one of the first things Americans should do when beginning to slog thru the paperwork.

The paperwork is small in comparison to what follows...wait till you start packing, trying to identify a home to land in (esp if moving with children) and experience those first few months in NZ!

Keep your head up and take it a step at a time - it's not so bad!

[BkyMonster]

4 months? Goodness. That's good to know for budgeting my time. I want to have my police checks good for the longest amount of time possible, but I was thinking they would take a month or so. :laugh
Good to know I should plan for more time than that.

[LesleyS]

If you're applying from the UK it doesn't normally take that long, our was back within 2 weeks.

[peebles16]

We got our return from Scottish Criminal Records Office in one week still waiting for the PNC check - wonder if we need both since apart from stint abroad never lived out of Scotland? Ah well applied for now and apparently the Scottish Information Comissioner will chase it for us if it's late - not holding my breath on that one!

[brightonbean]

Does anyone know how long the (UK) police checks are valid for? If there's anything else like this we can do early in preparation for what the NZIS will throw at us, can someone tell me? I might as well start out organised, although I doubt it'll last long...

[peebles16]

Hi Brightonbean
6 months for UK police checks is my understanding and the 40 days relates to working days.
Karen

[M&J]

We had to apply for a police Cert from US as OH lived there for a short time. If you put a date on the outside of the envelope they should deal with it quicker. OH got his back within a month, it was quicker than the UK ones.

[katiejay]

We took our passports to the local police station as ID, so we didn't need to provide photos. The lady on the desk checked our forms, we paid her 20 quid and off iwe went - easy. We didn't want to let our passports out of our hands (because there are postal strikes every other day here :wah ) so this seemed the safest and easiest route. Took about 10 minutes for her to check the documents and we got to take our passports home with us. We got an acknowledgement within a few days telling us that our file reports would be with us within 40 working days.

[mgbridges]

Seems ages ago now although it isn't that we went through this!

We were in London so printed the forms off the website (sorry can't remember which one as OH did the deed) filled it in and sent it off with the payment (£10 each). Our certificates arrived back exactly 40 working days later.

However there was one complication as you need to get checks done for each country that you have lived in for more than 12mths during the last 10 years and we had - namely Australia.

To get a check from the Australian Federal Police we needed a set of certified fingerprints. To get those we had to go to New Scotland Yard. It took ages to track down the correct number to call to make an appointment and then ages to get through and then it was 2 weeks until the earliest available appointment!!

Anyway took a morning off work, went to Scotland Yard, got the prints done and Fedexed forms to Australia along with payment $120 Aus each !!! Certificates came back what seemed like ages later but was probably about 4 weeks later.

Good luck getting yours sorted!
Anneliese