Maya
There are 3 stages to consider: submission, pre-approval, approval aka biometrics.
It is not clear from your post which stage you may be in currently. However, your follow up post suggests that you are confused and have not submitted all documents. Your lawyer is the best source of figuring this out. That is what you are paying them to do. If you have not submitted your FBI report apostilled yet, then your lawyers may be correct that your application is incomplete and cannot be preapproved. Regarding your question about what copy to send, that is literally answered in this thread if you would read it.
Thanks @anon16151502 . I am juggling several applications hereā¦my own, for which I have submitted all paperwork and am waiting for pre-approval, and paperwork for 2 dependents. I have to send off the dependentsĀ“ FBI background checks to be apostilled, but I have not received the hard copies from the FBI, hence my question as to whether I could send the PDF I received from them.
Yes, you can use the PDF version for apostille and translation purposes. The hard copy you may receive in the mail from the FBI is identical to the PDF version.
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You will save time and expense by submitting the PDF directly to an expediter in Washington. The expediter will get it to the State Department quicker than you will, and time is of the essence.
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I used Monument Visa again for the apostilles. This time, I also elected translation service through them and have them send the apostilles+translation directly to my lawyer in Lisbon. (We are in Lisbon now and waiting to catch biometrics appointments). I emailed our FBI reports to them on October 29th and just received FedEx notification that the documents will be delivered this Friday Nov. 19.
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Just to provide another datapoint on timeline:
- Sat, Nov 6, 10:45 am: last-minute visit to FBI channeler to submit fingerprints
- Sat, Nov 6, 7:24 pm: notification from channeler (āNational Background Informationā) that my FBI IdHS was ready to download
- Sun, Nov 7, morning: I request an apostille via WDC (thanks to @Jake-n-Ann in this thread for the rec)
- Sun, Nov 7, evening: WDC gets back, saying theyāll submit first thing in morning if I pay US$130 and email PDF of FBI IdHS; I do this
- Mon, Nov 8, morning: (presumably) WDC submits document for apostille
- Thu, Nov 18, evening: WDC informs me the document was successfully apostilled, attaching PDF scan, and asking for domestic address for shipping of document
So in all, apostille took 10 calendar days, 7 business days (accounting for Veterans Day on Nov 11 + weekend). Not bad, considering I had heard pessimistic forecasts of up to 4 weeks.
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Thatās a big improvement over the 13 week turnaround time, one year ago.
ccnw, Thanks for sharing your experience with WDC.
I received the FBI background check within several hours by email (via Identigo for about $55).
I submitted the FBI check PDF online on 10/21/21 to Southeast Spanish (recommended elsewhere on this site). I received the Apostilles on 11/17/21 (about $130), so my experience was 27 days which is about what I have expected. On the plus side, the owner of Southeast Spanish has his cell phone number on the site and was very easy to reach and responsive to my text queries along the way.
Not sure if you have better/luckier timing or whether WDC is able to facilitate quicker somehow. Hopefully this will be a help to others.
Wow @nevadaandonward -13 weeks?! Hope it doesnāt take that long now? We submitted our FBI background checks to Monument Visa on 11/9/21 and confirmation emailthe next day. Our attorney says they translate so we didnāt order that service. They were estimating 3 week turnaround. Waiting with bated breath.
No, the turnaround time is much shorter now. It isnāt back to normal, but itās acceptable.
A year ago it was dreadful; you could barely get an apostille back before the background check had aged into oblivion. Portugal only accepts documents < 90 days old. If your home government canāt produce valid documents within the stated validity time window, too bad for you.
Hello
Is the date of the apostille the date the determines the validity of the document or the date of the issuance of the document?
The date of the document itself. I tried sending in a 2 year old marriage cert and got rejected. I mean, ok, itās not that you had to be married less than two years ago (!) but the certified copy from the county clerkās office had to be issued < 6mo ago.
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NY department of state apostilled my marriage certificate in about 2 weeks. If I have to do this every 6 months thatāll be annoying, though the 90 days for fbi report is worse! Geez
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Has anyone had their documents certified by a Portuguese consulate instead of sending them to get an apostille?
My understanding is the that that option (certified by the consulate) is for countries that are not part of the Hague convention. For example, we had a get a Chinese criminal background check for my wife. Since China does not do Apostilles we had to have it certified by the Portuguese embassy in Beijing.
Interesting! My lawyers did not mention that to me. Thanks
So I looked into this option. It turns out at least in California the Portuguese embassy will only certify something that the state of California already certifies (apostilles). Which basically means you are exchanging federal apostille for CA apostille + Portuguese embassy processes. It turned out that the federal apostille at ~ 3 weeks was faster and simpler. Not sure how the embassies in other states or countries handle it.
I have appreciated other peopleās updates on the speed of FBI apostilles, so I will add mine here. I expected three weeks but got the results fasterā11 business days.
I submitted a PDF of the FBI report to Monument Visa early on Friday, Nov 5, and got an emailed scan with apostille today, Nov 22. The documents should be with my lawyer in Portugal by Wednesday.
This was my first business with Monument Visa but I was very happy and will be back given that my FBI certificate will have probably expired next time I need it!
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Thanks - glad to hear you got it in time.
Out of curiosity, my understanding is that state-side birth certificates require:
- county clerk signature
- state secretary apostille
- federal secretary apostille
It sounds like you did not require a federal apostille. Am I misreading something, or is your lawyer able to navigate the complexities?
Thanks 
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