Apostille and document preparation for US GV investors

Yes Languex is great. They are my go to source.

Does anyone know if you can submit multiple requests for apostille for the FBI background check at the same time? Iā€™m going to send it to Monument Visa, but I was wondering if I could also send it in directly (I pay that fee as well, I know) just as a backup.

I do not see why not. The FBI background check is just a print out. You could print out as many copies as you wish and do whatever you want with them.

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Yes you can. We did this with Monument Visa and had no issues. Just submit both FBI letters online when you fill out the request for apostilles and pay for two (or however many you are requesting). They will also collect all the apostilles you requested and send them in one package to your lawyer (ours was for Portugal visa), saving you additional overnight international shipping for each one.

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I should also add that usually it is much faster to submit with Monument than it would be with you sending them to DOS directly, especially because Monument will send the originals directly to your international lawyer as well (for an extra fee). We found that not only saved us time since there wasnā€™t the multi pronged approach of mailing to DOS, getting the apostilles back from DOS, and then having to send them to our PT lawyer after that. Their international shipping fee in our case was much cheaper rate than it would have been if we sent them international ourselves, and also avoided me having to pay a separate shipping fee to/from DOS.

And one other point that many donā€™t knowā€¦ DOS will only use USPS, so you cannot use UPS/FedEx/DHL, etc., so it can take quite a long time to get it via snail mail. (yes, USPS has an ā€œovernight serviceā€, but it doesnā€™t use that to send the apostilles back to you, they use regular mail.)

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I am awaiting final approval from Lisbon (biometrics Feb 2023), which hopefully will come in H1 2024. My spouse is a US national, and we will be visiting the US over Xmas - so I thought Iā€™d take the opportunity of having her fingerprints taken again.

I thought I once read on Nomadgate that thereā€™s some way of having fingerprints kept ā€œon fileā€, and then triggering an FBI report at the appropriate time. I donā€™t want to get the FBI report in December, only to have SEF ask me in May for another one. Can anyone remind me if this is possible, and how to do it?

You can take as many fingerprints as you want yourself, and have someone mail them out at the appropriate time.

Itā€™s tricky but not hard, just a little tedious to make sure you get a good full set of prints.

Thanks. Last time we had them done in electronic form at the Post Office, and they were sent digitally to the FBI. Sounds like we should get physical ones done this time.

Note that itā€™s a bit slower because they have to process your fingerprints and such manually, so plan for the extra time. If youā€™re doing these ahead of time though, not as big a deal

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I donā€™t think this is possible. There is one company that allows you to ā€œarchiveā€ your prints but it doesnā€™t permit you to resubmit those for an FBI check. Iā€™m not aware of any other company who does this.

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The post you refer to- archiving fingerprints in the US is: Awaiting Pre-Approval (Stage 2) - #1602 by nicole1. A bit further down in the thread, the OP states that the company used was Print Scan, which did it for a fee -$250.

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Excellent, thank you! Will give them a call.

A link for their fingerprint archive service in case itā€™s of use to others:

I checked with them a month or two ago and they confirmed that their archiving service cannot be used for FBI purposes.

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Correct, I also confirmed the same thing. The archive service is only available to send back out printouts of your fingerprints which is helpful for some things but not FBI checks, as far as I can tell.

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Thanks both. Sounds like Iā€™m back to Garrettā€™s physical fingerprint card approach.

If you can get an FBI background check by mailing in the cards, then it should work. All the archive service does is store your fingerprints and then print you out a new fingerprint card and mail it to you. So if you can turn that card in for a background check, you should be good. What you cannot do is transmit the fingerprints electronically to the FBI and get the results back within 24 hours which is what the digital fingerprints do.

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Hello,
How do you obtain and send your fingerprints to FBI for an Apostilleā€™d clearance for Golden Visa?
L

Easiest is to go to an eligible post office

It is a two-step process.

  1. You send your fingerprints to FBI (in Virginia) and receive their report. Easiest way is to find a nearby post office which would allow you transmit your fingerprints electronically. In this case, you will receive your report in as little as one day (electronically).

  2. You print your report and send it to the Department of the State to be apostilled. This could take some time, though I donā€™t know how long it takes nowadays. There are also ā€œexpeditersā€ (like Monument Visa) who would arrange the apostille process for a fee.

In Portugal, the apostilled report is only valid for 90 days, so plan on sending it to AIMA as soon as you receive it. Otherwise you risk it not being accepted and a need to repeat the whole process all over.