New to this community - glad it exists.
i am filing for my parent - and they live in a different country. Since the waiting period is 1-2 years, can I use the 6months old criminal records certificate and just notarize it? I don’t want to bother my parent unnecessarily to renew it until the appointment. Thanks.
Are you using a lawyer? Doing this remotely on your own from abroad on behalf of others–again, wow. That also demonstrates great dedication to your parents.
My understanding is not directly formed, but I know this as the age of the document according to its issue date by the authorities when we discuss such items as criminal records and birth certificates, not the notary date or the apostille date (one or both, as may be required based upon the document and scenario). This is why folks have to get various newly issued certifications over time, why one original won’t suffice if simply newly apostilled, etc., before the relevant deadlines.
no lawyer at this stage, the process was pretty straightforward. And quite honestly - this forum helped a ton. I hope to pay back with the advice to other applicants in the future.
I expect to engage lawyers when the time for the lawsuit comes.
I just wasn’t sure if it matters too much for the initial submission since We’d need to redo it during the pre-approval.
The PCC itself must not be 3 months old. The gap between your filing their application online and their biometrics appointment (where another PCC not older than 3 months will have to be presented) could be several years. You will have to present this document at least twice, each time the document itself cannot be older than 3 months. It will also have to be legalised. Hope that helps.
Yes, @va.trade23 is correct, the criminal cert is checked by the date of issue, not apostille.
In some cases the AIMA agent may let it slide if the date difference is not too big, and accept an older doc (like they did in my case) but you don’t want to bet on this for sure! 
In some countries, you should be able to obtain the criminal certificate online or through a ‘helper’ agency. In which case you can do it on behalf of your parents and not bother them at all.
Also, I think the initial submission can be done without a lawyer (I did this as I had a useless lawyer at the time), but it’s hard work with some pitfalls on the way that you never knew existed.
However for the rest of the process you’d need a PT based lawyer.
Exactly. What pitfalls did you experience later, tommigun?
It would not be possible to describe every little quirk of the process that must be done in a certain way, which you cannot know just by reading the official source material from SEF/AIMA. A good lawyer would help avoid mistakes.
Besides the whole AIMA system assumes a lawyer is involved, so without one you’d miss their emails, AIMA would not post the cards to you as they want a lawyer’s address etc. Many small annoyances like that which would make an already awful process completely stuck or worse application rejected.
hm, if you are your own legal representative, you get all the emails, no? How would you miss any emails? Even they wouldn’t’ know if the email is your or your lawyer’s.
Can you give one example? I don’t wan’t to make a habit of paying someone many thousands of dollars for a questionable service, unless I absolutely have to.
The physical address to receive cards is the only thing you need to have in place by the time comes. I am sure you can get some mail forwarding for ~$100 top.
Alex, I am afraid your line of questioning is a bit misdirected as I am not AIMA 
So for the life of me I cannot tell you why they cannot email the applicant even if they know his email, but they want to email the lawyer instead, and if the “lawyer’s email” is empty on your application they will email no one.
Same with the postal address, if you think they’d post the cards to your address because you live in Portugal, well… think twice 
That’s helpful to know!