FBI only records federal crimes, so local would be from e.g. state or city level police.
If you donāt mind your citizenship application potentially being delayed, you can always submit without that initially, and if they need it they will ask for it later. But the processing will be paused once they ask for it until they receive it, so it will add some delay.
Thank you for the insight. Looking at the situation positively, it gives me some relief as one of the factors that worries me is ensuring that all of the criminal records that I need to submit are issued within 3 months of the date of submission. It sounds like I can submit my application with all the criminal records that I can gather and supplement it with the ones that donāt make it on time as soon as I receive them. Thank you!
That was my experience with GV application - my FBI record was awaiting apostille at the time of my biometrics appointment, so we sent it a little later.
But you should check with your lawyer if the same applies for citizenship.
Hi Emily, can you share your lawyers contact. Thanksā¦ Anand
We are at the stage where our GV is up and we are now going to apply either for Permanent Residence or Citizenship. Weāve read so many conflicting reports and have decided to use an immigration lawyer rather than our usual solicitor. Can anyone recommend a good, reliable immigration lawyer that they have used and been successful with? We are in the Algarve but we are quite happy to use a Lisbon lawyer if thatās what it takes.
Congrats for completing the 5 year mark. Use anyone who has a prior experience in the Nationality application process as the SEF/AIMA shall not be reviewing your applications anymore. Government ministry(Justice) shall be responsible for reviewing your citizenship in Portugal, which could be made by yourself or a Solicitor (Preferred). There are some decent solicitors based in Algarve, you can choose someone who can speak the language in which you are comfortable with, has a track record of successful applications and you do feel comfortable after interviewing them. If you have a regular solicitor who has a track record in immigration law, then there is nothing else like itā¦ Thereās not much difference in a Solicitor based in Lisbon or Algarve or Madeira as all the applications are made exclusively online.
Try to avoid telling them youre an ARI person until after you agree on costā¦
Hi, you seem very knowledgeable about the laws referencing nationality applications. Do you know of an official reference which specifically states that a birth certificate must be issued within 180 days prior to application? I am having problems obtaining my birth certificate (never mind the details). A lawyer, not in Portugal, needs valid proof of this 180 day requirement in order to help me procure my birth certificate. It doesnāt have to be in English. It can be an online reference, as long as itās from a government website. After a full day of searching, Iām unable to find anything. Any help will be gratefully appreciated.
Dear @Lourenco, thank you for your comment; just to note that I usually rely on my lawyers with regards to queries like this. It was them who stated that the birth certificate should be no older than 6 months.
In the meanwhile I see that you have opened a new thread with regards to the birth certificate - and what I realize is getting documents from the home country pretty much depends on that home country and its systems. In my case even online / offline systems differs, e.g. in person I get a birth certificate anytime I want, from the online portal I can get it once in a yearā¦
If you canāt find a way around or an online reference from a government site, I can ask this to my lawyers.
Thank you. I have asked several lawyers, who all āknowā that the birth certificate should be no older than 180 days. But when I ask them for the official source of this 180-day requirement, no one seems to know. I spent 16 hours yesterday searching for anything about this 180-day rule, and I only found it in specific relation to the citizenship application for Sephardic Jews. I need an official source in order to apply to a court of law for a special order. Never mind the details. For now, it seems that the 180-day rule is not based in law. SEF/AIMA supposedly insist on it, but perhaps it is more ātraditionā or unwritten procedure than fact.
Portugal is the antithesis of efficiency and agility in proceduresā¦things simply do not move forward
Well, all those problems appear because Portugal does not want to accept other systems. E.g. criminal record in Portugal is the link which allows to see it in the system and it expires in 3 month. Because of that Portugal treats criminal records from other countries similarily. All of them have 3 month validity for Portugal.
In Portugal birth and marriage certificates are easily obtained from the registry system. And those docs expire in 6 month. And now you need to bring fresh certificates from other countries. While the requirement looks more or less reasonable for marriage certificate, it seems strange for birth certificate.
My country e.g. gives birth certificate once in a life. It is good that now we also could easily get the duplicate. But in the past the trick was to get the paper from consulate which stated that this birth certificate is valid for the whole life.
Other trick was to have apostile less than 6 month. Worked sometimes.
And the last was to do a notary copy and fresh apostile on notary signature.
But all those tricks might work or not.
The practic rule is birth certificate should be less than 6 month. And with citizenship one does not want to have it wrong.
Portugal isnāt alone in not accepting other systems. My problem is that there are FOUR government systems that are totally incompatible with each other that are preventing me from getting my birth certificate. This has to do with my legally changing my name in one country, which my birth country accepts at a national level, everywhere except the birth registry office, who adamantly refuse to issue a birth certificate to this stranger who has a different first name than the one on the birth certificate. And all this trouble because the birth certificate I do have is 56 years old, which is 55.5 years too old for Portugal to believe that itās real.
Today I pinned down my lawyer, who finally admitted that there is nothing actually written in any of the laws and regulations that require a birth certificate to be less than 6 months old. Itās just āthe practice here.ā So, wait a second, I said. Iām supposed to obey a legal requirement that doesnāt actually exist?
āWelcome to Portugal!ā
Why donāt you apply with the old birth certificate. Then when you receive a request to update the documents with a birth certificate that is less than 180 days old, that can be your official proof?
I second that, apply with your old birth certificate first, and once they request you in writing a new birth certificate, you can use this official letter to show it to your birth certificate issuing authorities. Then they should be obliged to issue a new one
Or when you receive a rejection of your citizenship application because āyour documents were not goodā?..
I would not advise to gamble with the PT bureaucracy, especially knowing that they donāt follow the law but a āpracticeā.
I actually have a similar issue with another country at the moment, albeit on a totally different non-critical subject. In response to my online application I got a rejection quoting that āyour documents were knowingly falseā. Now there is no way to know which document they did not like and how to fix it, I suppose itās just some standard wording they use on rejections. Or maybe it was generated randomly by some ChatGPT. I am now figuring out if there is another way to apply perhaps in person and talk to some human if there are any left there.
From experience with GV applications in Portugal they just seem to say your document is out of date please provide a new one. Of course itās a risk though.
My (new) lawyer recommends me not to submit the application until all of the documents are collected. He says that if the application is incomplete, I will be notified about the missing document(s) and I will have to start the process all over again. I am not sure if this is actually the case or whether he is just being extra careful. Does anyone have any experience with this?
A question about translation of documentsā¦
Apparently, Article 37 of the Decree No. 26 of March 18, 2022 (Changes to the Portuguese Nationality Law) says that documents in English, French, or Spanish do not need to be translated. Is true in practice? Based on your knowledge or experience, would you have each document translated, notarized, and apostilled nonetheless? Thank you for your thoughts!
Article 37: āQuando escritos em lĆngua estrangeira, os documentos apresentados para instruir as declaraƧƵes e os requerimentos sĆ£o acompanhados de traduĆ§Ć£o feita ou certificada, nos termos previstos na lei, salvo se estiverem redigidos em lĆngua inglesa, francesa ou espanhola e o conservador de registos ou o oficial de registos nĆ£o determinar a apresentaĆ§Ć£o da respetiva traduĆ§Ć£o.ā
As Iāve thought many times reading posts here
Are you going to quibble over a few hundred euros given the investment youāve already made?