Saturday 2 April 2011

MM2H - Copy Document Certification & LGC

Had some good news today. The MM2H visa application process requires you to provide certified copies of some documents (passport personal details page and salary slips re pension etc. in my case). So I contacted a solicitor I have before when I made a Will, expecting the charges to be between £20-30 per document, and was pleasantly surprised to hear that he would do this for free!! Good news indeed and in stark contrast to some of the prices for this kind of thing to be done in the UAE, the worst example was the British Embassy who charged £30 to certify a copy of a degree certificate!!!! He further advised that even to get the documents 'sworn' would only be £5 each.

I'd have done this all in Malaysia had the timing been right but for a variety of reasons it will be 8th may before I can a apply for the MM2H and tying it all up with the letter of good conduct (LGC) which must be no more than 21 days old (see below re addendum to this post) when you submit it makes co-ordinating everything with my departure date of 19 April difficult. As an aside, this LGC has caused a degree of confusion for some British MM2H applicants but it is clear that at the time of writing a UK police "Subject Access Request" (SAR) is acceptable at a cost of £10 and is available through your local police force. The certificates are actually provided by the ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) Criminal Records Office (ACRO) but are applied for locally. The forces for ACRO provides this service are listed, together with more information about the SAR, here.

Other options to getting the certification done are, as above, in Malaysia itself and also at the Malaysian Embassy in London.

Addendum: The issue of the LGC needing to be less than 21 days old at the time of submission emanated from from correspondence received by one or more applicants from an agent and it seems that this was one of the agent's requirements, not the MM2H office. This is thus one of those situations where too much research (e.g. into historical applications) can throw you off track. I enquired directly to the MM2H office and had a reply from another agent indicating that the LGC is valid for 1 year from date of issue.

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for your blog which I enjoy reading. With regard to the LGC: I don't believe it has to be less than 21 days old when you submit it. At least, not according to the MOT mm2h website.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the comments. Unfortunately the LGC 21 day 'rule' is one of those more obscure requirements I have come across and which is not documented anywhere (at least that I can find - yet!!). It emanated from the offices of Joy-Stay, a well regarded visa agency, who indicated to a number of applicants recently that they have been advised by MoTour that the LGC must be no more than 21 days old when the application is submitted.

    I have actually mailed the MM2H offices to clarify this but have as yet to receive a reply. If I don't get a reply it is one more thing I will ensure I comply with, easier than getting a rejection and having to appeal etc.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I applied for the mm2h myself but through another agency. Actually, they recommended to get the LGC as soon as possible. I don't see the 21 days rule confirmed on the MoTour website and it also seems unreasonable short to me. I am in a country where the processing of a LGC alone takes 2-3 weeks.

    Of course, the LGC should not be 1 year old, but is Joy-Stay possibly interpreting it too strictly?

    ReplyDelete
  4. No, I scoured their site before but there was nothing, there does seem to be a perception now that 21 days is the cut-off. I'm not sure at all. It is an important one to clarify, and important for MM2H to make it clear on their site if it is indeed a requirement. If the rule is 21 days it doesn't really matter if it takes 2 weeks or two months to get one, you would just need to ensure that you submit your application as soon as possible, and in any event, before 21 days has expired. It does make it tight though!!!

    I have mailed them but have yet to receive a reply.

    ReplyDelete
  5. See addendum to this post on the main page. Having written to the MM2H office I had a reply from an agent indicating that the LGC was valid for 1 year from date of issue.

    ReplyDelete