Difficulty Getting Police Certificates?

[barkingmad]

I was hoping someone could give me some advice for a friend. She is just gathering documents for her ITA. However her and her partner lived in Madagascar for 2 years as her partner worked for the French Embassy. If anyone knows Madagascar or has ever been there it's a very corrupt country and police certificates are essentially non existent. They have a friend who still lives and works there and for some money he can get a document expressing their good character. If it helps they have police certificates from their home countries and Australia which shows they have no criminal record.

Does anyone have any experience of a similar case where they were unable to obtain police certificates and what the outcome was?

Any advice / experience would be appreciated.

Thanks

[paua]

Hi

I had similar problems...what I did was send a letter to the local Police Station, where I had lived, and got the Post Office to stamp it for me, then took a photo of the envelope and sent in a copy of that with copies of the letter in French and English, I waited for about a month I think before I sent it with my application. I also gave a statement with the photo's and copies of the letter explaining how difficult it was to get a police certificate ( I think I might have got them all signed by a Justice of Peace as well).

INZ never asked for anything else, as they saw I had tried and explained enough for them to realise just how difficult an exercise it can be in some countries.

Good Luck.

[ChrisMwn]

Whilst there is no oprocedure listed on the INZ website for Madagascar, a quick google search gives the following.
You'd have to at least show that you have attempted to obtain such a certificate (with copies of what was sent) before you ask INZ to consider a statutory declaration in please of a PC.)

nstructions

You should apply for an Extrait de Casier Judiciaire with your passport or a Carte d’Identité Nationale (CIN) and a Certificat de Résidence and pay the applicable fees. Applications should be addressed to Le Procureur Général, Près de la Cour d’Appel at Antananarivo or to the provincial Tribunal
Required Information

Your full name as on your birth certificate including your maiden name if applicable
Your date and place of birth (or a copy of your birth certificate)
Your current address
All addresses at which you have lived at in Madagascar and when you lived there
The place and purpose for which you require the Certificate
Procedure

Apply for an Extrait de Casier Judiciaire with required documents and applicable fees.
Send the applications to Le Procureur Général, Près de la Cour d’Appel at Antananarivo or to the provincial Tribunal
Each individual has the right to contact any police station for the purpose of ordering a certificate regarding his or her criminal record, which will be sent according to the law, directly to foreign missions, to missions abroad or to international adoption agencies, depending on the available data.
It is the applicant’s responsibility to contact the relevant authorities to obtain the necessary police certificates or clearances. Each country’s procedures are different. Applicants may have to apply to more than one level of government or more than one agency - municipal, provincial, state, federal and the police, courts or similar governmental agencies for the police certificate. If a police certificate cannot be obtained from any of the countries on the list, provide a written explanation why and an original letter from the police authority confirming that it will not issue a certificate.
In most cases, you must contact the police or government to ask for a certificate. You may have to:
provide information or documents, such as photographs, fingerprints, or your addresses and dates that you lived in the country or territory, and
pay a fee.
A judicial record (Bulletin de casier judiciaire) is obtainable by all persons born in Madagascar from the " Procureur General" in the province of their birth. Persons not born but having resided in Madagascar may obtain a similar record from the " Procureur General" in Antananarivo. Any person, regardless of nationality, presently or formally resident in Madagascar may obtain judicial records. Requests for this document must be accompanied with a notarized copy of the requestor's passport. Fee: 2,000 FMG.