Saturday, February 28, 2015

Have you ever?

Had your finger prints taken lately? In 2013 while Jill and I were crossing the border from Canada into the US we were stopped by custom officers. I reported in a previous blog our experience. It was the first time I ever had my finger prints taken! The officer doing the prints paid me a compliment after doing a “palm print” saying; “that was very good, most people have a problem doing it correctly the first time.” I'm not certain if I thanked her for the compliment or not! Maybe it was because I was so good at it that I had no problems being finger printed again just a couple of weeks ago! Once again Jill was with me and had her prints taken as well!
So what was the occasion? No, we were not accused of any crime. This time we requested the prints and had to pay a $100 each for them! We are in the midst of our Green Card application which will allow us a permanent residency in the US. The papers and forms that we have to submit are endless; birth certificates (the long forms not the short ones), marriage licenses (a problem for Jill and I as we were married in Quebec which requires banns and does not issue a license). We need to supply the birth place of each of our parents, our daughters names and their place of birth etc. etc. We also have to have a medical exam which includes a chest x-ray. Now we come to the request for a police certificate for any place where we lived for three years or more! The police check from Canada must be made through the RCMP. When I contacted the RCMP they told me that because I was out of country and could not drop into their office for a form that we must have our finger prints taken here in Bermuda and forward them to Canada. Following receipt of our prints a check would be made based on our prints and not our names. I was informed that this was the more thorough check of the two! The prints were taken the fees were paid and very shortly we will be forwarding them to Canada to a “private company” who will digitize the prints and forward them to the RCMP. The RCMP and the company digitizing the prints each have their fee. Canada is taken care of and now we must apply for a police check from Bermuda. No problem with that as we were able to go into their office and pick up a form after paying a further $100 each! But we are not through yet because there is still the Bahamas! I have a very good friend there who went to the local police station and asked on my behalf what I had to do to get a police certificate. All that was required was to write them a letter, tell them why I needed a certificate, send them a certified copy of our passports and “oh yes” send them a certified copy of our finger prints! No mention of a fee as yet but I know that it will come. SO, if you are ever required to give your finger prints come to me and I will show you exactly how to do it for a fee of course!
Your Friendly Pastor,
John