Criminal Record Checks - how to speed it up ?

[LegendsWear7]

Experts: I turn to you for advice now.

I have a contract offer in Germany pending a criminal record check from 'a competent authority in your home country'. This I am expected to produce myself. Phone calls have revealed that CRB won't do it as I won't be working with kids or vulnerable people - it is a straight up offfice tech job in finance. Besides CRB won't report an individual's record to the same individual.

So I was told to contact Police. Checked online and discussed with Police Information Officer in my home area. He said this will take 40 days to check the PNC - Police National Computer and is standard across all constabularies. They don't have any express or expedited service. I have submitted the paperwork anyway.

Informed the end client and agency. Response: they are in discussions today but bottom line: they won't wait more than 2 weeks for me and have other rejected candidates they will turn to. (Though presumably if they are from UK they will also need to wait 40 days.)

40 days makes no sense to me at all.

I've read on CUK of others needing to be checked but no one describes the delay or work-arounds.

In this market you'll know it wasn't easy to land the gig. Don't want UK gov to blow it up for me.

Ideas ?

[DodgyAgent]

Experts: I turn to you for advice now.

I have a contract offer in Germany pending a criminal record check from 'a competent authority in your home country'. This I am expected to produce myself. Phone calls have revealed that CRB won't do it as I won't be working with kids or vulnerable people - it is a straight up offfice tech job in finance. Besides CRB won't report an individual's record to the same individual.

So I was told to contact Police. Checked online and discussed with Police Information Officer in my home area. He said this will take 40 days to check the PNC - Police National Computer and is standard across all constabularies. They don't have any express or expedited service. I have submitted the paperwork anyway.

Informed the end client and agency. Response: they are in discussions today but bottom line: they won't wait more than 2 weeks for me and have other rejected candidates they will turn to. (Though presumably if they are from UK they will also need to wait 40 days.)

40 days makes no sense to me at all.

I've read on CUK of others needing to be checked but no one describes the delay or work-arounds.

In this market you'll know it wasn't easy to land the gig. Don't want UK gov to blow it up for me.

Ideas ?

They are very busy sending out speeding tickets, which have to be sent within 14 days. You will have to wait

[ace00]

"competent authority" is the key I think. Can you get a solicitor or some-such to sign a declaration?

Failing that, tell them you have it, sign the contract and delay them for a couple of weeks until the police supply the necessary.

[HairyArsedBloke]

Simple. Go to the nearest solicitor and get an affidavit where you swear that you have no criminal convictions. It works in most parts of the world.

[LegendsWear7]

Simple. Go to the nearest solicitor and get an affidavit where you swear that you have no criminal convictions. It works in most parts of the world.

Never thought about it. It could work. I asked the end-client to describe exactly when they meant and the reply was that I must contact my national police (we don't really have that) or local police station (they put me on to the information officer at HQ).

I think I could go back to them and ask if this method is OK.


The whole thing is a farce anyway as I've spent most of last decade outside UK and the UK police don't check any records overseas. As the police staffer told me yesterday: I could have done hard time in Chino for strangling agents and they would be none the wiser and report me as being clean as a whistle. So what use is that ? Germans.

[DodgyAgent]

Do a google search and get a specialist company to either do it or tell you the best way to do it. Some can do these things on line. If you want advice then pretend that you are a recruitment agency about to conduct lots of tests

[DodgyAgent]

The whole thing is a farce anyway as I've spent most of last decade outside UK .

Guantanamo Bay?

[Marina]

Obviously the company are aware of the difficulties and are using them as a pretext for avoiding hiring non-German candidates (assuming the company can't just reject foreign applicants, in case that might get it into trouble with the EU for discriminating against foreign EU nationals or something).

[DodgyAgent]

Obviously the company are aware of the difficulties and are using them as a pretext for avoiding hiring non-German candidates (assuming the company can't just reject foreign applicants, in case that might get it into trouble with the EU for discriminating against foreign EU nationals or something).

Some of you do come up with some cr*p

[oracleslave]

Some of you do come up with some cr*p

work