Good morning! This is KICPC  
 Today I am going to tell you how to get a valid German criminal records check !

What comes up to your mind when you hear criminal records check?
 What about police clearance check? Or background check?

Since there is a word criminal, police and background, handcuffs come to my mind  
 What about you?!

. . . . .
 Indeed, Criminal check, clearance check and background check are three different words indicating the same document, which shows the criminal records when you are staying in a certain country. For example, German criminal check is a certificate of your criminal records when you are or were in Germany. 

This certificate can be issued only when you have lived in a country more than 6 months. Thus if you have resided in Germany more than 6 months, no matter you are German or not, you can get German criminal records certificate. 

Unlike its name, this document is required in a quite frequent basis.
 It’s because it is used for identification when applying or renewing visa, getting a job or enrolling school abroad and so on.
 Thus this document is an indispensable document when going abroad for the reasons like
 study or work. 

. . . . .

 The way how to get this differs from whether you are in Germany or not.
 If you are Germany,
 a) Visit local registration office
 b) Go to the website of the Federal Office of Justice
 : You may need a valid and recognized electronic signature and a card-reading machine

If you are outside of Germany,
 a) Send your application to Federal Office of Justice
 at Bundesamt für Justiz Referat IV 2 53094 Bonn
 b) Return to Germany and process there

As you can see getting a criminal records check is easy when you are in Germany.
 However, things become a bit complicated when you are outside of Germany.
 Moreover, if you are outside of Germany, the certificate itself does not have any effect in that German documents are not in effect outside of Germany.
 To make it usable, you should take three steps more! 

(1) Translate
 Translate all German into the language of submit country
 ※ Make sure translation done by professional translator

 (2) Notarize
 Notarize that the translation matches with the original
 ※ You must find notary notary lawyer.
 

(3) Authenticate
 Get certification on the authenticity of the document.
 There are two different types of authentication depending on whether both countries join Hague Convention. Since Germany is a member of the Convention, the type of authentication will be decided following if the other country join the Convention
 

-If submit country do join, Apostille
 : Simple, Get a certification from the embassy of the country which create document
 - If not, Embassy Attestation
 : Get a certification from the embassy of the country which create document and then reconfirm from submit country

Isn’t it too complicated?
 Do you dare to handle all by yourself?
 It must eat up all your time!

 Let KICPC help you !
 We have all our professionals around the world waiting for helping you!