Hi all,

I'm considering moving abroad at some point in the future and wanted to see what would appear on an ACRO Police Certificate that some countries ask for as part of the Visa and Residency process. I found an interesting document, located here which suggests that the 'step down' model was updated in January 2018. Stepping down is the process where at some point, certain cautions and offenses will no longer be displayed on a Police Certificate for immigration purposes, and what would instead be shown is 'No Live Trace' rather than 'No Trace'. The significant change here from what I can see is that sexual and violent non-custodial dispursals seem to now be eligible to be stepped down.

Unless I have missed this before, it now seems that even for the most serious offenses (category A) that resulted in no custody being served, the longest time period before it is stepped down is 20 years. For less serious offenses (those in categories B and C), the step down timeframe is 15 and 12 years respectively. If the outcome was a caution, then the step down timeframes is 10 years for category A and 5 years for categories B and C.

This seems a positive step forward, particularly for those who fall into the non-custodial (caution) area for things such as image offenses, as it means that the Police Certificate will in the first instance state 'No Live Trace' rather than giving all the details of the offense and outcome. Of course, any embassy is then going to ask for more information, however there must be some weight applied to the fact that ACRO regard the offense as eligible to not be directly disclosed anymore after a period of time and should allow for you to at least achieve an interview to explain the situation rather than have an online rejection.

As you say, the model has been updated, but it has not changed for anyone who received 6 months or more prison for a Category A offence. Even then, the certificate would still show 'No Live Trace', which tells the foreign embassy/high commission there is something old there. There is a procedure for confirming the missing details, so as the record won't be deleted, not much has changed, unfortunately.

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If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)

I am wondering about moving abroad myself, I was convicted at 12 years old of a sex crime, never spent time in prison, had to go on a youth offending order for like 2 and a half years, I take full responsibility for the crime but now I am 24 and it was half my life ago and I really want to move on, the person who it involved we are friends now and they have forgiven me but I dont know if this will stay with me for life and if I have to tell the Portuguese authorities when I finally get the courage to move abroad.

For as long as the UK is in the EU and after that for as long as the transition period applies, you have the unconditional right to move to Portugal or any other EU country.
Better to do it before the end of the transition period, after which freedom of movement will end and no one knows what documents (e.g. police certificate) will be required to live in the EU.