Police Clearance Certificates are vital documents that indicate if an individual has a criminal record or not. You will need to submit a South African Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) as part of a visa or immigration/emigration application process, since foreign authorities from almost all countries need to see proof of a clear criminal record to enter their borders. You might even find that many employers require applicants to submit these documents.
To gain entry into a foreign country, you might need to present a “certificate of good conduct”. This is just another term for the Police Clearance Certificate. But how does this process work? How long does it take to obtain a police clearance certificate? And what steps do you need to follow to obtain yours?
Criminal Background Check vs. Police Clearance Certificate
In essence, there are two options when it comes to getting a police clearance from South Africa. But only one route can be used for official (legal) purposes and for the purposes of visa or immigration/emigration applications.
Criminal Background Check
The first method involves a basic and quick criminal record check. This process can merely verify whether or not an individual has an existing criminal record. But no formal certificate is issued with these checks.
This background check, performed by Afiswitch, is generally used by banks and recruitment agencies to ensure that a person is of sound character. Afiswitch performs fingerprint police clearances against the SAPS Criminal Records Centre’s (CRC) fingerprint database. These basic checks determine any convictions against a person.
You can use these checks for employment purposes, Professional Driving Permit application, and registration with the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA), to name but a few. It is important to note, however, that you cannot use Afiswitch checks for legal purposes.
Since these checks are performed with a fingerprint search against the CRC’s database, they are relatively fast. It’s one of the most convenient options to see if a person has a criminal record or not. Still, they do not detail the crimes if a person does have an existing record and as a result they are not accepted by foreign countries.
South African Police Clearance Certificates
A SA Police Clearance Certificate is a formal record that states whether or not an individual has any criminal convictions. It also details the crimes if a person does have a record.
Unlike a quick background check, the CRC performs several verification steps and checks to issue a Police Clearance Certificate. The two most significant verification markers include a person’s South African Identity Number and a complete set of fingerprints. Often, SAPS already has a copy of your fingerprints (from various sources, e.g. Home Affairs), and they check the remaining information to see that you are in fact the person in question on the application.
Once they have been issued, South African PCCs are also signed and stamped by a commissioner or senior member of the South African Police Service.
How to apply for a PCC
All applications for police clearance certificates start with the basic step of having your fingerprints taken. Most people think you can only do fingerprints at the nearest police station. But, you can actually have your fingerprints taken anywhere as long as there is a lawyer, notary, or commissioner of oaths present to sign and stamp the fingerprint form, verifying that the prints are authentic.
The fingerprints must be verifiably those of the applicant and must be submitted in original ink. This ensures they are easy to scan and save as images at the Criminal Records Center (CRC). Digital fingerprint forms and files are not accepted in South Africa. Click on the above image to see the full Police Clearance application form.
Along with your fingerprints, it is also essential to submit a copy of your South African Identity Document along with the completed application form. If you are a foreigner in need of a Police Clearance Certificate for South Africa, you will still follow the same steps. However, instead of an ID document, you will simply submit a copy of your foreign passport and use that number instead of an ID number.
Need the official SAPS Police Clearance South Africa application form? Download it here.
Although one can apply for a police clearance certificate through your local police station, this is often a very timely approach. Police stations do not directly send off applications on the day you submit them. To save on internal courier costs, police stations wait until they have received a set number of applications before couriering them to the CRC in Pretoria. There is also a delay between when the applications arrive at the CRC and when they are captured on their SAPS system.
The other option is to use a South Africa concierge service, like Apostil.co.za, to handle everything on your behalf. As a trusted resource and registered courier with the CRC, we know exactly where to apply for these documents and can have the applications captured on the system as soon as possible.
We also know who to follow up with when things are not moving smoothly. Very importantly, we can obtain corrections done quickly when the SAPS CRC makes a mistake on your certificate; this happens more often than you would think.
Do you need help obtaining your South African Police Clearance Certificate?
Get in touch with Apostil.co.za today. We lodge applications on behalf of our clients and handle everything on their behalf, which significantly speeds up the time it takes to obtain your PCC.
As a civilian, you cannot directly submit your police clearance application form to the CRC. Only registered couriers can do this. Apostil.co.za is a registered courier that has a contract with the CRC. This ensures we can help our clients obtain their documents in the fastest time possible.
Obtaining an urgent South African Police Clearance certificate
Apostil.co.za can assist you in getting your South African Police Clearance (PCC) in between 5 and 30 working days of applying (excluding courier time). Fill in the form on this page to start.
In addition, the PCC can be apostilled quickly for countries that require this, or authenticated and attested at an embassy in South Africa.
Further reading:
How to fill in the SAPS 91a Police Clearance Application Form
What is the Validity of a South African Police Clearance
Expungements: How to remove a criminal record (in certain cases) and the expungement application form
