Easy Police ClearanceYour clearance probably needs an apostille too
A police clearance proves your record. An apostille proves the clearance is genuine. Most foreign authorities want both — and it is far cheaper to do them together.
- Apostille
- R1,650added to the same run
- Clearance + apostille
- R4,100plus SAPS fee and courier
What an apostille actually is
When you hand a South African document to a foreign government, that government has no way to know whether the signature and stamp on it are real. The Hague Apostille Convention solves this: a designated authority in the issuing country — in South Africa, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation — attaches a certificate confirming the document is authentic. That attachment is the apostille.
It says nothing about the content of your clearance. It certifies that the document is genuinely what it claims to be. Countries in the Convention accept it without further steps.
Do you need one?
- Submitting to a foreign government? Almost certainly yes — visa, residency, citizenship, professional registration.
- Submitting to a South African employer or body? No. The clearance stands on its own here.
- Destination is in the Hague Convention? An apostille is sufficient.
- Destination is not? The document needs the longer legalisation chain, ending at that country's embassy. More steps, more time, more cost.
Tell us the destination country at the start and we will confirm which of these applies before you pay for anything.
Why doing it in one run matters
An apostille has to be attached to the issued certificate. If you take delivery of your clearance first and decide about legalisation later, the document has to come back to South Africa — which means courier both ways, a second handling cycle, and weeks added to a timeline that is usually already tight against a visa appointment.
More than half the people who come to us for a police clearance need it legalised too. Deciding at the start costs nothing. Deciding afterwards costs a round trip.
What it costs
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Apostille of your police clearance | R1,650 |
| Police clearance application | R2,450 |
| SAPS fingerprint fee (at cost) | R190 |
| Courier — local / international | R250 / R800–R1,300 |
Clearance and apostille together are R4,100 in our fees, plus the R190 SAPS fee and courier to wherever you are. No VAT is added.
Other documents in the same file
People rarely need only a police clearance. Emigration and residency files usually want birth certificates, marriage certificates and qualifications legalised as well, and it is more efficient to run them together than one at a time.
Apostille and legalisation are the core business of Easy Services Group, of which this service is part — so if your file has more in it than a clearance, say so at the start and we will quote the whole set rather than piecemeal.
Timing
The apostille step itself is not the slow part; waiting for SAPS to issue the clearance is. Adding an apostille to a run in progress adds a few days rather than a few weeks. What it does not do is shorten the SAPS stage, and we will not pretend otherwise.
Non-Hague destinations
If your certificate is going to the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China, Vietnam or another country outside the Convention, an apostille alone will not be accepted. The document goes through a longer chain finishing at that country's embassy in South Africa. It is a different quote and a different timeline — tell us the destination and we will price it properly rather than quote you an apostille and surprise you later.