Easy Police ClearanceHow the process actually works
Four steps, and an honest account of what we control and what we do not.
- Tell us what you need Message us on WhatsApp or email with your name, where you are, and the country the certificate is going to. That last detail matters more than people expect — it determines whether you also need an apostille or embassy attestation, and we would rather build that into the plan now than have you start a second process in a month's time. We confirm the total cost before anything begins.
- Get your fingerprints taken A full set of prints on the SAPS fingerprint form, taken by a police officer or authorised official. In South Africa, any police station will do this. Abroad, use a local police station, a fingerprinting bureau, or a South African embassy or consulate. We send you the form and a short note on what the officer needs to do. Then courier the completed form and a certified copy of your ID or passport to us.
- We submit and follow up We check the paperwork before it goes anywhere — this is where most problems are caught — then lodge the application with the SAPS Criminal Record Centre in Pretoria and pay the government fee on your behalf. From there we follow it up until it is issued. You are not left guessing; ask us at any point and we will tell you where it stands.
- We collect, legalise if needed, and deliver When SAPS issues the certificate we collect it. If your destination country needs an apostille we add it in the same run rather than sending the document back and forth. Then we courier it to you — R250 within South Africa, R800 to R1,300 internationally by zone.
What we control, and what we don't
We control: that your application is complete and correct before it is submitted, that it is lodged without delay, that it is followed up, and that it is collected the day it is ready rather than sitting in a queue.
We do not control: how long the SAPS Criminal Record Centre takes to process it, or what the certificate says. Two to four weeks is typical, but SAPS workload varies and no agent can override it. If someone promises you a police clearance by a guaranteed date, they are promising something that is not theirs to promise.
The four things that cause rejections
Rejections are uncommon, but when they happen it is almost always for one of these reasons — and three of the four are avoidable at the fingerprinting stage:
Smudged or poorly rolled prints
The most common cause by far. SAPS scans prints optically, and a set that looks fine to the eye can still fail. Ask the officer to take a clean, fully rolled set, and do not accept a rushed job.
Missing previous names
Maiden names, former surnames and middle names that were left off the form. If your record was created under a different name, the search will not find it. List every name you have used.
Identity number mismatches
A digit transposed on the form, or a passport number used where an ID number is expected. We check this before submission, which is why it rarely gets through.
Incomplete historical records
The one genuinely outside anyone's control. Older cases were captured on paper and are sometimes not fully linked in the database, which needs manual intervention at SAPS.
If it is rejected anyway
Send us corrected paperwork within 30 calendar days of the rejection and we re-submit for 50% of our admin fee. Government fees and courier are charged again at cost, because we pay those out on your behalf and cannot recover them.
We offer this because the most common cause is a fingerprinting problem that happened before the file reached us, and it seems wrong to charge full price twice for something you did not do.
Groups of five or more
Batch submissions work the same way, with one contact person coordinating and a single consolidated invoice. Our fee reduces with volume: 10% off for 5 to 10 applicants, 20% for 11 to 25, and 30% for 26 or more. Applications can be sent as one batch or accumulated over a 30-day window, and the discount applies once the threshold is reached.