The South African police clearance certificate, explained

What it is

A police clearance certificate — often shortened to PCC — is an official document issued by the South African Police Service. It states whether you have a criminal record registered against you in South Africa. It is issued by the SAPS Criminal Record Centre in Pretoria, which is the only body that can issue one.

The certificate reflects what is on the SAPS database at the moment it is issued. It is a statement of record, not a character assessment, and no agent can change what it says.

Who needs one

• Visa and immigration applications — most countries require a police clearance from every country you have lived in for six or twelve months as an adult.
• Permanent residency and citizenship — almost always required, and usually with an apostille.
• Working abroad — teaching, healthcare, aviation, finance and childcare roles commonly require one.
• Professional registration — foreign licensing bodies frequently ask for a clearance from your home country.
• Adoption and fostering, and some domestic employment or tender processes.

What it costs

Our fee

R2,450per applicant

SAPS fingerprint fee

R190passed on at cost

Apostille, if needed

R1,650optional

Our R2,450 covers checking your paperwork before submission, lodging the application with the SAPS Criminal Record Centre, following it up, and collecting the certificate once it is issued. The SAPS fingerprint fee of R190 is a government charge that we pass on at cost.

Courier is quoted separately — R250 within South Africa, R800 to R1,300 internationally depending on the destination zone. We charge courier separately rather than folding it into a headline "flat rate", because what it costs genuinely depends on where your document is going.

No VAT is added to any of these prices.

How long it takes

Two to four weeks is typical. That is the honest range based on the applications we run, and we would rather publish it than refuse to commit.

What we can control is that your application is complete, correct and lodged without delay, and collected the moment it is ready. What we cannot control is the SAPS Criminal Record Centre's own processing time, which varies with their workload. Anyone who guarantees a police clearance by a fixed date is guaranteeing something that is not theirs to guarantee.

What you need to apply

1. A full set of fingerprints taken on the SAPS fingerprint form, by a police officer or an authorised official.
2. A certified copy of your ID or passport — the identity page.
3. Your personal details, including all previous surnames. A maiden name that never made it onto the form is one of the most common reasons an application comes back.
4. Payment of the SAPS fee, which we handle as part of the submission.

Applying from outside South Africa

You do not need to travel back to South Africa. Expatriates make up a large share of the applications we handle, and the process is well established:

• Have your fingerprints taken locally — at a police station, a fingerprinting bureau, or a South African embassy or consulate — on the SAPS fingerprint form.
• Courier the completed form and your certified identity document to us in South Africa.
• We submit, follow up, collect, and arrange an apostille if the destination country needs one.
• We courier the finished document to you anywhere in the world.

If the officer taking your prints is unfamiliar with the SAPS form, tell us before your appointment and we will send you the form together with a short note on what is required. Prints that are smudged or incorrectly rolled are the single most common cause of a rejected application, and they are avoidable.

Getting it accepted abroad

A South African police clearance presented to a foreign authority usually needs to be legalised before it will be accepted. Which route depends on the destination:

• Hague Convention countries — an apostille is attached to the certificate. R1,650.
• Non-Hague countries — the document goes through a longer chain ending at that country's embassy.

More than half of the police clearances we handle also need legalisation, so it is worth deciding at the start rather than discovering it later. Tell us the destination country when you begin and we will confirm which route applies and quote it up front.

If your application is rejected

SAPS occasionally rejects an application for technical reasons — fingerprints that fail their optical scanner, incomplete historical records, or a mismatch between the name on the form and the name on the record.

If that happens and you return corrected paperwork within 30 calendar days, we re-submit for 50% of our admin fee. Government fees and courier are charged again at cost, since we pay those out on your behalf.