South African police clearance for Australia
Australia's Department of Home Affairs applies a character requirement to skilled, partner and permanent visas. If you lived in South Africa, you will be asked for a SAPS police clearance.
- Our fee
- R2,450per applicant
- Timeline
- 2–4 weeksSAPS controls it
The character requirement
For skilled migration (subclass 189/190/491), partner visas, and permanent routes, Home Affairs requires a police certificate from every country you lived in for a total of 12 months or more over the last 10 years, while aged 16 or over. For South Africans that means a SAPS clearance. Note that Australia distinguishes the Australian Federal Police check (for your time in Australia) from your foreign police certificates — you provide both where relevant, and we handle the South African one.
Apostille for Australia
Australia is a Hague Convention country. In practice, the Department of Home Affairs usually accepts a clear scan or certified copy of the SAPS certificate for the character requirement and does not demand an apostille on the police certificate itself. Where you are dealing with a state authority, a skills-assessment body, or submitting South African civil documents, an apostille may be requested — it is R1,650 and we add it in the same run if your file needs it.
Skills assessment and professional registration
Many Australian skilled visas require a positive skills assessment first (for example through VETASSESS, ANMAC for nurses, or Engineers Australia). Those bodies sometimes require legalised South African qualification documents alongside your police clearance. If your file involves a qualification apostille as well as the PCC, tell us and we will quote the whole set together rather than one document at a time.
How we do it
Fingerprints on the SAPS form locally, couriered to us, submitted and collected, returned to your Australian address (Zone 4 courier, R1,300). See applying from abroad and the apostille bundle.