Whether or not you’ve been through the process of applying for a Police Clearance Certificate in South Africa, you may well have heard about the backlog that is being experienced by the SAPS Criminal Record Centre (CRC) and Crime Scene Management Centre (CSMC) in Pretoria.

In May 2022, the CRC had a backlog of around 85 000 police clearance certificates that had yet to be issued, due to systems being offline, and with Eskom’s punishing load shedding an ongoing part of daily life in 2023, this backlog can only increase due to offline systems.

At the same time, there was a major uptake in applications, which has led to the fact that today, the CRC receives thousands of applications per week, and only the CRC can issue police clearance certificates after a painstaking process of checking into the applicant.

Don’t believe anyone who tells you they’ll get you a police clearance certificate in 5 days! It’s impossible to do under these circumstances. 

Once you’ve submitted your fingerprints, application form, ID, and marriage certificate if you want your maiden and married surname on the PCC, to the local police station, the tedious process begins.

The bag of applications from the police station has to be full before they will send it to the CRC, which could take weeks. From there, your application has to be registered on the SAPS system, scanned, checked and cross checked again, before it can be signed off and approved by a duly authorized SAPS official.

You will only then be able to collect your PCC once it’s been sent to the client service centre or returned to your local police station, depending on your request, by which time weeks or even months could have gone by!

How long does a Police Clearance Certificate take in South Africa?

If you’d rather take the frustration and guesswork out of applying for a police clearance certificate in South Africa, then Doc Assist, a locally-based document procurement services company, will do it all on your behalf!

Doc Assist doesn’t claim to do anything in 5 days, however, they submit these applications on a daily basis, and provide a basic turnaround time of plus/minus 15 working days for their police clearance services.

This team is open and honest enough to be quite upfront about the fact that even their quoted timeframe is also dependent on the SAPS CRC backlog, the difference is that they’ll keep you updated about any changes or issues with this backlog. You’ll always have contact with these professionals, who will give you far better information than you’ll receive going it alone!

If your application needs to be expedited due to employment or study opportunities, it’s generally accepted by the CRC a lot quicker if you’re able to include either an employment contract, in terms of employment opportunities that require a PCC, locally or overseas, or a job offer.

Nonetheless, the highly experienced team at Doc Assist will be able to guide you through every process involved in obtaining a police clearance certificate, with the best information available, along with a professionalism that removes all frustration from the process!

Contact Doc Assist today for a quotation to apply for a police clearance certificate, or to find out more about Doc Assist’s Police Clearance Services, including Criminal Record Expungement, Apostille PCC or PCC renewal.

These services are available to you whether you are currently living overseas, or are a resident of South Africa. 

 

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