If you’re wondering how to apply for a Police Clearance Certificate in South Africa, we’ll give you a rundown of the various avenues you can take for the application, but most of all, we’ll introduce you to the best avenue to take, if you want to avoid wasting time and gritting your teeth in frustration, in the process!
When do you need a Police Clearance Certificate?
- When applying for a visa travel, study or work overseas
- For immigration purposes
- As part of a job application process – if you’re in the local job market, you’ll do well to find out whether the job you’re applying for will require a police clearance certificate
Timing is also everything when it comes to applying for a PCC, since the SAPS Criminal Records Centre in Pretoria receives thousands of applications every week, and is experiencing a major backlog in terms of processing times.
How to apply for a Police Clearance Certificate in South Africa?
Avenue 1 – Local Police Station
You can apply for a police clearance certificate at your local or nearest police station. You’ll need to take copies of your ID or Passport to add to the application form you fill in, along with having your fingerprints taken.
If you want your maiden and married surname to reflect on your PCC, you’ll need to include a copy of your marriage certificate as well.
You’ll also need to take cash with, or proof of payment if you’ve made use of an EFT, which is a non-refundable tariff. At the time of this writing, the cost is R150.00, but at the rate that the economy is going right now, it’s best to contact your police station to make sure about the cost of the application, and to get the right banking details for an EFT.
This avenue is going to take much longer and will extend the processing times significantly, due to the fact that a police station will only send their bag of applications once it’s full enough to warrant sending it to the CRC in Pretoria.
Avenue 2 – Doc Assist Police Clearance Services
When you choose this avenue it means that, once Doc Assist has received the necessary documentation from you, your application will be submitted to the CRC in Pretoria immediately.
In addition to this, the team at Doc Assist will ensure that your application is in fact registered on the SAPS system, which is where many applications get lost when taking the route via a police station.
Once you’ve sent your fingerprints, 2 copies of your ID or passport, info on which country you’ll be using the PCC for, as well as a copy of your marriage certificate, if you want your maiden and married surname to show on the PCC, the team at Doc Assist gets going on your application.
This team doesn’t make false promises about processing times for police clearance certificates, as many do. These professionals will let you know if there are any changes to processing times that may be different to what you were quoted initially.
The only time you can get an expedited PCC is if it is for employment purposes or tertiary education purposes, and you need to prove that this is the case, such as by providing them with an employment contract.
If anyone tells you they can get you a police clearance certificate in anything less than 10 working days, you may be in the hands of a scammer!
Apply for your police clearance certificate in South Africa the right way, by contacting the team at Doc Assist. Although based in South Africa, Doc Assist is also able to assist you with applying for a police clearance certificate if you’re currently living overseas.