Police clearance certificates for your Australian visa: which countries, how to get them, and when they need translating
Somewhere between gathering your relationship evidence or your skills assessment paperwork, you'll hit the character requirement. And with it, the document that trips up more applicants than almost any other: the police clearance certificate.
It sounds simple. It rarely is. Most applicants need certificates from more than one country, each with its own process, cost and timeline. And if any of them aren't in English, you'll need a NAATI certified translation before you lodge.
Here's how to get it right the first time.
What is a police clearance certificate?
A police certificate, sometimes called a penal clearance certificate, is an official document confirming whether you have a criminal record in a particular country. The Department of Home Affairs uses these certificates to assess whether you meet Australia's character requirements. The character test is set out under Section 501 of the Migration Act 1958, and police certificates are the primary tool Home Affairs uses to apply it.
Depending on where you got yours, it might be called a police check, a criminal record check, a certificate of good conduct, a casier judiciaire, or a certificado de antecedentes penales. Home Affairs treats them all the same way. What matters is that it comes from the right authority and covers the right period.
The 12-month rule: which countries do you need certificates from?
This is the part that catches people off guard.
You generally need a certificate from every country where you've spent 12 months or more in total over the last 10 years, since turning 16. The 12 months are cumulative, not consecutive. Multiple shorter trips that add up to 12 months count.
A few things follow from this that applicants routinely miss:
People forget countries where they lived briefly but accumulated 12 months across multiple stays. Three separate 5-month stints in the same country over the decade puts you over the line. Backpackers and digital nomads, take note.
Your home country counts. If you grew up there and left within the last 10 years, you need a certificate from it, even if you haven't been back.
Australia counts too. If you've lived in Australia for a cumulative total of 12 months or more in the last 10 years, you must provide an Australian Federal Police clearance. If you're applying onshore for a partner visa or a 485 after a couple of years here, that's you.
The practical approach: list every country where you've spent time since turning 16, add up the total days in each, and flag any country that hits 12 months within the last 10 years.
The AFP check: Code 33 or nothing
For time spent in Australia, a state police check won't do. Home Affairs only accepts a National Police Check issued by the Australian Federal Police, ordered with purpose Code 33 (Immigration/Citizenship).
The purpose code is a dropdown on the AFP application form, and choosing the wrong one makes the certificate useless for your visa. You'd have to reapply and pay again. Employment checks, volunteer checks, checks from third-party providers: none of them are accepted.
The essentials:
- Where: the official AFP National Police Checks website, applied for online
- Cost: AU$56 for a standard name check (check the AFP site for the current fee before ordering)
- Processing: typically around 10 working days, longer if your record needs manual review
- Names: you must list every name you've ever been known by, including maiden names and previous names. Missing one can mean Home Affairs requests a fresh certificate, delaying your application
Two state-specific quirks worth knowing: if you've lived in Queensland you may need to provide a traffic history going back to your 18th birthday or your first Australian licence, and Victorian residents may need a full licence history search.
Getting certificates from overseas
Every country runs its own process, and the difficulty varies wildly. Some are a 10-minute online form. Others require fingerprints, embassy visits, or a relative back home lodging paperwork on your behalf.
A few common examples for the nationalities we translate for most:
- France: the extrait de casier judiciaire (bulletin n°3) is free and issued online within days
- Spain and Latin America: the certificado de antecedentes penales, usually through the Ministry of Justice or national police, sometimes requiring an apostille
- Italy: the certificato del casellario giudiziale, from the Procura della Repubblica
- Germany: the Führungszeugnis, ordered through the Bundesamt für Justiz
If you have difficulty obtaining a certificate from a particular country, contact your nearest Australian immigration office for guidance. Home Affairs maintains country-by-country instructions on its website, and in rare cases where a certificate genuinely can't be obtained, you can explain why in your application.
Start with the slowest country first. Some issue certificates in days; others take two to three months.
Do police certificates need a NAATI translation?
If your certificate isn't issued in English: yes.
Home Affairs requires all supporting documents in a language other than English to be accompanied by a certified translation, and for applications lodged in Australia that means a translation by a NAATI certified translator. A French casier judiciaire, a Spanish certificado de antecedentes penales, an Italian casellario giudiziale: all of them need a certified English translation attached when you upload them to ImmiAccount.
Some countries offer multilingual or English-language versions of their certificates. If yours is genuinely issued in English, no translation is needed. But a document that's partly in English with stamps, seals or annotations in another language should still be translated in full, since case officers can request a complete translation of anything they can't read.
The good news: police certificates are short, standardised documents, so they sit at the low end of translation pricing. See our guide on how much a NAATI translation costs for what to expect, and what a NAATI certified translation looks like so you know what you'll receive.
The 12-month validity trap
Police certificates are valid for 12 months from the date of issue. That sounds generous until you look at current processing times.
A common mistake is letting certificates expire before the visa decision is made. With partner visa processing stretching well past a year, a certificate obtained the day you lodge can expire before a case officer ever opens your file. If that happens, you may be asked for fresh certificates mid-application, from every relevant country, all over again. Katsaros
There's no perfect answer here, but a sensible approach:
- Order overseas certificates early enough that slow countries don't delay your lodgement
- Order fast ones (like the AFP check) close to your lodgement date so the validity clock starts as late as possible
- Keep copies of how you obtained each one, in case you need to repeat the process
Certificates must be current and valid at the time of lodgement, and missing certificates can delay processing or trigger further investigation.
Which visas require police certificates?
Nearly all of the ones we write about. The character requirement applies across the board:
- Partner visa 820/801, including certificates for the sponsor in some cases
- Prospective Marriage visa (subclass 300)
- Skilled migration visas 189, 190 and 491
- Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485), where only the AFP-issued certificate is accepted for your Australian time levelupstudies
- Student visa (subclass 500), when requested
- Citizenship applications, which use a stricter threshold: certificates can be required for countries where you spent more than 90 days, if your total time outside Australia adds up to 12 months or more EMC Australia
Working Holiday makers usually aren't asked for police certificates upfront, but the moment you move to a partner visa or skilled visa, your WHV years count toward the 12-month calculations for both Australia and anywhere you travelled.
Common mistakes to avoid
After the miscounted countries, the mistakes that come up most: not listing all previous names on the AFP application, ordering a state police check instead of the AFP Code 33 certificate, letting certificates expire before a decision, and assuming a clean record means you can skip the certificate entirely. You need the certificate whether or not there's anything on it. A clear record still has to be proven. Katsaros
Add one more from our side of the fence: uploading an untranslated certificate to ImmiAccount. It won't be rejected at upload, but it will sit there until a case officer requests a certified translation, adding weeks to your file at exactly the moment you want it moving.
FAQ
Do I need a police certificate if I've never been convicted of anything?
Yes. The certificate is how you prove the clean record. Home Affairs doesn't take your word for it.
My certificate is in French. Can I translate it myself?
No. For applications lodged in Australia, translations must be done by a NAATI certified translator. Self-translations and translations by friends or family aren't accepted.
How long does a NAATI translation of a police certificate take?
Police certificates are short, standardised documents. We deliver most within 24 to 48 hours.
What if my country won't issue a certificate to people overseas?
Some countries require in-person applications or a local representative. Check the Home Affairs country-specific instructions first, and if a certificate genuinely can't be obtained, document your attempts and explain the situation in your application.
Does the 12 months have to be in one stretch?
No. It's cumulative: multiple trips to the same country that add up to 12 months over the decade trigger the requirement.
