Police certificates: why timing is everything here
They take 4 to 12 weeks and they are valid for only 12 months. Applying too early is just as expensive as too late — this is where careful planning pays off. What Australia asks exactly, what the Dutch VOG costs, and how to apply for it once you've already left.
5 min read
Written and checked by Auke on , against the sources at the bottom. Is something no longer right? Report it below and I'll fix it.
Apply for your police certificates for Australia usually around your invitation: the moment Australia invites you to apply for your visa. Too early is a waste, because a police certificate is valid for only twelve months. Too late holds up your application, because a foreign certificate usually takes four to twelve weeks.
A police certificate is an official statement from a country about your criminal record. Of all the documents in an Australian visa journey, it is the one most people stumble over. Not because it's hard to apply for, but because it has two properties that work against each other.
What is asked
Australia asks for a police certificate (police certificate or penal clearance certificate) from every country where you have lived for twelve months or longer in total in the past ten years, Australia itself included. For the Netherlands, and for every other country where that applies. Those twelve months need not be consecutive. The certificate itself must cover the period from your sixteenth birthday up to the date of issue, or the whole time you were in that country.
That applies not only to you. Every accompanying family member aged sixteen or over has the same obligation. A family with a studying child of eighteen who lived abroad for a year easily has an extra country on the list. Whoever served more than twelve months in a military force somewhere also provides a military certificate.
The two properties that clash
They take long. The Dutch certificate is arranged relatively quickly. Foreign certificates usually take four to twelve weeks, and that is beyond your influence: you depend on the processing time of an authority in another country, sometimes in another language.
They expire quickly. A police certificate is valid for twelve months, counted from the date of issue. And Home Affairs may ask for a new one if you have returned to that country after it expired.
The pitfall is on both sides. Apply too late and you hold up your application while the clock is running. Apply too early and the certificate has expired by the time your application is actually assessed — and you get to apply again, pay again and wait again.
The second happens to people more often than the first. Because it feels sensible to arrange documents early. With police certificates that is exactly wrong.
The Dutch certificate: the VOG
For the Netherlands the police certificate is the Verklaring Omtrent het Gedrag (VOG), and Justis is the only body that issues it. Normally an employer sets up the application. But for a visa, immigration or work abroad you start it yourself: in writing, at the municipality where you are registered.
Are you no longer registered in a Dutch municipality and do you have no Dutch postal address? Then you apply by email to Justis. That is the route for whoever only needs the certificate once the deregistration is already behind them.
| What | Rule |
|---|---|
| Cost via the municipality | € 41.35 |
| Cost via an employer | € 33.85 |
| Processing time | usually within 1 to 4 weeks, in some cases up to 8 weeks |
| Validity for Home Affairs | 12 months from issue |
| Australian certificate | only an Australian Federal Police National Police Check, with code 33; state-issued certificates are not accepted |
Justis itself warns about commercial parties that "set up" a VOG application for an extra fee: they are no part or partner of Justis, and the application isn't handled any faster. Whoever lived in Australia before applies there for a National Police Check with the Australian Federal Police, with code 33 for immigration.
What you should do now
The answer isn't "wait". It's take stock.
List the countries where you and your accompanying family members have lived for twelve months or longer in the past ten years. Then look up per country:
- which authority issues the certificate;
- what exactly has to be requested;
- what it costs and how long it takes;
- whether a translation or legalisation comes with it.
For the application with Home Affairs a translation or legalisation isn't needed, for some other countries it is.
That inventory costs you an afternoon and gives you two things: you know what has to happen later, and you know how much time to reserve for it. The second is what determines the moment of applying.
When you do apply for them
The right moment usually lies around your invitation. So after your Expression of Interest, your registration for the visa, has been invited, and not before. From that moment a hard deadline runs within which you must submit your application complete. Then you want the certificates to be fresh and on their way.
If you have a country on your list with a long processing time, that moment shifts forward. That is exactly the sum you can do with your inventory in hand: count back from the moment you need the certificate, and subtract the longest processing time.
Why this is the textbook example
This is the reason that order and timing weigh more heavily in an emigration journey than pace. Applying for a police certificate is ten minutes' work. Applying for it at the right moment saves months.
And it's exactly the kind of thing you don't know when you do it for the first time. You read "police certificate needed", you neatly arrange it straight away, and a year later you discover that you can throw it away.
In Vertrekklaar this is phase 2 of 5 of the journey, step 2.4: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Australia or go straight to step 2.4 in the open plan.
What this rests on
The facts in this article come from these official pages. Rules change. When in doubt, go by the source, not this article.
- Home Affairs — character requirements: which countries, which period, valid for twelve months, and the Australian AFP check — immi.homeaffairs.gov.au
- Justis — Verklaring Omtrent het Gedrag: cost, processing time and applying for a visa or from abroad — justis.nl
- NederlandWereldwijd — where to get an apostille, if a country asks for one on the certificate — nederlandwereldwijd.nl
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