Police certificates: why timing is everything here

Of all the documents in an Australian visa journey, the police certificate 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 from every country where you have lived for twelve months or longer since the age of sixteen. For the Netherlands, and for every other country where that applies. Those twelve months need not be consecutive.

That applies not only to you. Every accompanying family member aged sixteen and 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.

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.

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.

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 since the age of sixteen. Per country, look up which authority issues the certificate, what exactly has to be requested, what it costs and how long it takes. Note whether a translation or legalisation comes with it.

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 has been invited, not before. From that moment a hard deadline runs within which you must submit your application complete, and 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 you discover a year later that you can throw it away.