Urgent Police Clearance Certificate From South Africa – Facts to Consider

We, at DKP Investigations CC get a lot of requests from people to expedite the issue of their police clearance certificate from South Africa. At the moment, obtaining a personal police clearance certificate from the South African Police Service takes anything from 4-8 weeks to do. Unless you want to go the bribery route, there is not much you can do about the time it takes to issue as many factors influence the delivery time.

These factors include, but are not limited to:
1. The time of the year the request is received. If your application is submitted during a holiday period, like Christmas or Easter, the processing thereof will inevitably be delayed;
2. The amount of staff available at the CRC to process the application;
3. The amount of overtime worked by the staff of the CRC and various other factors.

Should you however receive a work offer that is dependant on the results of the PCC from South Africa, you can request the CRC (Criminal Record Centre) to consider merits of your case and speed up the application. For this you will need documentary proof, in other words, a copy of the employment contract or letter from the prospective employer stating that you have to start work on a certain date.

You will also have to explain in writing why you couldn’t have applied for the certificate in good time. With these documents attached to your application, the CRC might consider the merits of the case and if they are convinced that you are not at fault, regard the matter as urgent. This is not a given and not all applications marked as urgent as treated as such.

The best advise when applying for a police clearance certificate in South Africa is to do it as early as possible and ensure that you receive the certificate on time.