This page is a method for handling police certificates across several countries, not a directory of national procedures: what the Department of Home Affairs is asking for, how to work out which countries are on your list, how to find the right authority, and what to do when a certificate cannot be obtained at all.
It deliberately does not list per-country steps, forms or authorities. Those are published by each country's own authorities and change without notice, and a stale instruction copied onto a third-party page is worse than none — it sends you to the wrong office with the wrong document. The only safe source is the Department's current country-specific instructions plus the issuing authority itself.
What the Department is asking for
The legal basis is regulation 2.03AA of the Migration Regulations 1994. Where a person must satisfy public interest criterion 4001 or 4002 for the grant of a visa — and clause 820.223 requires criterion 4001 of a subclass 820 applicant — regulation 2.03AA(2) prescribes a further criterion: that if the Minister has requested them, the person has provided "a statement (however described) provided by an appropriate authority in a country where the person resides, or has resided, that provides evidence about whether or not the person has a criminal history", and a completed approved Form 80. A note to that paragraph gives a police force as an example of an appropriate authority.
Three things follow from that wording.
"However described." The regulation names no document and requires no particular title. What matters is that it comes from an appropriate authority and speaks to whether there is a criminal history.
"Resides, or has resided." The trigger is residence — not citizenship, and not travel. A country whose passport you hold but have never lived in is not what the provision is aimed at; a country you lived in on someone else's passport is.
"If the Minister has requested." The Department publishes the age and length-of-residence thresholds that turn "everywhere you have lived" into a workable list, and the checklist generated for your own application in ImmiAccount reflects them. They are not reproduced here — read them at the source before ordering anything, because they decide how many certificates you need.
Whatever ends up on the list, the Department says a certificate is valid for 12 months from the date of issue for immigration purposes.
Working out which countries are on your list
Build a residence history before you build a list of countries, and build it from documents rather than memory — the years blur and short stays drop out.
- Passports, including expired ones. Stamps date your arrivals and departures, and an old passport is often the only surviving record of a country you left a decade ago.
- Visas and residence permits, which show the period you were permitted to be there.
- Leases and tenancy agreements, utility accounts, council or municipal registrations.
- Employment and study records — contracts, payslips, tax records, enrolment letters.
Write the result as a continuous timeline, country by country, with dates and no unexplained gaps. You need it anyway: Form 80 asks for residential and travel history, and the timeline supports the character requirement across the application.
Finding the correct authority, without guessing
The Department publishes country-specific police certificate instructions on its character pages, naming for each country the authority, the document and the method. Start there, and treat those instructions as the authority — they are what the decision maker applies, so where anything else conflicts, they win.
Then confirm the current detail with the issuing authority itself before you pay or post anything. The Department's page tells you which door to knock on; the authority behind it tells you what it wants today.
Keep a record of every request you make — date, channel, reference number, reply. It becomes your evidence if a process stalls or fails.
When a country cannot, or will not, issue one
Some countries do not issue certificates. Some issue only to people physically present, or only to current residents. Some require contact with authorities a person who left cannot safely approach.
The regulation anticipates this. Regulation 2.03AA(3) allows the Minister to waive the requirement in paragraph (2)(a) if satisfied that it is not reasonable for the applicant to provide the statement. That is a discretion, and a discretion has to be given something to work with, so put the position in writing:
- A short, dated statement of what you attempted, who you contacted, and what you were told.
- The evidence — correspondence, a refusal, a published notice, a receipt for an application that went unanswered.
- Your residence timeline for that country, so the period is defined rather than vague.
- Any alternative material covering that period: employment or study records, tenancy, or a certificate from another country covering overlapping years.
Raise it when you lodge, or as soon as it becomes clear. Under section 56 of the Migration Act 1958 the decision maker may get any information considered relevant and may invite an applicant to provide more, which is how a written request for the missing document arrives. An unexplained gap tends to generate that request; a documented obstacle, with alternatives already supplied, often does not. Requests for more information explains how those invitations and their deadlines work.
If contacting the authorities of a country would put you or your family at risk, say so plainly and get advice before making contact.
Certificates in another language
A certificate not in English is provided with an English translation, and that is where these documents most often go wrong. The certificate's own title rarely translates neatly, so the reader has to be able to see that the translated document is the one the Department's instructions named. Stamps, seals, signatures and reference numbers carry the document's authority and are the part a hurried translation drops. Present the original and the translation as a matched pair, scanned in colour. Who may translate is on identity documents and translations.
Timing: why ordering early can mean ordering twice
Certificates expire 12 months from issue, and partner applications are frequently still being processed after that. Those two facts collide.
As at 23 September 2026 the Department's advice on the subclass 820 pages is to check processing times before obtaining certificates, and that it may ask for them again if they expire before a decision. Its processing time guide tool shows recently decided applications and is described as a guide only, not specific to any individual application. Read it again before you order, because the figures move — 820 visa processing time explains how to read it.
The practical sequence: timeline first, country list and authorities second, certificates last — but start the slow countries early enough that the final one arrives near lodgement.
When a certificate discloses something
Disclose it first. A certificate that discloses a matter you have already explained confirms your account; the same certificate arriving unannounced is a credibility problem on top of a character problem. Give the Department the court record, the sentence actually imposed, and what has happened since, rather than a summary. Why 820 visas are refused shows where character sits among the reasons applications fail.
Where people most often get this wrong
Watch out
Four situations account for most of the missed certificates.
- A country lived in as a child. People list adult life and forget the country they left at nine. The regulation speaks of where a person has resided, with no qualification about age.
- A country lived in for study. A multi-year degree abroad is residence, even when the visa was temporary and the person always meant to leave.
- Dual nationality. A second citizenship does not by itself put that country on the list, but it often means periods of residence there the applicant has stopped counting as time abroad.
- A name that differs across documents. A certificate issued in a former name, a maiden name or a different transliteration may not be matched to the applicant, and some authorities will not search under a name you cannot evidence. Supply what links the names.
An application prepared with a migration lawyer is more likely to succeed where several countries are involved. The judgement calls — whether a short period of residence crosses the Department's threshold, whether to seek a waiver under regulation 2.03AA(3) or keep pressing an unresponsive authority, and how to present a disclosed matter — are the ones self-represented applicants get wrong, and each is expensive to undo.
What to do next
Write the residence timeline, read the Department's country instructions against it, then start ordering. The parent page, police certificates, covers validity, the Australian check and convictions; the rest of the file is on the 820 visa document checklist. The country pages below note where a particular applicant group tends to strike trouble.
Common questions
Which countries do I need a police certificate from for a partner visa?
The starting point is every country where you have lived, not every country you have visited and not only the country of your citizenship. Regulation 2.03AA of the Migration Regulations 1994 refers to a statement from an appropriate authority in a country where the person resides or has resided. The Department of Home Affairs publishes the age and length-of-residence thresholds that narrow that list, and the document checklist generated for your own application in ImmiAccount reflects them, so check both before ordering anything.
Where do I find the correct police certificate process for my country?
Start with the Department of Home Affairs character and police certificate pages, which publish country-specific instructions naming the authority and the method for each country. Those are the instructions the decision maker applies, so they take precedence over anything else you read. Confirm the current detail with the issuing authority itself before you pay or post anything, because national procedures change without notice.
What if a country will not issue me a police certificate?
Say so in writing rather than leaving a gap. Regulation 2.03AA(3) of the Migration Regulations 1994 allows the Minister to waive the requirement to provide the statement where satisfied it is not reasonable for the applicant to provide it. Set out what you attempted, who you contacted and what you were told, keep the evidence, and expect the Department to ask for other material about your time in that country instead.
How long does a police certificate last for an Australian visa?
The Department of Home Affairs says police certificates are valid for 12 months from the date of issue for immigration purposes. Because partner applications are often still being processed after that, the Department may ask for a fresh certificate, and it suggests checking processing times before you obtain them.
Do I need a certificate from a country I only lived in as a child?
Possibly. The test in regulation 2.03AA is where a person resides or has resided, and it carries no qualification about age on its face, so a childhood country can still appear on the list once the Department's published age and residence thresholds are applied. This is one of the situations people most often miss, so check it against the Department's current instructions rather than assuming.