SAPS Police Clearance Glossary

The document itself — an official SAPS statement of whether you have a criminal record in South Africa. See our full explainer.

The South African Police Service — the national police force, and the only body authorised to issue a South African Police Clearance Certificate.

The specific division within SAPS, based in Pretoria, that runs the national fingerprint and criminal record database and processes every police clearance application.

A person formally trained and certified in fingerprint capture technique — the standard SAPS requires for prints submitted with an application. See fingerprint requirements.

The official SAPS form used to request a police clearance certificate, submitted alongside fingerprints and supporting ID documents.

A short document accompanying an application that identifies the applicant and the purpose of the request, helping SAPS process the file correctly.

How long SAPS takes to process a submitted application — typically 4–6 weeks from New Zealand, and outside any provider's control. See the full timeline.

An internationally recognised certificate confirming that a signature or stamp on a document is genuine, used so a document from one country can be trusted in another. See our apostille guide.

The international treaty that lets member countries, including South Africa, legalise public documents with a single apostille instead of full embassy-by-embassy legalisation.

South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation — one of the authorities involved in legalising South African documents for use overseas.

The general process of formally verifying a document's authenticity so a foreign authority will accept it — apostille is one specific method of legalisation.

A measurable physical characteristic — in this context, fingerprints — used to verify identity. SAPS clearance is fundamentally a biometric (fingerprint) check, not just a name-based search.

The two current forms of South African identity document. Either can be used to confirm your ID number for a police clearance application, even if expired.

The 13-digit number unique to every South African identity document — the actual identifier SAPS checks against, more than the document itself.

The general immigration term (used especially by Australia's Department of Home Affairs) for the requirement to prove good character, typically via police certificates from every country you've lived in.

Australia's own equivalent of a police clearance certificate — not what South Africans need to obtain, but the term used for the Australian-issued version.

The UK's equivalent background check (Disclosure and Barring Service) — mentioned for context; UK Home Office visa routes ask for an overseas police certificate covering time spent in South Africa specifically.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada — the department that sets police certificate requirements for Canadian immigration applications.

UK immigration terms for permanent residence — some settlement and citizenship applications require an overseas criminal record check covering time lived in South Africa.