You cannot get a police certificate from a country you lived in: what the Department accepts instead, what the statement must say, and the mistake of lodging in silence

MARN 1576536

The requirement, and the countries where it cannot be met

Most permanent visas and many temporary ones require the applicant, and family members over the age the rules set, to provide a police certificate from every country in which they have lived for a cumulative twelve months or more in the last ten years since turning sixteen, in the ordinary case, with the Australian check obtained from the Australian Federal Police and the overseas ones from each country's authority; the police checks guide sets out the requirement and the process for the common countries. For some countries the process does not work: the authority issues certificates only to applicants who attend in person, and the applicant is in Australia; it issues them only to current residents or citizens; it issues none, because the records system does not exist or the state does not function; it takes a year or more and gives no receipt; or it is the authority the applicant fled. The Department has met every one of those situations before, and its approach is the subject of this guide; what it does not accept is the applicant's own conclusion that the certificate cannot be obtained, without the attempts and the explanation that show it.

Read the Department's country guidance first

The Department publishes, for each country, how a police certificate is obtained: the authority, the form, the fee, whether an applicant outside the country can apply and through what channel, whether fingerprints are needed, and how long it takes, and that guidance states, for the countries where it is so, that a certificate is not available to applicants outside the country or is not available at all. The guidance is the first thing the applicant reads, because it is the Department's own statement of what it expects: an applicant who says a certificate cannot be obtained from a country whose guidance describes a working route through the consulate has not made the case, and an applicant who says it cannot be obtained from a country whose guidance says exactly that has the Department's agreement before starting. The guidance changes as countries change their processes, and the version current when the application is lodged is the one that applies.

The routes that usually exist: consulates, agents, relatives

Before a certificate is treated as unobtainable, the routes that exist for most countries are tried. Many countries issue certificates through their embassy or consulate in Australia to their own nationals and sometimes to former residents, on an application with fingerprints taken locally; many allow an application by post or online from abroad; many allow a relative or an agent in the country to apply on the applicant's behalf with a power of attorney or an authorisation, which is the route for countries that require attendance in person; and some countries' certificates can be obtained through a third-party service the authority recognises. Each route is tried in the order the Department's guidance suggests, with the evidence kept of each step, and a route that fails is a documented attempt rather than a wasted one. The consultation's commonest finding on this question is that a route exists which the applicant had not found, and the certificate arrives in weeks.

What a genuine attempt is, and how it is evidenced

A genuine attempt is an application made through a route the Department's guidance or the country's authority describes, pursued for a reasonable time, and refused or unanswered; it is evidenced by the application itself and the fee receipt, the courier or postal record, the emails or letters to the authority or the consulate and their replies, the consulate's written confirmation that it does not issue certificates to non-residents or to applicants abroad, the agent's or relative's signed account of attending the authority and being refused, with their identity document, and a chronology of the dates. An applicant who made one enquiry by telephone and was told no has an attempt without evidence; an applicant who wrote, paid, waited, followed up and kept every reply has the file the Department reads. Where the authority's refusal is oral, the applicant records the date, the office and the person, and the relative or agent who received it states it in writing. The attempts begin as soon as the applicant knows the certificate will be needed, months before lodgement, because a Department request for information gives weeks.

The statement or statutory declaration

The statement is the applicant's own account, signed and dated, and where the Department asks for it or the applicant chooses the stronger form, made as a statutory declaration before an authorised witness. It identifies the country and the periods the applicant lived there, with the basis of residence; sets out why the certificate could not be obtained, by reference to the Department's guidance for the country and to the attempts made, with the evidence attached and listed; and declares the applicant's criminal history in that country and everywhere else, every conviction, charge, arrest or investigation, or that there are none, in the terms the character questions in the application and Form 80 use. It is a declaration to the Department on which the character assessment will rest for that country, and a false statement in it is a false statement for public interest criterion 4020, which refuses the visa and bars the applicant for three years; the 4020 guide sets out the criterion. The statement is in English or translated by an accredited translator, and a family member who is also an applicant makes their own.

Form 80 as the fallback

Form 80, the personal particulars form for character assessment, asks for the applicant's addresses, employment, travel and family for the past ten years or more and asks the character questions in full, and the Department uses it, together with its own checks against the information it can access, as the basis of the character assessment where a certificate for a country is not available; an applicant who provides a statement about an unobtainable certificate completes Form 80 at the same time, fully and consistently with the application and the statement, whether or not the Department has asked for it. Gaps and inconsistencies in Form 80 are what the Department reads most closely in a case where a certificate is missing, because the form is doing the certificate's work, and the Form 80 gaps guide covers accounting for every period. An applicant whose record in the country in question is clean has nothing to fear from the form; an applicant with a conviction there declares it on the form and in the statement, and has it read under the criminal record guide before lodgement.

The applicant who fled, or is stateless

An applicant who left a country because of persecution, conflict or a threat from its authorities cannot be expected to approach those authorities for a certificate, and the Department's practice does not require it: the applicant explains, in the statement, the circumstances of departure and the risk that an approach would create for them or their family, with whatever corroborates it, the protection claim where there is one, country information, the evidence of the events, and the Department assesses character without the certificate on the other evidence. An applicant who is stateless, whose country of former residence has ceased to exist, or whose nationality is disputed explains the position in the same way, with the documents that show it. In neither case does the applicant make a pretence of applying to an authority they cannot safely approach, and in neither case does the applicant omit the country from the application; it is listed, and the explanation is given. The protection visa guide covers the applicant whose departure is itself the basis of the application.

What the Department does with it

The case officer reads the statement, the evidence of attempts and Form 80 against the Department's guidance for the country, and does one of three things: accepts that the certificate is not reasonably obtainable and assesses character on the other material, which is the ordinary outcome where the guidance supports the applicant and the attempts are documented; asks for further attempts through a route the officer considers was available, or for further evidence of the attempts made, with a period to respond; or, where the officer is not satisfied, treats the character requirement as not met for want of the certificate, which is a refusal the applicant can seek to review. The Department can also waive the requirement for a particular country, and does so in practice where its own guidance says the certificate is unavailable; the waiver is a decision on the file, not something the applicant applies for separately. The officer's own checks against the information available to the Department run regardless, and an applicant with a record that the checks reveal and the statement did not declare has made the statement under the previous heading false.

The delay it adds, and when to start

Done in the right order the unobtainable certificate adds little: the attempts are made and documented in the months before lodgement, the statement and Form 80 are lodged with the application, and the officer decides the point when the character assessment is reached, in the ordinary processing time or a little longer where the officer asks a question. Done in the wrong order it adds months: the application is lodged without the certificate and without explanation, the officer writes asking for it, the applicant begins the attempts then, the period to respond runs, an extension is sought, and the explanation arrives late and reads as an afterthought. For a skilled visa applicant lodging on an invitation within sixty days, the attempts and the statement are prepared while the expression of interest is pending, because sixty days is not enough to make the attempts from scratch; for a partner visa applicant, they are prepared while the relationship evidence is being gathered.

The mistakes

• Leaving the country off the application. The address and travel history show it; an omitted country is an undeclared one, and the certificate question becomes a 4020 question.
• Lodging in silence. No certificate and no explanation; the officer assumes the applicant has not tried.
• Deciding it is unobtainable without reading the guidance. For most countries there is a route, and the officer knows it.
• One undocumented attempt. A phone call remembered is not evidence; a paper trail is.
• A statement that explains the certificate and forgets the criminal history. The declaration of history is the point of the statement.
• Form 80 that contradicts the statement. Different dates for the same residence; the officer reads both.
• Approaching an authority the applicant fled. Unnecessary, and sometimes dangerous; the explanation replaces it.

The unobtainable certificate checklist

1. List every country of twelve months or more in the last ten years, and read the Department's guidance for each.
2. For the difficult country, try every route the guidance and the authority describe, consulate, post, online, a relative or agent with authority, and keep every receipt and reply with dates.
3. If the certificate still cannot be obtained, write the statement: the country and periods, why, the attempts with evidence listed, and your full criminal history or that there is none; make it a statutory declaration where asked.
4. Complete Form 80 fully and consistently with the application and the statement.
5. If you fled or are stateless, explain that with evidence instead of applying to the authority.
6. Lodge all of it with the application, not after the Department asks.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Public interest criteria 4001 and 4020 in Schedule 4 to the Migration Regulations 1994, section 501 of the Migration Act 1958, the Department’s published character requirements and country-specific police certificate guidance, Form 80, and the Statutory Declarations Act 1959, all as in force at the date above; the Department’s practice on unobtainable certificates is a matter of policy and is applied case by case. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.