ACRO Police Certificate: Application and Legalisation for Use Abroad

An ACRO Police Certificate is the document most immigration authorities ask for when you have lived in the United Kingdom and now need to prove your criminal record status abroad. It is issued by the ACRO Criminal Records Office (ACRO) after a search of national police systems, and most countries will only accept it once it carries an apostille from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). This page explains how the application works, what the certificate contains and how to legalise it step by step. The wider legalisation context is covered in the guide to UK apostille and document legalisation.

What is an ACRO Police Certificate?

An ACRO Police Certificate is an official document that states whether you have a criminal record in the United Kingdom. It is issued by the ACRO Criminal Records Office, the national body responsible for criminal records information for people who have lived in the UK and now need proof of their record status overseas.

The certificate is based on a search of the Police National Computer, the central database of recordable offences in England and Wales. Immigration authorities, foreign employers and registries treat it as the standard proof of a clean record for anyone who has previously lived in Britain. It is a different document from a DBS check, which serves employment screening inside the UK.

Applying for an ACRO police certificate

You apply through the ACRO police certificate online application service run by ACRO itself. The form asks for your personal details, your UK address history, any previous names and a scan of an identity document. Payment is made online at the time of application.

The process is fully remote, which matters if you are applying from overseas: you do not need to visit the UK at any stage. The digital certificate arrives by email and the paper original is posted to the address you specify, so make sure it can receive international mail. Current fees and processing times are set out on the ACRO Police Certificate cost and processing time page.

ACRO Police Certificate example

A typical certificate fits on one or two pages. At the top you will find the ACRO branding and a unique reference number, which authorities can use to verify the document. Below that sit your personal details as you provided them: full name, date of birth and usually the identity document details from your application.

The core of the document is the statement of result, a short paragraph confirming whether any record was found. The certificate closes with the date of issue and an official signature or stamp. Foreign authorities pay close attention to the issue date, because many of them only accept certificates that are recent, so check the validity window your destination country applies before you order the apostille.

Key information in ACRO certificates

The certificate deliberately contains a limited set of data. Expect to see:

• Your full name and date of birth as declared in the application
• The search result statement (no trace, no live trace, or record details)
• The date the search was carried out and the date of issue
• A reference number for verification
• Official ACRO markings confirming authenticity

Anything else, such as your address history or the reason for your application, stays in the application file rather than on the certificate itself. This is why the personal details you enter must exactly match your passport: a mismatch between the certificate and your travel documents is one of the most common reasons a visa authority queries the paperwork.

Police National Computer records

The Police National Computer (PNC) is the database ACRO searches when your application is processed. It holds recordable offences: convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings recorded by UK police forces.

Not everything held on police systems appears on the certificate. Some older or minor records may be filtered out under the disclosure rules that govern what can be released, which is why two people with similar histories can receive different results. What the certificate shows is the position on the PNC at the moment of the search, so a certificate issued several years ago says nothing about anything that happened since. If you lived in Scotland rather than England or Wales, the records landscape differs, and the ACRO Police Certificate for Scotland page explains which certificate applies in your case.

Police certificates for visa applications

Immigration authorities use police certificates to confirm that an applicant has no unspent criminal history before granting a visa, residence permit or citizenship. Many countries make the certificate a mandatory part of the file for anyone who has lived in the UK above a certain length of time, and the requirement usually covers accompanying family members as well.

Three practical points decide whether your certificate is accepted. First, the issue date: most authorities impose a validity window counted from the date ACRO issued the document. Second, the legalisation: an apostille or embassy attestation is often required on top of the certificate itself. Third, the language: if the destination country does not process documents in English, a certified translation is usually mandatory. Check all three with the receiving authority before you start, because the order of steps matters.

Apostille for ACRO police certificate

An apostille is a certificate attached by the FCDO that confirms the signature and seal on a UK document so it is accepted in other countries. For an ACRO certificate, the apostille is attached to the paper original.

Here is the detail that catches people out. According to GOV.UK, on the page “Get a document legalised” (checked 14 September 2026), the Digital e-Apostille is not available for ACRO police certificates. The exclusion list on GOV.UK also covers civil registration certificates (birth, death, marriage, civil partnership, adoption), DBS certificates for England and Wales and disclosure certificates for Scotland. The FCDO’s digital service attaches a Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) to eligible documents, but ACRO certificates are explicitly outside that scheme. In practice this means the paper original must be posted to the FCDO Legalisation Office and returned with a physical apostille, so build postage time into your planning. The document legalisation and apostille service page walks through how this works.

Uses of ACRO certificates abroad

The certificate follows you through most major life events outside the UK. The most common uses are:

• Visa and residence applications, where immigration authorities require proof of a clean record
• Overseas employment, particularly in education, healthcare, finance and roles involving children or vulnerable people
• Marriage registration abroad, where some registries ask foreign nationals for police clearance
• Professional licensing and study, when a regulator or university in the destination country screens applicants from the UK

Because the same original document often serves several of these purposes, it is worth confirming with each receiving body whether they want the apostilled original or a certified copy, and whether they impose their own validity limit on the issue date.

Embassy attestation for non-Hague countries

The apostille system only works between countries that have joined the Hague Apostille Convention. If your destination country sits outside the convention, the apostille alone is not enough: the document must then go through embassy attestation, where the embassy of the destination country stamps the apostilled original to confirm it accepts the UK legalisation.

The sequence is fixed: ACRO certificate first, then the FCDO apostille, then the embassy. Some embassies add their own requirements, such as a notarised copy prepared by a notary public before they will attest, and processing times vary considerably between missions. Confirm the embassy’s current procedure directly before you post anything, because a document submitted in the wrong order can be rejected and the whole chain restarted.

ACRO certificate result types

ACRO issues three main outcomes, and each reads differently to a visa officer:

• No Trace: the search found nothing on the Police National Computer. This is the clean result most applicants hope for.
• No Live Trace: records exist but are no longer live, typically because they are spent or have expired under the disclosure rules. Many authorities treat this the same as a clean result, but some ask for the underlying detail, so check.
• Record details listed: the certificate sets out live record information. This does not automatically mean a refusal, since many immigration systems assess spent or minor offences differently, but expect additional questions.

If your certificate comes back with listed records, do not assume the application is lost. Read what the destination authority’s guidance says about spent convictions before deciding how to present the document.

Subject access request vs ACRO certificate

People often confuse three different UK documents, and ordering the wrong one costs weeks. The table below shows which document fits which purpose.

Document	Issued by	What it shows	Accepted for visas abroad
ACRO Police Certificate	ACRO Criminal Records Office	Your UK criminal record status for overseas use	Yes, this is the standard document
Subject Access Request (SAR)	Police forces / ACRO	Everything held about you, for your own information	Generally no: it is a personal data right, not a visa document
DBS check	Disclosure and Barring Service	Criminal record for UK employment screening	Generally no: it is designed for use inside the UK

A Subject Access Request (SAR) exists so you can see your own data, and it often contains far more detail than a certificate should. That is exactly why foreign authorities rarely accept it. If your goal is a visa, work permit or residence application, the ACRO Police Certificate is the document to order.

Apostille under Hague Convention

The Hague Apostille Convention is the international treaty that replaced lengthy consular legalisation with a single certificate: the apostille. Once a UK document carries an FCDO apostille, every convention member must accept it without further legalisation, which is why the apostille is the final step for destinations such as most of Europe, the United States, Australia and many others.

The practical consequence for your ACRO certificate is simple: identify early whether your destination country is a convention member. If it is, plan for the paper apostille route described above. If it is not, plan for embassy attestation as well, and budget time accordingly, because the two routes differ sharply in length.

Legalisation path by destination: a working checklist

Work through the destination country’s requirements in this order before you spend money on any step:

1. Confirm the document list with the immigration authority, employer or registry: which certificate, what validity window, original or copy.
2. Check convention membership of the destination country to decide between apostille and embassy attestation.
3. Apply to ACRO online and make sure your personal details match your passport exactly.
4. Legalise the paper original through the FCDO, remembering that the e-Apostille does not cover ACRO certificates.
5. Add embassy attestation if the destination sits outside the convention, following the embassy’s own sequence.
6. Order a certified translation of the apostilled document if the destination does not accept English.
7. Verify the final package against the destination’s checklist before submitting your visa file.

Case: applying from abroad without visiting the UK

Situation. A British national living in Spain needs an ACRO Police Certificate for a work visa in a Hague Convention country, and the visa appointment is a few months away.

Steps. She submits the ACRO police certificate online application from home, uploading her passport scan and paying the fee. The digital certificate arrives by email and the paper original is posted to her Spanish address. She then sends the paper original to the FCDO for the apostille, since the digital e-Apostille does not cover ACRO certificates. The apostilled original comes back to Spain, and because the destination accepts documents in English, no translation is needed.

Result. She holds an apostilled ACRO certificate without a single trip to the UK. The only time-sensitive decision was the order of steps: applying early enough that the certificate’s issue date still falls inside the destination’s validity window at the visa appointment.

When you need a certified translation

If the destination country works in another language, the apostilled certificate usually must be translated, and the translation normally covers the apostille itself as well as the certificate text. A certified translation is one produced by a professional translator or agency that attaches a signed statement confirming the translation is accurate and complete, which is what foreign authorities expect to see.

Requirements differ by country: some accept a UK certified translation, while others insist on a sworn translator registered locally. Check which standard applies before ordering, because redoing a translation at the embassy stage is expensive in both time and money. The certified translation services in the UK page explains how certification works and which documents it covers.

One final habit worth building: keep scanned copies of every version of the document, from the raw ACRO certificate to the apostilled original and any translation. Immigration files have a way of growing, and a complete digital set makes each later application noticeably easier.