Police Clearance Certificate for Indian Nationals

Depending upon what application you are filing, and to which country, you may need one or both types of PCCs.

1) Type 1: PSK PCC: This is a clearance that the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) gives you, and you need to apply through the PSK office. Whenever a new passport is issued for anyone, it's the responsibility of the police (Your local jurisdiction police station) to keep a record of this passport issued. Thus, the passport people have to notify your local police station, and in turn the police give a clean green for this passport. This is their clearance. This is issued as a stamp in your passport and an accompanying letter stating that there is no adverse information regarding you on their files.

a) Fill in form on the PSK web site.

b) Get an appointment at the website (This can be a tough task)

c) Appear at the PSK with your appointment print out, copy of your application (copy of application not mandatory, PSK already has this), address proof, photos & other documents.

d) PSK will process give you an acknowledgement & receipt, and forward your application to the Commissioner’s Office.

e) Commissioners office will process your application and forward it to your jurisdictions police station.

f) Your police station will call you when they see your application. Then you may need to either visit the police station, or the person may come to your home. If you dont hear from them for a long time, you should follow this up so you can be sure things are moving along.

g) The police station may contact you or the person specified in the application as contact, and the requested documents may need to be furnished (Similar to (2.g) below). We didn't have to do this, since we had applied for both PCCs, and the Commissioner’s Office PCC was already in process, so the local police station was already aware of this case which they had recently processed.

h) The police station sends the papers back to the Commissioner’s Office.

i) The Commissioner’s Office sends the information back (electronically) to the PSK office where you originally applied.

j) The PSK will SMS you when the information is ready at their office. You can then proceed to the PSK to collect it.

k) The final product is a stamp in your passport (stating the country for which the PCC is issued) and a PCC letter. They gave us 2 copies of the letter. It looks similar to the commissioners PCC, but differs slightly in its text.

l) If you need to apply for another country, you have to take another PSK appointment and go again. The second one will be processed really fast if applied in a short span of the first one. They already have the information on their systems, and they issue the second one right away. We got the second one done within 2 hours when we went for our appointment.

2) Type 2: Commissioner of Police PCC: This is a letter that the Commissioner’s Office issues you. This is to state that you don’t have/had any legal issues pending against you.

a) Obtain a form from the Commissioner’s Office and fill it.

b) Pay the fees, and obtain a challan. (At any one of the Bangalore One counters)

c) Submit the form, challan, address proof, 3 photos at the Commissioner’s Office.

d) The form will be processed at the Commissioner’s Office.

e) From there, it will get forwarded to your local police station.

f) Your police station will call you when they see your application. Then you may need to either visit the police station, or the person may come to your home. If you don’t hear from them for a long time, you should follow this up so you can be sure things are moving along.

g) You will need to keep the following ready when you see the police person: (i) Letters from 2 neighbors which state complete address, how long they've known you, how long they've lived at that address, that you have good moral character & conduct. Exact dates required. (ii) Copy of your passport (iii) Copy of driving license (iv) Copy of election card. (v) Copy of anything else that the police ask of.

h) Once this verification is completed, the police station will send the papers back to the Commissioner’s Office.

i) You can go back to the Commissioner’s Office a couple of days before the said date, and confirm that they have received all the papers.

j) They will give you the clearance at that point, or ask you to come back on the said date at which point you will be given the PCC.

k) If you need 2 copies (Sometimes you may need to file other immigration related papers for children/dependents, etc., or need PCCs for 2 separate countries), you can submit 2 forms, make payment for each of these forms, and usually the Commissioner’s Office will be OK to issue you 2 PCCs.

NOTE:

1) For address proof, if your passport has the correct address, this will save you a lot of trouble. Election card, driving license also may work. Otherwise, address proof seems to be very subjective matter. What the counters will accept varies vastly depending upon your case, the mood of the person at the front counter, if an agent is involved or not, etc. Address proof in your spouse’s name WILL NOT WORK! If it doesn't cover a 1 year period, it WILL NOT WORK! If it's telephone bills, bank statements, ENSURE THEY ARE BONA-FIDE (i.e. Stamped by the custodian/original issuer)

2) Make sure you know which your local police station is (jurisdiction) before initiating either of the above processes! We've been given a hard time because PSK made a mistake when they forwarded the request to the Commissioner’s Office, and WE GOT YELLED at for their confusion/mistake. It's their job to know all this, but they don’t, and they DONT CARE. Once you know your jurisdiction, Confirm at the PSK counter / Commissioner’s counter WHICH Police Station they will be forwarding the request to.

3) Make sure you keep copies of your receipts and acknowledgements for ALL Applications made to either PSK or to the Commissioner’s office FOREVER! These receipts will have reference numbers and 'Police check required' comments, which may help you later on. Keep these handy when you're at the airport too, to show you have tried your level best to procure all clearances. Keep any challans / slips as well.

4) In general, keep copies of ALL your papers. Challans, application forms, receipts, acknowledgements, any documents that you may need to submit and will not see again.

5) You will need multiple visits to these places, and you'll get turned down many times, so be prepared for this. START YOUR PROCESS AS EARLY AS YOU CAN. Dont wait till the last month to finish your work. Be prepared to be yelled at multiple times at multiple counters. If you get offended when someone yells/talks back at you, please hold off your aggravations, and stretch your patience as much as you can. The work will get done, but a little slower than you'd expect, that's all!

6) The Police people are very helpful with all the white paper work. It was overall a pleasure working with them. You may meet one or two unreasonable persons, but they will still keep your application moving. The PSK on the other hand was not a good experience at all for us. Maybe others have had better experience with them, but not so in our case. So Im guessing that you'll have to show a lot of patience with them.

7) Knowing the local language WILL HELP A LOT. If you don’t know the local language, just go with an agent. It will save you LOADS OF AGONY, even if you have to spend a little more. But, make sure the agent is reliable, and you can get good references for him, OR that he comes from a trusted source. Agents for the PSK PCC may be easy to find, but I haven't come across any for the Commissioner’s Office PCC.

8) The counters at the Police Commissioners office that handle the PCC versus the PSK PCC are different. PSK PCC is electronically transmitted from PSK to Commissioners office. After completing the processing, it's again electronically transmitted back to the PSK office.

9) I have tried to present our experience in detail above. Dealing with government counters is not an easy experience. You discover new rules every day, the list of documents they need changes every 2nd day you go back to the counter, timings are not clear at times (Commissioner office has lunch hours 1:00 to 2:00, during which time they don’t process anything). Some offices are open Saturday, some are not. Do ensure you know all these timings before you go: traffic is never on our side AND parking is not easy. It will save you a few trips at least.

10) Before applying, do ask how the papers will be processed, where they will be sent, etc. so you have a reasonable understanding of where your papers will be at any given point. They will not proactively tell you how the chain-of-events will be and that leaves us very much in the dark. Once you know, every couple of days/weeks, do go to the relevant department/station/office and check with them if they have received/sent the papers to keep things moving along. Don’t go too early, and make sure you’re nice to everyone (Use your intelligent discretion at level best). I may be repeating myself .. but START YOUR PROCESS EARLY, so you give enough room to all offices to move your papers.

More information:

i) In Bangalore, the Commissioner of Police office is on Infantry Road, toward one end. It does not have car parking.

ii) PSK office Sai Arcade is on Outer Ring Road opposite Intel. This PSK does have a car & motorcycle parking in the back, accessible through a little lane 2 buildings across.

iii) Payment for the commissioners PCC to obtain the challan can be made at any one of the numerous "Bangalore One" counters

iv) As of 17 July 2012, the rate for Commissioners PCC is Rs. 200 Non-employment based and Rs. 1000 employment based (These rates may change, or they may be different through other places in India. Or may depend on your particular case)

v) As of 17 July 2012, the rate for PSK PCC is Rs. 500. (These rates may change, or they may be different through other places in India. Or may depend on your particular case)