Getting Indian PCC for Australian Citizenship

Last updated on November 15th, 2019

I was not asked to provide PCC while filing my citizenship application. However, my wife was asked to provide one. So here is her account of how she got the Indian PCC for Australian citizenship application.

Once I prepared Australian citizenship application, I was asked to provide a list of supporting documents. Police Clearance Certificate a.k.a. PCC was one of them. If you were out of Australia for 12 months or more and if you stayed in any country for 90 days or more, you need to provide PCC for each such country.

Please note that this has nothing to do with whether you are the primary or secondary applicant. Since I was in India for more than 6 months after I got my visa and stayed in India for 6 more months after my validation trip, I had to provide PCC.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to manually calculate PCC eligibility. Once you file your citizenship application, the system will tell you whether you need to provide one.

PCC Online Application

One important thing to know before applying for PCC is that your passport must be valid for at least 6 months from the date of the PCC application.

Indian PCC can only be applied through VFS Global in Australia. Getting Indian PCC is a two-step process. First, you need to complete an online application form.

The online application is divided into 7 sections:

1. Passport details. One tricky detail here is File number. Don’t worry, you will find it on the last page of your passport, below the address and starts with PN.
2. Applicant details
3. Family details such as the name of your parents and/or spouse
4. Your permanent address in India and current residential address in Australia with contact details. If you don’t have Indian phone number active, provide a number of your parents or sibling. You also need to select relevant police station for your address in India.
5. A simple yes/no about your criminal background
6. A Review of Details which will be printed on your PCC letter
7. Review of the entire application form

At any point during application, you can save the application and resume later. Once you submit the application, you need to download the form, print and sign it. Along with the application, you need to manually fill and sign below 2 documents:

1. PCC Checklist – This is simply a checklist of documents that you need to submit along with the PCC application. Just tick the ones which are relevant to you and sign at the end.

2. Personal Particulars form – You need to provide your name, address, permanent India address and current Australian address. You also need to provide the name of the police station near your permanent address in India. This is same as what you chose in the online application form.

You also need to give name, address and contact details of two references who can vouch for your addresses. I provided one reference for each address – one for Indian address and one for Australian address. It’s a good idea to let both references know that you provided their contact details in the PCC form, though usually they won’t be contacted.

Apart from the documents, you need to provide two passport size photographs. You can try to take photos as per VFS guidelines but I prefer Australia post. It costs a little but I prefer the peace of mind over money.

How To Submit Documents

Once I had these two documents ready along with the application form, I had two options:
1) send them via Australia Post or courier or,
2) submit them in person

Though VFS recommends sending them via express post or courier, I didn’t do so for two reasons:
1) It adds an unnecessary delay in the process and,
2) If there is any query about any of the document, there might be a delay in going back and forth with VFS. In the worst-case scenario, your application might be rejected altogether.

Maybe I am paranoid, but I like to play safe. So I chose to visit the VFS office in person.

Visiting VFS Facility

To visit the VFS office, you need to book an appointment. So once I had everything ready, I went to VFS Online Booking system to book an appointment.

Booking an appointment is simple. All you need is a passport number and your contact details. Once the booking is confirmed, I downloaded and printed the appointment letter.

I carried below documents for my appointment to the VFS Melbourne centre:
1. Latest Indian passport
2. Signed application form
3. Signed PCC checklist
4. Personal particulars form
5. Two photographs
6. Appointment letter

Depending on your VFS centre, you might be asked to submit the passport. So keep in mind that if you have a citizenship interview scheduled, you might not have a passport for the interview. In such a case, it is better to reschedule the interview. Since you must carry all the documents in original and passport is one of the important documents, you will be asked to reschedule your interview if you don’t have the passport with you. In my case, I had just submitted the citizenship application so I had plenty of time to submit PCC.

Cost of Indian PCC

Indian PCC cost varies slightly depending on many factors:
1) How are you going to submit an application – in person or by courier?
2) How are you going to collect documents – in person or by courier?
3) How do you pay – cash, credit card, debit card or postal order?
4) Do you need SMS notification?
5) Which state do you live in?

In my case, I opted to submit in person and collect by courier. Also, I opted for SMS notifications. Since I paid with a debit card, it cost me approximately 67$ AUD (66.82 AUD to be exact). You can find out how much it will cost using the online calculator.

Indian PCC Processing Time

You may receive PCC within 5 – 45 working days according to VFS website. One of my friend’s wife got her PCC in just 2 days as her Indian passport was renewed from Australia. In my case, it took a little more than a month to get my PCC.

To conclude, PCC is a time-consuming process. But the good thing is that you don’t need PCC before submitting citizenship application. That way you can save time and have PCC ready by the time case officer asks for it.

So that was my experience of getting Indian PCC and it was relatively smooth compared to the other stories I heard. What was your experience? Did you face any delays or multiple round-trips for PCC? Let me know in the comments below.