Getting Indian PCC And The Road Ahead

Once the medical examination saga was over, the next big thing was to get an Indian Police Clearance Certificate(PCC). All the prerequisites needed to get an Indian PCC in a nice and smooth manner, were there. Our passports were recently renewed, both of our passports had spouse name in it and our passports were recently verified by the Police. So I assumed that getting a PCC should not be a big deal. However, you never know when passport office finds some tiny detail missing and make you go round and round. So, even though I was quite confident, I was still bit worried.

How To Get An Indian PCC?

I logged into Passport Seva website and clicked on Apply for Police Clearance certificate link. Once done, it presented me with the option to fill an online form or download a pdf, fill it and upload it back. I choose the online option and proceeded to fill in

my passport details,
family details,
current address and
two references with address and their contact number.

I didn’t book an appointment or did online payment. Instead I chose to walk-in for PCC.

Next day, I visited PSK Pune with my passport and PCC application receipt. Just to be on a safer side, I carried all the identity and address proof documents that I carried for renewing passport. Once I got in, I paid the fees, the officer checked my documents and stamped my passport with PCC. One week later, I received the formal PCC letter at my residential address. Quick and easy!

Please note that as per DIBP rules, you have to submit PCC for each country, including Australia, where you stayed for a year or more. Now depending on country it may take more or less time to get it. For example, you have stayed in US, you have to go through fingerprint verification process and it can easily add at least couple of months to your timeline. The whole point of this discussion is to start early and avoid unnecessary delays.

What is Form 80 and 1221?

Once I uploaded notarised copy of PCC, the next monster was preparing Form 80 and 1221. Again the discussions on the online forums were quite confusing. Most of the people were of the opinion that both form 80 and 1221 should be filled and front-loaded for quick results. However, there were quite a few who got their grants without providing it. Finally, based on my agent’s recommendation, I decided to prepare it but upload only when requested by CO.
Form 80 is contains personal details related to character assessment whereas form 1221 contains additional details. As per Australian High commission, Form 80 only needs to be filled

If you are not an Indian or Nepalese citizen OR
You have lived in a country other than India, Nepal and Australia for more than 12 months in total out of last 10 years.

Please note that 12 months here doesn’t have to be at a stretch, it can be, for example, 3 trips with 4 months of stay each and so on. Form 1221 needs to be filled by primary applicant as well as all dependants above the age of 18.

In my case, since I never lived out of India for more than year, Form 80 was not required. Only form that I had to fill in was Form 1221. It is not an easy form to fill. It is 10 page long in which you have to write down almost everything except your birth chart. Frankly, I was never able to finish it completely. Whenever, I thought about filling it, looking at the amount of details required, I always procrastinated, maybe for good.

The Star Moment

As the days were passing by, I became more and more anxious about the fate of my visa application. Was the CO assigned yet? What more documents would he be asking? Was anything missing or incomplete in my application? I was making rounds of online forums to see the current grants and to gauge my number in the queue of applications under progress.

Sweet November had arrived. Weather was getting better but that didn’t help my mood. Then on one chilly morning, exactly two months after my visa application, I got the pleasant surprise I was least expecting. I got the direct grant on 18^th Nov 2014 without a question from CO. I didn’t have to supply any additional documents, nor Form 80 or 1221. Everything was so smooth, I couldn’t believe it. Online forums were flooded with stories about people losing their sleep waiting for CO for months, stories about how some people had to upload same documents again and again, people contacting DIBP everyday to know the status of their application and here I was, without any such hassle, went straight to the direct grant. I don’t know whether it was God’s grace or my strong will but fortune really smiled at me and handed me the most precious gift I could ever have. From that moment on I was proud Australian resident still living outside Australia but been there numerous times in my dream. That dream was about to become the reality and I was about to become an Aussian. Half the battle was won, but the real fun had just started.

This concludes the 16 part journey of moving to Australia which begun with just a simple idea. I thank you for staying along the journey and hope that you found something useful that you can apply to your journey. Please note, this is just the end of this series, a lot more is yet to come, so stay tuned. Good luck and see you soon Down Under!

Moving To Australia Series