Police Clearance for Australians
Calling all Aussies..!
Has anyone gone through the process of getting police clearance yet? We know we have to contact the Australian Federal Police in Canberra and have downloaded the necessary form to complete to send off with a set of fingerprints, but what next...?? Do we have to get the police report certified and if so, by who? There is no Qatari Embassy or Consulate in Australia, the nearest is in Jakarta so even if we go back to Australia to get this all sorted it won't be much help!
Any help much appreciated.
Thanks Failsafe. Hadn't realised DFAT was the way to go.
Seems like there are many suggestions as best thing to do but no one we know has actually gone through the process! We had also been advised to have the certificate stamped by Aussie Embassy in Abu Dhabi and then the UAE Dept of Foreign Affairs in AD to stamp it too! Maybe the more official stamps the better... What a palarava...
Barzan,
Once you get the clearance you need to go to an AUSTRALIAN Embassy, not a qatari one.
Signatory Countries to the Hague Convention for international validitiy of documents require that they be validated by Apostille by the foreign ministry of the country of origin.
That basically means the Australian Foreign Affairs office, known as DFAT needs to check the document and the signatures and put a wax stamp and give you a certificate.
This costs AUS$20 per document at most DFAT offices and takes 1 working day (minimum).
If you are already here in Doha, there are various theories on how this can be done.
For instance some have told me that a British embassy can do the job (which I doubt). The safest way is to mail it back to Aus and get a friend or family member to get the apostille and send it back.