Police certificates are required for each visa applicant aged 16 years or older. The table below shows how many police certificates are required based on where each applicant lives and has lived previously. Present and former residents of the United States should NOT obtain any police certificates covering their residence in the U.S.

IF the applicant is living in their country of nationality at their current residence for more than 6 months
AND is 16 years old or older
THEN the applicant needs a police certificate from the police authorities of that locality.

IF the applicant lived in a different part of their country of nationality for more than 6 months
AND was 16 years or older at that time
THEN the applicant needs a police certificate from the police authorities of that locality.

IF the applicant lived in a different country for more than 12 months
AND was 16 years or older at that time
THEN the applicant needs a police certificate from the police authorities of that locality.

IF the applicant was arrested for any reason, regardless of how long they lived there
AND was any age at that time
THEN the applicant needs a police certificate from the police authorities of that locality.

The police certificate must:

• Cover the entire period of the applicant's residence in that area, and
• State what the appropriate police authorities records show concerning each applicant, including all arrests, the reason for the arrest(s), and the disposition of each case of which there is a record.

Please note that these police certificates are required only if you are doing consular processing or other nonimmigrant visa such as K, V. They are NOT required if you are doing a Adjustment of Status (I-485) for changing status within the US.

Present and former residents of the United States should NOT obtain any police certificates covering their residence in the U.S.

Do not attempt to obtain police certificates covering residence in any of the following countries, as they are not available:

Police certificates from these countries are available only to persons physically present in the country who apply in person.

Police Certificates from the following countries are available only through the US Embassy or Consulate. Contact the American Consular Office if you currently are, or have been a resident of one of these countries

Each visa applicant over the age of 16 must present police certificates. Police certificates must cover the entire period of the applicant's residence in any area. The term "police certificate" means a certification by appropriate police authorities stating what their records show concerning each applicant, including all arrests, the reasons for the arrests, and the disposition of each case of which there is a record. Police certificates from certain countries are considered unobtainable.

For more information on police certificate requirements see the chart below:

Is residing in India and his or her Indian passport was issued within past 6 months	Is 16 years old or older	1. Local police station
Passport was issued more than 6 months prior to visa application	Is 16 yeas old or older	1. Passport Office 2. The district police office serving the applicant's place of residence
Is an Indian passport holder and is staying outside India	Is 16 years old or older	1. Applicant's local Embassy or Consulate confirming he/she has no criminal record (a statement from Embassy or Consulate is acceptable)
Is an Indian passport holder and currently residing in India, but has lived in other country (except for the U.S.)	Lived in the foreign country for twelve months after reaching the age of 16 years	1. Passport office 2. District police office serving the applicant's place of residence (if the passport was issued more than 6 months prior to visa application). 3. Country of previous residence, if available.
Is a non-Indian immigrant visa applicant residing in India	Is 16 years old or older	District police station serving the area of residence
Is a foreign (non-Indian) applicant applying outside India	Is 16 years old or older	Not available

Local Passport Offices

If your passport was issued after 1997, regional passport office will issue Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) in 1 day as they did computerization after that and have the data. If the passport was issued before 1997, it will take anything from 10 to 30 days. To apply at Regional Passport Office , please use this form.
Regional Passport Office web sites for Bangalore   Chennai   Hyderabad   Mumbai   Panji, Goa  

Indian police certificates are not available for foreign (non-Indian) applicants applying outside India.

If you are currently not staying in India, but in the United States, you do not need to get the police certificate from local police station nor regional passport office in India. In that case, you can get a police clearance from your local Indian consulate (Indian consulates worldwide). They do it on the basis of a passport check.

This is a document issued by the embassy/consulate certifying that you have never been involved with the Indian police. The normal procedure for issuing a PCC is that the embassy/consulate checks with the police authorities in the area(s) in India where you had been residing, and issues the PCC after obtaining their clearance. As this procedure generally takes some time, an alternative is for you to directly approach the relevant police authorities in India (or request your friends/relatives to do so on your behalf) and obtain a certificate from them that you have not been involved in any police case during the period of your stay in India (please ensure that the relevant dates (stayed in India from so-and-so date to so-and-so date) are included in the certificate).

In view of the current situation, the Embassy of India, has decided not to accept consular service applications through U.S. Postal Mail. It is suggested that applicants may apply for the services either at the Embassy Counter or send the application through a courier. This arrangement will continue till the situation improves.

The following return mail charges should be sent for return of serviced passports in addition to the prescribed visa fee. The Embassy/Consulate is not responsible for documents lost in the mail. Express Mail: $15, Registered Mail: $10, Priority Mail: $7, Certified Mail: $5 For each additional passport a charge of $ 1/- would be levied as mailing charges. Applicants can also send a self addressed prepaid return envelope with the application in lieu of mailing charges.

To apply for a police clearance certificate, you should fill the Miscellaneous Service Form (taken from Indian Embassy in Washington DC but will work in another consulates too). Alternatively, you can use fillable form for Indian Consulates in New York, San Francisco. If you use the San Francisco form, also fill Personal Particulars Form (3 copies with photograph in each copy). You also need to take/send your passport and passport size photograph (affixed in the form) for this. It is advisable to apply in person. When you apply in person, also carry photocopy of the passport and submit that photocopy to the consulate. Also take a copy of your H1/H4 visa approval notice. Fee for police Clearance Certificate is $11. Fee should be paid by Money Order/ Cashier checks made in favor of the Embassy of India/Consulate General of India. Cash is accepted only at the counter. Personal checks are not accepted. Additionally, you should pay $22 for telex charges if you would like to get PCC on expedited basis.
PCC includes a stamp in the passport and PCC document saying that 'that they do not have any adverse findings against you that might affect your US visa'.

Information about police certificate from Canada can be found here.

They are also called RCMP certificate as police certificates from Canada are obtained from RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police). Police certificates are required for consular processing for those currently living in Canada for 6 months or longer or for those not currently living in Canada, but who did live in Canada for more than 1 year.

If you look up the blue pages (government offices) of your phone book, you will see RCMP phone # under "Canada" section. In Toronto the number is 416-363-9072

There are two types of police certificates, one is name check based and other is fingerprint based. Only name check based police certificates are required for US immigration. Fingerprint based police certificates are for Canadian immigration.

Other than a valid reason they do not generally do it, just like that. So you have to tell them you need to do it for "US Immigration".

The police station issuing the clearance will red stamp an approval and on the bottom of the form you will see a note; "details cannot be confirmed as relating to the subject of inquiry without fingerprint comparison". Do not be alarmed by this because fingerprints are NOT required. If, during your consulate interview the consular officer finds your police clearance has a "hit" or name check problem you may be instructed to be fingerprinted. In this case the US consular post will furnish Form FD-258 to be used for fingerprinting. This is the only form they will authorize for fingerprinting. Not any RCMP fingerprint form. Anyone who has initiated on their own to secure RCMP fingerprints is wasting their time. The consular officer has to witness the issuance of finger printing for authenticity. The RCMP fingerprint form is used for Canadian immigration or criminal processing.

• Singapore
  
  
• Hong Kong
  
  
• United Kingdom
  It takes less than 4 weeks to get the police certificate from UK.
  
  
• Germany
  Please note that PCC information is not available from the above site. One has to call German Embassy/Consulate and request for the appropriate forms and instructions, which will then be sent by mail to the requestor's address. The concept of checks doesn't exist or at least not used extensively in Germany. So payment has to be made by a direct bank transfer (details given in the instructions) or via an international money order in Euros.
  
  
• Australia
  Address: Public Enquiry Service
  Victoria Police
  P.O. Box 415
  Melbourne VIC 3005
  Australia
  Phone:(61 3) 9247 5907