Australian Police Check Processing Timeframes

Australian police checks are processed by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC). In 75% of cases, this processing is fully automated and results are received back within a couple of hours after the check has been verified and sent for processing.

In the other cases, a check will require additional manual review by State and Territory Police agencies to confirm that the applicant has been correctly matched to the criminal history. This is to prevent incorrect results being returned, such as offences which you did not commit.

Your police check may have been flagged for further review if it has been matched against somebody on the database with a similar name, address, gender, or date of birth. When this occurs, there is a process of review into the application, in consultation with each of Australia’s State and Territory police agencies to resolve the match.

Usually, the check request is finalised within 10 to 12 business days. However, there may be instances where it takes longer. NCC will follow up with regular email updates throughout this process until your check is issued.

Once the results of the application have been finalised, we will then generate your National Criminal History Check Results and dispatch them to you via your selected dispatch method (email or post).

Do I need to contact you if I haven't heard from you in 2 days?

No, there is no need to contact us. You will receive email updates in relation to the status of your lodgement.

You will also receive a second email and sms as soon as the results have been returned from ACIC. Then we will automatically dispatch them to you either via your selected dispatch method (email or post).

NCC are unable to speed up the processing of checks which have been flagged for review.

Can I call ACIC to discuss my police check progress?

No

ACIC cannot discuss the progress of your application. All questions should be directed to National Crime Check.

My National Criminal History Check application has flagged, can I speed up the process?

No

National Crime Check monitors progress of all flagged checks regularly. We are reliant on the Police services providing us with the information that populates your Nationally Co-ordinated Criminal History Check.

We'll continue to send you updates about the processing and will dispatch the results as soon as they've been returned from ACIC.

I have never been to court so why has my check been flagged?

Your check still may be flagged for further review if it has been matched against somebody on the database with a similar name, gender, address, or date of birth.

When this occurs, there is a process of manual (human) review into the application, in consultation with each of Australia’s State and Territory police agencies, to resolve the match. This is a manual process and as a result the time can vary depending on a number of factors.

There is no way for us to know whether a check will be flagged as a potential match. On average 75% are generally processed within 1-2 business days. The remaining 25% of all checks will be flagged as a potential match.

Can I cancel my check and apply with another agency?

All police check providers are connected with the same government agency - the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) - for the processing of police checks. The processing timeframes are the same for ALL accredited agencies.

Changing agency will NOT speed up your check; all ACIC accredited agencies are subject to the same processing timeframes.

If you cancel your check and apply again, then your processing will begin from the start and the overall time will be longer.

Please note that if you still decide that you would like to cancel your check, this can be done for you but because it has already been sent to ACIC we are unable to issue refunds for these cancellations.