Announcement
Changes to police clearance certificates for Indian visa applicants
Published
02 September 2025
From 1 December 2025, Immigration New Zealand will only accept police clearance certificates issued by a Regional Passport Office of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, when required from Indian national visa applicants who reside in India.
To ensure that the police clearance certificates we receive are more consistent, only police clearance certificates issued by the Regional Passport Office of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs will be accepted as meeting the immigration requirements.
Indian visa applicants were previously allowed to provide police clearance certificates from an Office of the Deputy Commissioner or Superintendent of Police, or from their local police station. These are in an inconsistent format and more difficult to authenticate so will no longer be accepted from 1 December 2025.
Requirements for Indian nationals outside India, and for non-Indian nationals who currently or have previously resided in India, have not changed.
If you are from India and submitting a police clearance certificate application from 1 December 2025, remember to check you are meeting the new requirement. It takes time to gather the documents for a visa application, so make sure you leave enough time to request your police clearance certificate.