One integration to validate passports, licences and VEVO work-rights.
Employment and volunteer National Police Checks returned from the National Police History database, plus ASIC company, business name and personal name extracts. The application is paperless, the certificate arrives as a PDF, and business accounts are available for organisations checking at volume.
ASIC here means the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the corporate, markets and financial services regulator.
Two police checks, one application
Both return a National Police Check certificate drawn from the same national database. What differs is the purpose you nominate when you apply, which affects what can be disclosed.
Employment Police Check
For paid workEmployers want to know they are hiring suitable candidates. An increasing number of businesses now ask current and prospective employees to undergo a police check, and for several industries and occupations it is a statutory requirement.
- Ordered by anyone who needs to give a police clearance to a current or future employer.
- Employers can order on behalf of an employee, with that person’s permission.
- Business accounts are available for employers processing multiple or frequent checks.
Volunteer Police Check
For unpaid rolesAn increasing number of volunteer positions involve a level of trust. Many organisations now ask current and prospective volunteers to undergo a police check, and for several roles it is a statutory requirement.
- Ordered by anyone who needs a clearance for an unpaid position, such as a student placement or coaching a local sporting team.
- Organisations can order on behalf of their volunteers, with that person’s permission.
- Business accounts are available for organisations processing checks regularly.
What the certificate actually shows
The result is issued as a National Police Check certificate. It shows your full name, date of birth, the purpose of the check, and whether any disclosable court outcomes are recorded against your name.
- Court appearances
- Pending court cases
- Findings of guilt in any court, with or without conviction
- Good behaviour bonds and other court orders
The disclosable information varies with the purpose of the check and the spent conviction legislation in each state and territory. Where nothing is disclosable, the certificate returns clear.
What decides the outcome
- The purpose you nominate. An employment check and a volunteer check can disclose differently, which is why the purpose is asked for.
- Spent conviction legislation. Each state and territory sets its own rules on when an outcome stops being disclosable.
- Whether there is a potential match. If your details match a record, the application is held for manual review before anything is released.
- Nothing to disclose. Where no disclosable court outcome is recorded, the certificate returns clear.
What a police check is not
- Not a suitability decision. It reports what is on the record. Whether that suits the role is the employer’s call.
- Not a working with children check. Those are issued separately by each state and territory and cannot be replaced by a police check.
- Not a right to work check. Visa entitlement is a separate lookup. See Australian Visa Checks.
- Not open ended. A certificate reflects the record on the day it was issued, which is why many organisations re-check periodically.
Four steps, all online, no paper
The application is paperless and completed on the IDV Pacific website. You will need an IDV Pacific account, true and correct details, and four selected ID documents.
Start your details
Enter full name, gender and date of birth, then add the application to your cart and pay by card. Paying upfront lets you save your progress and return to the application at any time.
Add the detail
Provide the purpose of the check, such as the type of employment or a description of the position, along with previous names and address history.
Upload ID documents
Upload the documents that confirm your identity. A guide and calculator built into the application form tells you which documents you can use.
Get the certificate
The result is emailed as a PDF certificate and a copy stays in your account. Print it, or send it straight to the employer or organisation.
How long it takes. Processing times vary and depend on whether your details have a potential match in the National Police History database. Around 70% of applications complete within a matter of minutes. The remaining 30% require manual review and can take several business days.
Four documents and one selfie
Every application is identity-verified before it is submitted. You supply four selected ID documents, and a selfie holding one of them so the face can be matched to the document.
Get the selfie right
- Digital photo in JPEG format.
- Photo ID clearly visible and held at head height.
- Head and shoulders in frame.
- Your hand visible holding the document.
- Light coloured background.
- Photo clear and in focus.
What gets a selfie rejected
- Hands covering part of the document or your face.
- Hats, sunglasses or anything that covers your facial features.
- Shadows, glare and reflections across the document.
- A photo that is blurred, cropped or out of focus.
A rejected selfie does not fail the application. You are asked to upload another one, and the application stays saved in your account.
The same certificate, without the paperwork
A National Police Check draws on the same national database wherever you apply. What changes is how much of your week it takes.
The paper route
Forms, post and phone callsWith IDV Pacific
Online, end to endSearch the ASIC registers from the same account
Company, business and personal register extracts drawn from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, alongside your police checks.
Which ASIC is this? On this page ASIC means the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Australia’s corporate, markets and financial services regulator. It is not the Aviation Security Identification Card, which is a separate aviation scheme.
Company Extract
Enter an ABN or other identifiers to receive an extract with comprehensive information about the corresponding organisation, including status, address, directors, shareholders, capital, charges and attached documents.
Personal Name Extract
Personal and business details about the selected individual, including birth date and place.
Relational Company Extract
Enter an ABN or other identifiers to receive details about an organisation’s relationship with other organisations, including their current status, and past and present shares or interests.
Document Image
Enter a document ID to receive an imaged copy of that particular document lodged with ASIC.
Banned and Disqualified Registers Extract
Information about an individual prohibited from managing a company under the Corporations Act, along with the details of the ban.
Business Name Extract
Current and historical details matching the business searched, including registration details, business type, principal place of business, registered proprietors and any related documents.
Built for organisations checking more than one person
Employers, volunteer organisations, recruiters and labour hire agencies can hold a business account and order checks on behalf of their people, with that person’s permission.
- Order employment or volunteer checks on behalf of a candidate, employee or volunteer.
- One account for multiple or frequent checks, with every result kept together.
- The same certificate and the same national database as an individual application.
- ASIC register extracts run from the same account as your checks.
Checking at real volume? Verification can be wired into your own HR or onboarding system. See APIs and batch processing.
Aged care and disability support
High-trust roles in people’s homes and residential settings, with regular re-checking as staff move between providers.
Education and student placements
Universities and training providers clearing cohorts of students before a placement starts, often against a fixed intake date.
Sport and community volunteering
Clubs and community organisations clearing coaches, committee members and helpers, usually in a rush before a season opens.
Labour hire and recruitment
Agencies placing candidates continuously, where a check is one step in a wider onboarding flow rather than a one-off.
Where the result goes, and what we keep
A police check is sensitive information. Here is what happens to the certificate once it is issued.
Emailed as a PDF
The certificate arrives by email as a PDF, so you can print it or send it straight to the employer or organisation that asked for it.
Kept in your account
A copy of every certificate stays in your IDV Pacific account, along with any application still in progress, so nothing has to be re-done.
Verifiable by the recipient
An employer or organisation can confirm that a certificate is genuine through our online verification tool, rather than trusting a forwarded file.
No stored card details
Payment is taken upfront so an application can be saved and resumed. Credit card details are not kept or saved in our system.
Permission before ordering
An organisation ordering on someone else’s behalf must have that person’s permission first. A check is never run on a person without it.
State and territory rules apply
What can be disclosed depends on the purpose of the check and the relevant spent conviction legislation in each state and territory.
Police and ASIC checks, answered
Any individual who needs to provide a police clearance to a current or future employer, or for an unpaid position. An employer or organisation can also order a check on behalf of a current or prospective employee or volunteer, as long as they have that person’s permission. Business accounts are available where checks are processed regularly.
Processing times vary and depend on whether your details have a potential match in the National Police History database. Around 70% of applications complete within a matter of minutes. The remaining 30% require manual review and can take several business days.
The certificate displays your full name, date of birth, the purpose of the check, and whether any disclosable court outcomes are recorded against your name. Disclosable court outcomes can include court appearances, pending court cases, findings of guilt in any court with or without conviction, and good behaviour bonds or other court orders.
The disclosable information varies with the purpose of the check and the relevant spent conviction legislation in each state and territory.
Both return a National Police Check certificate from the same national database. The difference is the purpose you nominate when you apply. An employment check is for paid work. A volunteer check is for an unpaid position, such as a student placement or coaching a local sporting team. The purpose affects what can be disclosed, so nominate it accurately.
No. A working with children check is issued separately by each state and territory under its own scheme, and a National Police Check does not replace it. Many roles require both. A police check is also not a right to work check: visa entitlement is a separate lookup, which is what Australian Visa Checks covers.
Four selected ID documents, plus a selfie of yourself holding one of your photo ID documents at head height. A guide and calculator built into the application form shows which documents you can upload and which combinations are accepted, so you do not have to work it out beforehand.
Usually because part of the document or the face is obscured. The photo needs to be a clear, in-focus JPEG on a light background, showing head and shoulders, with your hand visible holding the photo ID at head height. Hats, sunglasses, shadows, glare and reflections all cause rejections. A rejected selfie does not fail the application: you are asked to upload another one and the application stays saved in your account.
The certificate is issued as a PDF and can be checked through our online verification tool, so an employer or organisation does not have to take a forwarded document on trust.
ASIC here is the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Australia’s corporate, markets and financial services regulator. The extracts on this page come from the ASIC registers: company, business name, personal name, relational company, document image, and the banned and disqualified registers.
It is not the Aviation Security Identification Card, which is a separate aviation security scheme and is not covered here.
Tell us what you need to check
Whether it is a single police check or a business account for a whole team, tell us the requirement and we will come back with pricing and the next steps.
- Employment and volunteer National Police Checks
- ASIC company, business name and personal name extracts
- Business accounts for multiple or frequent checks
- Australian based team, Monday to Friday
Police check results are drawn from the National Police History database. What can be disclosed depends on the purpose of the check and the relevant spent conviction legislation in each state and territory. ASIC extracts are sourced from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission registers.