ACRO Certificate for a Child Under 18: FAQ

Parent’s guide to the ACRO Police Certificate for under-18s: who applies, apostille, notary and embassy legalisation.

If a visa application for your child asks for a UK police certificate, in most cases it means the ACRO Police Certificate. This page answers the questions parents actually type into a search bar: who applies for someone under 18, what the certificate shows, and when you need an apostille, a notary or embassy legalisation.

What an ACRO Police Certificate is and who issues it

An ACRO Police Certificate is an official document that lists convictions, cautions, warnings and reprimands a person has in UK police records. For visa and immigration purposes it is issued by the ACRO Criminal Records Office, the national unit responsible for criminal record checks intended for use abroad. Children are not exempt: some destination countries request this certificate for applicants of any age, including toddlers.

One practical detail matters straight away. ACRO police certificates are not eligible for the electronic apostille service (per gov.uk legalisation guidance), so everything downstream, from the apostille to embassy legalisation, works with the paper original. Plan for postal time in your visa timeline.

Which countries require a police certificate

An ACRO Police Certificate is required for visas to Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Cayman Islands, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA. The list is a useful starting point, not a complete rulebook: each country sets its own requirements, and they change.

Age rules differ too. Some countries waive the requirement for very young children, others want a certificate from birth, and a few only ask once the applicant passes a certain age. Before you pay for anything, check the exact checklist published by the destination country’s immigration authority or embassy, because the requirement, and the legalisation format, is defined there.

What the certificate shows: No Trace and No Live Trace

An ACRO Police Certificate has two possible “clean” outcomes, and parents often confuse them. No Trace means ACRO holds no records matching the applicant at all. No Live Trace means there is some information on file, but nothing that counts as a live matter, for example records that are spent or otherwise closed.

For a child who was born and raised in the UK, No Trace is the typical result. No Live Trace appears more often with teenagers who had an early contact with the police that has since expired. Neither phrase means the child “has a criminal record”; both are normally acceptable to visa authorities, but the wording can prompt questions, which is why the second phrase matters later in this page.

Applying for a child under 18: who signs and what you need

The mechanics are simpler than most parents fear. A parent or guardian with parental responsibility completes the application on the child’s behalf; the child does not sign. The authority to apply comes from parental responsibility itself, not from a separate power of attorney. You will need the child’s own passport details, the addresses where the child has lived in the UK, and the parent’s contact details for correspondence.

The flow looks like this:

• Gather the child’s passport and the full list of UK addresses with dates.

• Complete ACRO’s online application in the child’s name, with yourself as the applicant acting for a minor.

• Keep the payment confirmation: it carries your reference for any follow-up.

• Receive the paper certificate by post and check every detail of the child’s name, date of birth and address history the day it arrives.

If you use a third-party service to handle the paperwork later, for example a legalisation agent in London, that is where a power of attorney typically enters the picture: agents acting for you at the FCDO or an embassy may ask for one. For the ACRO application itself, it is not required.

Case: a family applying from outside the UK

Situation: a family moved from Manchester to Toronto two years ago and now needs a certificate for their 14-year-old’s visa file. Steps: the mother collects the child’s UK passport, lists three previous addresses with dates, completes ACRO’s online form stating she applies for a minor, pays, and arranges delivery to a Canadian address. Result: the paper certificate arrives by post, showing No Trace, and the family can move on to the apostille stage. The lesson: living abroad does not block the application, it just makes the postal leg longer, so build that into your visa deadline.

Police certificate or Subject Access Request (SAR)?

These two documents get mixed up constantly. A Subject Access Request (SAR) is a data protection tool: it lets you see what information UK police hold about you. It is meant for your own awareness. Foreign immigration authorities generally do not accept it as a visa document, because it was not designed for that purpose and its format differs.

The ACRO Police Certificate is the opposite: a document built specifically for visa and immigration use abroad, in a format embassies recognise. If someone online tells you to “just do a SAR”, they are solving a different problem.

Subject access and deletion requests

The subject access service still has a role in family cases: it shows you exactly what is on file before you order the certificate, which is useful if you suspect an old record might surface. Separately, there are requests for deletion: you can ask ACRO to review and delete certain records, for example out-of-date outcomes, and the person themselves, or a parent acting for a child, can make that request. ACRO assesses each case on its own merits, and deletion is not automatic. Other countries formalise this differently; in the Netherlands, for instance, a decision on a Certificate of Conduct can be challenged through an objection under the Algemene wet bestuursrecht, the General Administrative Law Act.

ICPC or ACRO Police Certificate: which one does your child need

There is a second ACRO document that concerns children. The International Child Protection Certificate (ICPC) is also issued by ACRO, but it serves a different purpose: it is designed for people who will work or volunteer with children abroad.

The rule of thumb: if the certificate is about your child’s own visa, order the Police Certificate. If your teenager is being hired to look after other people’s children, the employer may ask for the ICPC. Some programmes ask for both, so read the request letter carefully before paying for either.

Apostille and FCDO legalisation

Most parents stop at the certificate and forget the legalisation layer, then discover it at the embassy counter. For countries that are party to the Hague Apostille Convention, an apostille attached by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is normally the complete legalisation: one stamp, one authority, done.

Two practical notes. First, because ACRO police certificates are excluded from the e-apostille route (per gov.uk legalisation guidance), you post the paper original to the FCDO and receive it back by post. Second, the apostille is attached to the original certificate, so order it only after you have checked the document for errors.

Notarising an ACRO certificate and embassy legalisation

Notarisation and legalisation are different things, and countries ask for them in different combinations. A notary certifies either a copy of the certificate or a translation of it. Legalisation, by apostille or by embassy, certifies the document’s origin for use abroad. When does an ACRO Certificate need to be notarised? Only when the destination authority explicitly asks for a notarised copy or a notarised translation; the notary’s stamp does not replace legalisation itself.

For countries outside the Hague Apostille Convention, the chain is longer: after the FCDO apostille, the destination country’s embassy in the UK performs its own legalisation. That final step is embassy legalisation, and it is where a power of attorney is most often needed if an agent handles the embassy queue for you.

A short checklist before you send the original anywhere:

• Ask the destination authority, in writing if possible, exactly what it requires: apostille only, apostille plus translation, notarised translation, or embassy legalisation.

• For Hague Apostille Convention countries, book the FCDO apostille of the paper original.

• For non-Convention countries, plan embassy legalisation after the apostille and check the embassy’s own booking rules.

• If a notarised translation is required, get it done after the apostille so the translator can certify the full legalised document.

If there is a mistake in your child’s details

Check the certificate the day it arrives. A misspelled name, a wrong date of birth or a missing address can trigger a visa refusal for inconsistency, and fixing it after submission is far more painful than fixing it before. If something is wrong, contact ACRO with documentary evidence, typically the child’s passport, and ask for a correction and reissue. Keep the reference number from your payment confirmation handy; it is the key to any follow-up. Do not laminate, staple or annotate the original while the matter is open.

Case: asking about No Live Trace versus No Trace

Situation: a 17-year-old’s certificate comes back marked No Live Trace because of a childhood outcome that has since expired. The visa adviser warns that the wording may prompt questions. Steps: the parent first requests the subject access file to see exactly what is held, then submits a deletion request to ACRO asking it to review the record, arguing it is out of date. If ACRO agrees and deletes it, a reissued certificate can show No Trace. Result: ACRO weighs every request individually, but the route exists, and knowing the difference between the two phrases is what makes the request possible in the first place.

If your child has lived in other countries

An ACRO Police Certificate covers UK records only. If your child has lived abroad, the destination country may also want a certificate from each of those countries, and those systems have their own rules about minors. In Austria, there are separate special certificates covering child and youth welfare (Kinder- und Jugendfürsorge), care and supervision (Pflege und Betreuung), or offences against the state. In Portugal, for a minor aged 16 or over, or for an incapacitated person, the application is made in person by ancestors, a guardian or a tutor, who confirms their status at the counter. The pattern to remember: every country has its own issuer, its own form and its own rules about who may apply for a child, so map them early.

Before you pay

Two checks save the most grief. Confirm the destination country’s exact document and legalisation requirements. And confirm whether the embassy wants the certificate legalised, because a bare certificate is rejected surprisingly often.

This page is for general information only and is not legal advice. Apostilles for UK public documents are issued exclusively by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) Legalisation Office; this site is not affiliated with any government body. Please consult a qualified professional before making decisions.

FAQ

ACRO is the ACRO Criminal Records Office, the UK body that issues Police Certificates for visa and immigration purposes, as well as the International Child Protection Certificate.

It shows convictions, cautions, warnings and reprimands held in UK police records, or one of two outcomes: No Trace when nothing is held, and No Live Trace when records exist but nothing is currently live.

You apply online through ACRO, and a parent or guardian applies on behalf of a child under 18.

Only when the destination authority specifically asks for a notarised copy or a notarised translation. A notary certifies a copy or a translation and does not replace an apostille or embassy legalisation.

For countries that are party to the Hague Apostille Convention, an apostille from the FCDO is normally the full legalisation. Countries outside the Convention generally want embassy legalisation on top of the apostille.

It is a certificate issued by ACRO for people who will work or volunteer with children abroad. A teenager taking a childcare, au pair or camp counsellor role may be asked for the ICPC rather than a standard Police Certificate.

A subject access request lets you see what information UK police hold about you. It is meant for your own awareness and is generally not accepted by foreign authorities as a visa document.

You can ask ACRO to review and delete certain records, for example old out-of-date outcomes. The person themselves can request this, and for a child a parent or guardian acts on their behalf.

Helpful guides

Which UK documents can be apostilled: certificates, degrees, company and court papers, e-Apostille rules, FCDO rejections and embassy attestation explained.

Which countries accept a UK apostille, which require embassy attestation, and country-by-country guides for UK documents used abroad.

Apostille meaning explained for UK documents: what the FCDO certificate looks like, which documents qualify, e-Apostille and when embassy legalisation.

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