I Lost My ACRO Certificate: What Now? FAQ

Lost your ACRO police certificate? ACRO does not issue duplicates: how to apply again.

Published September 16, 2026 13 min read

Lost your ACRO police certificate: the short answer

The short answer is uncomfortable but simple: ACRO does not issue duplicates. If a police certificate has been lost, damaged or thrown out by mistake, the only way to get another one is to submit a completely new application. There is no “reprint” option, no archive copy and no way to reactivate the old certificate.

You already know the process, and if you kept the paperwork from last time, most of the form fills itself in. The rest of this page walks through what the certificate is and how to reapply.

What an ACRO police certificate is

A police certificate is an official document that lists disclosable convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings held for you on UK police records. It is aimed at visa, immigration and residency applications, and people often refer to it simply as an “ACRO certificate” or a “criminal record check for a visa”. For most applicants the certificate is a one-page document, and a clean result is completely normal.

One point worth knowing before you panic about the lost copy: if your original certificate said No Trace or No Live Trace, that was still a full, valid certificate. It simply confirmed that nothing disclosable was found, which is the outcome the vast majority of applicants get.

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How to apply for a police certificate

You apply online through the ACRO website. The form asks for your personal details, a history of your addresses, information about any previous names, and scans of your identification documents. ACRO then processes the application and posts the printed certificate to you.

The application is made per person, so a family of four needs four separate applications. Nothing about a lost certificate changes this process: a replacement application looks exactly the same as the original one, and ACRO treats it as a fresh request rather than a follow-up.

What the certificate contains

A police certificate shows your personal details together with record information drawn from the Police National Computer, the database that holds conviction and penalty data from UK police forces. Depending on what is held, the certificate will either disclose specific convictions, cautions, reprimands or warnings, or it will carry one of two “clean” outcomes.

No Trace means no records were found for you at all. No Live Trace means records exist on the system, but none of them are live or disclosable, for example older entries that no longer appear. Both outcomes are positive results for visa purposes, and embassies treat them as evidence of a clean record. If you cannot remember which wording your lost certificate carried, do not guess: the new certificate will state it accurately, and your own memory is not part of the visa file.

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Where the certificate is sent

ACRO posts the printed certificate to the delivery address you give in the application, and that address can be overseas. This matters a great deal if you lost the certificate while living abroad, because it means you do not need a UK address or a helpful relative to receive the replacement: the new certificate can come directly to you.

Give some thought to the delivery address before you submit. Choose somewhere signed-for post definitely reaches you, and scan or photograph the certificate the day it arrives so that a lost paper document never leaves you starting from zero again.

Countries that require a police certificate

Police certificates issued by ACRO are commonly required for visa applications to Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Cayman Islands, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States. The list is not exhaustive, and each country sets its own rules on how fresh the certificate must be and whether it needs legalisation.

Because requirements differ, the embassy or immigration department of your destination country is the only reliable source for two things: the freshness window and the legalisation rule. Check both before you pay for a replacement, because they determine whether the certificate needs an apostille.

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Lost the certificate abroad: a worked scenario

Situation. You applied for your police certificate while living in the UK, moved to Canada for a job, and now the Canadian immigration authority asks for the certificate. The paper copy is somewhere in a shipping box you cannot find.

Steps. First, confirm the freshness window with the Canadian authority. Second, submit a new application on the ACRO website from abroad, using your current overseas address as the delivery address. Third, while the application is being processed, check whether Canada wants the certificate apostilled, and if so, plan for the paper apostille route described below.

Result. A new police certificate arrives at your overseas address, issued as a fresh document with a current date. The lost original is irrelevant: nobody asks you to explain where it went, and the new certificate fully replaces it in the visa file.

Records from other organisations

Not everything sits with ACRO, and it helps to know which document belongs to which situation. A DBS check covers employment in the UK, such as work with children or vulnerable adults, and immigration authorities do not accept it in place of a police certificate. Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own disclosure arrangements, and court records or records held by other public bodies may sit outside the Police National Computer entirely.

There is also the International Child Protection Certificate (ICPC), which is issued by ACRO and is aimed at people working with children overseas. And if you simply want to see what information ACRO holds about you, that is a Subject Access Request (SAR), which is covered in more detail below. The key point: each of these documents has its own purpose, and losing one does not give you access to the others.

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Information needed to apply

The application form asks for the same core information every time: your full name and any previous names, your date of birth, passport details, your address history for the last ten years, and scans of your identification documents. You also need an email address for correspondence.

This is the checklist worth working through before you start:

• The passport you used in the previous application, or its number and dates if the document itself has changed.

• Your full address history for the last ten years, including postcodes, which is the field most people stumble over.

• Any previous names, maiden names or aliases you declared last time.

• The acknowledgment email from your first application, or a scan or photocopy of the lost certificate if one exists, since it shows exactly what you submitted before.

• A working email address and a payment card.

ACRO police certificate vs Subject Access Request

A Subject Access Request (SAR) is a formal request, made under UK data protection law, asking ACRO what personal records it holds about you. It is a way of seeing your own data. It is not a visa document, and immigration authorities will not accept it in place of a police certificate, no matter how similar the contents look.

If your goal is a replacement for a lost certificate, the SAR route is a dead end: you would receive information about your records, but not the document your embassy wants. Order a new police certificate, and use a SAR only if you genuinely need to inspect what is held about you, for example because you suspect an error in your record.

Who issues the certificate

The ACRO Criminal Records Office is the national body that issues police certificates for visa and immigration purposes, along with the International Child Protection Certificate mentioned above. It pulls the record information from the Police National Computer, which holds conviction and penalty data contributed by police forces across the UK.

This centralised setup is actually good news for someone reapplying from abroad: there is one issuing body and one application route, rather than a patchwork of local police forces each with their own process. Whatever went wrong with your paper copy, the system that produced it still works the same way.

Applying on behalf of another person

Yes, you can apply for a police certificate on someone else’s behalf, which is a common arrangement for adult children helping elderly parents, or for partners handling paperwork from different countries. The application needs a letter of authorisation signed by the applicant, together with their identification documents and personal details.

The letter of authorisation should clearly identify both the applicant and the person submitting the application, and state that the applicant consents to the application being made on their behalf. If you are helping someone who has also lost their certificate, the same reapplication rules apply: a fresh application, and the certificate posted to whatever address the applicant chooses.

Apostille or consular legalisation: decide before you reapply

Some countries want the police certificate legalised before they accept it, either with an apostille issued by the FCDO or through consular legalisation at the destination country’s embassy. Whether you need either one depends entirely on the destination country, so this is a question for the embassy, not for ACRO.

There is one detail that catches people out: the electronic apostille route is not available for ACRO police certificates, according to gov.uk, so the paper apostille process applies. The sensible order of operations: check the embassy’s requirement first, and only pay for legalisation if it is actually required, because plenty of destinations accept the certificate exactly as ACRO issued it.

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

It is an official document listing disclosable convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings held on UK police records. It is issued by the ACRO Criminal Records Office and is used mainly for visa, immigration and residency applications.

No. ACRO does not issue duplicates or certified copies of a lost police certificate. The only way to get another one is to submit a new application.

An ACRO police certificate is designed for visa and immigration purposes abroad. A DBS check is for employment in the UK, such as work with children or vulnerable adults, and immigration authorities generally do not accept it as a visa document.

Yes, in most cases you can, provided you include a letter of authorisation signed by the applicant together with their identification documents and personal details.

Some countries require an apostille or consular legalisation, others accept the certificate as issued. Check the requirement with the relevant embassy first, and note that the electronic apostille route is not available for ACRO police certificates.

A subject access request is a formal request, made under UK data protection law, asking an organisation such as ACRO what personal records it holds about you. It is a way of seeing your data, not a visa document.

Confirm the current arrangements directly with ACRO before submitting one, and remember it cannot replace a lost police certificate for visa purposes.

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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