Health and Care Worker visa: Ukrainian police certificate requirements

Which police certificate a Health and Care Worker visa applicant needs, how the Ukrainian extract works, and where apostille legalisation fits in.

Apostilla UK is a private documentation-support company, not a government body. We do not issue police certificates, apostilles or visas on behalf of any state, and nothing on this page is an official decision on your case.

What the page does instead is practical: it lines up the rules that matter when a Health and Care Worker visa applicant needs a Ukrainian police certificate, and shows where an apostille fits into the picture. Every fact below comes from gov.uk guidance and the published data of the issuing authorities, checked in September 2026.

When a Ukrainian police certificate is needed

The Health and Care Worker visa does not automatically require a criminal record check from every applicant. What triggers the requirement is the Home Office guidance on criminal records checks for overseas applicants: if a caseworker needs overseas criminality information, the application for that check is made in the country of origin, or at the relevant embassy in the UK. For Ukrainian applicants that means dealing with the Ukrainian authorities, not with a UK counter.

In Ukraine the certificate of absence (or presence) of a criminal record is issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The request goes through the ministry’s electronic service, and you sign in with a qualified electronic signature. Service centres of the ministry do not hand out paper certificates, so planning around a paper original needs extra thought.

On the UK side the picture is different. A DBS check covers England and Wales, and standard or enhanced checks are only available through registered bodies, not to individuals. An ACRO Police Certificate serves specific visa routes for other countries. Mixing up these three documents is the most common error we come across, and the Ukrainian police certificate hub walks through the differences in detail.

How it works?

An Apostille is a certificate under the Hague Apostille Convention confirming that a public document is genuine. In the UK, only the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office can issue one. The work is done by the Legalisation Office, which checks the signature, stamp or seal on the document and attaches the Apostille stamp.

Two boundaries matter here. First, documents issued outside the UK cannot be legalised through the UK service: a Ukrainian extract gets its apostille in Ukraine. Second, the e-Apostille route, where a document is uploaded as a PDF signed electronically by a UK notary or solicitor, is not open to everything. According to gov.uk, registry certificates and police certificates, including ACRO Police Certificates and DBS certificates in England and Wales, are excluded from it.

Which documents the Legalisation Office accepts

Before paying for anything, it helps to know what the Legalisation Office can actually process. Per gov.uk, legalisation applies to documents issued by a court with a wet seal, by a public registry such as UK birth certificate, UK marriage certificate or UK death certificate records and Companies House certificates, and by a government department bearing the signature of an official. If your paper falls into one of these groups, the standard route works without extra steps.

Everything else sits in a second group. A power of attorney, a contract, a qualification certificate or a copy of a passport can be legalised only if it has been certified by a UK public official, which in practice means a notary or a solicitor. This detail catches people out: a plain photocopy of a passport, however carefully made, will not pass on its own. The notary or solicitor certifies the copy first, and only then does the Legalisation Office attach the apostille.

Which countries accept an apostilled document?

Every country that joined the Hague Apostille Convention accepts the Apostille stamp as full legalisation, with no further steps. That covers most of Europe and a long list of other jurisdictions, which is why the apostille has become the default for cross-border paperwork.

Countries outside the Convention play by different rules. There, an Embassy attestation is the usual route: the document is authenticated step by step, often ending with the destination country’s embassy. If your destination is not a Convention member, ask the requesting body exactly which chain of attestations they expect before you start, because the order is hard to reverse once begun.

What happens if my document is rejected by the FCDO?

Rejection at the Legalisation Office means one thing: the signature, stamp or seal on the document could not be matched against what the office holds. The document comes back with an explanation rather than an apostille. You get the document reissued with a recognisable signature and apply again.

For questions, the Legalisation Office can be reached on +44 20 4623 3100, with a fax line at +44 1908 716 911. Before you resubmit anything, run the check that gov.uk offers: an apostille issued in the UK, paper or electronic, can be verified online by its issue date and number.

Ukrainian police certificate hub

This page is one branch of a bigger topic. The Ukrainian police certificate hub gathers the full picture: how to request the extract, what the electronic service covers, how legalisation works from the Ukrainian side, and how the result is used for UK purposes. If your situation involves more than one document, start there and come back to the sections above.

Step by step: the logic of the process

The checklist above gives you the sequence in compact form, so here is the reasoning behind it. You start by confirming which certificate your specific route actually asks for. Then you order the extract from the Ministry of Internal Affairs through its electronic service, since that is the only channel the ministry offers.

Legalisation happens next, in the country that issued the document. Only after that does a certified translation make sense, because translating a document that later gets rejected means paying twice. Verification closes the loop: an online check of the apostille’s date and number confirms the certificate is ready for submission.

Typical mistakes and how to avoid them

The pattern of errors repeats so often that it deserves its own list:

• Ordering an e-Apostille for an ACRO Police Certificate or a DBS certificate. These are explicitly excluded from the electronic route, so the application stalls.

• Sending a Ukrainian document to the Legalisation Office in the UK. Documents issued outside the UK are legalised in the country that issued them, full stop.

• Expecting a paper certificate from a Ukrainian service centre. The ministry’s own guidance says service centres do not issue paper certificates.

• Submitting an uncertified copy of a passport or a qualification certificate. Without certification by a UK notary or solicitor, the Legalisation Office has nothing to apostille.

• Skipping the certified translation when the requesting body works in English.

• Assuming the legalised document can simply be posted to Ukraine. According to gov.uk, return of legalised documents to Ukraine by this route is currently not possible, which changes how you need to plan delivery.

A typical scenario

Situation: a care worker already in the UK is asked for evidence of no criminal record from their time in Ukraine, and the employer also wants a UK-issued qualification certificate legalised.

Steps: the applicant requests the Ukrainian extract through the ministry’s electronic service using a qualified electronic signature, and has it legalised in Ukraine. For the UK qualification certificate, they apply to the Legalisation Office online, paying by card, and choose courier return. Where an English version of the Ukrainian extract is needed, a certified translation is ordered once the legalised original exists.

Result: two documents, two different legalisation paths, both complete without a single rejected application, because the country-of-issue rule was respected from the start.

Where to go next

Rules around police certificates and legalisation shift more often than most visa paperwork. Check the current guidance on gov.uk before every application, keep the contact number for the Legalisation Office handy, and treat the Ukrainian police certificate hub as your reference point for the Ukrainian side of the process. A document prepared in the right order, for the right authority, rarely comes back with questions.

See also

• UK Family Visa: Ukrainian Police Certificate Requirements

• Homes for Ukraine: when you need a police certificate and how to get one

• Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR): Ukrainian Police Certificate

• Ukrainian Police Certificate for UK Spouse Visa: Requirements and How to Get One

• Ukrainian Police Clearance Certificate for a UK Student Visa

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

The Legalisation Office, part of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, checks the signature, stamp or seal on a UK document and attaches an apostille stamp that confirms the document is genuine for use abroad.

Countries that joined the Hague Apostille Convention accept the apostille stamp instead of further legalisation. For countries outside the Convention, an embassy attestation is required instead.

The Legalisation Office returns the document with an explanation, most often because a signature or stamp could not be matched. You fix the underlying issue, for example by reissuing the document, and apply again. The office can be reached on +44 20 4623 3100.

Apostilla UK is a private documentation-support company, not a government body. We help you prepare documents, translations and applications, but we do not issue apostilles, police certificates or any other documents on behalf of a state.

An apostille is a certificate issued under the Hague Apostille Convention that confirms the origin of a public document, so another member country accepts it without extra legalisation steps.

Step by step

• Confirm which certificate your route asks for — check the Home Office guidance for your visa category: some routes ask for overseas criminality information, others rely on a UK-side DBS check.

• Order the Ukrainian extract through the electronic service — the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine issues the extract with a qualified electronic signature; service centres do not issue paper certificates.

• Legalise the document in the country that issued it — a Ukrainian document is legalised in Ukraine; UK-issued documents are legalised by the Legalisation Office of the FCDO.

• Arrange a certified translation if needed — if the employer or the caseworker needs the document in English, order a certified translation from a qualified translator.

• Verify the apostille before submission — an apostille issued in the UK, paper or electronic, can be checked online by its issue date and number.

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 embassy legalisation.

Official sources

Rules are checked against official sources.