This Guide is about how foreign nationals obtain a Certificate of No Criminal Record in Beijing, China. The certificate is also known as a police certificate/check/clearance in other countries.
This guide was updated after Beijing police authorities issued the Implementation Rules for Handling Criminal Record Checks by Beijing Public Security Bureau on March 25, 2022.
Foreign nationals may need to obtain a Certificate of No Criminal Record in China for a variety of reasons including immigration, employment, etc. Typically, a Certificate of No Criminal Record is not acceptable for these purposes until it is notarized by a local notary office in China. (In some cases, it also needs to be authenticated by the embassy representing the country where the certificate is to be used. For more information about that process, please check our authentication guide.) And it is for this reason that our guide below has two steps, namely “STEP 1: Application for Certificate of No Criminal Record” and “STEP 2: Notarization of Certificate of No Criminal Record”.
STEP 1: Application for Certificate of No Criminal Record
WHERE TO APPLY?
You can apply for a Certificate of No Criminal Record at one of the district branch offices of the exit and entry administration of Beijing Public Security Bureau (PSB). For contact information of the exit and entry administration branch office in each district of Beijing, please visit China’s National Immigration Administration (NIC) and select “Beijing”.
WHO ARE ELIGIBLE?
- Have had residence permits issued from Beijing.
- Have lived in Beijing for 180 days or longer.
REQUIRED DOCUMENTS?
- Original passport(s). (If you are unable to provide your original passports, please consult with the exit and entry branch office in your district. In our experience, exceptions to this requirement are rare.)
- Temporary Residence Registration Forms (Optional)
- Power of attorney, if applicable.
PROCESSING TIME?
1 to 3 working days.
SAMPLE CERTIFICATE OF NO CRIMINAL RECORD
STEP 2: Notarization of Certificate of No Criminal Record
WHERE TO APPLY?
After you get the Certificate of No Criminal Record from the police, you need to submit the certificate to a local notary office for notarization and translation. There are multiple notary offices in Beijing that are licensed to notarize Certificates of No Criminal Record for use abroad. Beijing Fangyuan Notary Public Office is one of the most experienced notary offices in the city. For contact information of all the notary offices in Beijing, please visit 12348 Beijing Public Legal Service Website.
REQUIRED DOCUMENTS?
- Passport(s)
- Certificate of No Criminal Record
- Power of attorney, if applicable.
PROCESSING TIME?
1 to 2 weeks.
SAMPLE NOTARIAL CERTIFICATE OF NO CRIMINAL RECORD
All notary offices across China issue Notarial Certificates of No Criminal Record in the same format. Please take a look at our article, What a Certificate of No Criminal Record Should Look Like.
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I want to ask whether I am eligible for obtaining police certificate in Beijing or not. I got scholarship for one year Chinese Language, from September 2018 to July 2019, but in winter vacation from 1st February to 3rd March I visited my home country .so Am I eligible for this certificate or not ?
Please guide me
Hi Erum. The fact that you exited from China in Feb. and re-entered in March is irrelevant to your China police certificate application in Beijing. The Beijing rules require that an applicant live in Beijing for a continuous period of 6 months or more, but Beijing authorities determine the period of your residence based on Temporary Residence Registration Forms (TRRFs). If a foreign national has a residence permit issued in Beijing, his TRRFs typically cover a period longer than 6 months. So, we cannot know for sure whether you are eligible for applying for a police certificate because we do not know how long your TRRFs cover.
Hello Zhang . Thank you so much for your response. I am really sorry for late response as I have just seen your reply. My residence permit issued in Beijing was from October 2018 to July 2019. I would really appreciate if you can guide me in this regard.
Hi Erum. Since you had a Beijing residence permit, you should be able to apply for a police certificate. Just follow our guide to file the application in Beijing. If you are interested in using our service, please click here to complete a request-a-quote form.
Hello Pete,
I am applying for immigration for Canada and they require Police certificates for all countries when I lived for at least 6 consecutive months. I did two exchange semesters in China during the same year. I first studied for 5 months in Beijing, then left china and went home for about 1,5 month and then entered china again to study for 5 months in Shanghai. Do you think a police certificate is required in this case? Because I read in this article that Beijing would only allow people to apply if they spent more than 6 months in the city.
Hi Emma. Did you hold any residence permit while studying in China? If not, neither Beijing nor Shanghai police would issue you a police certificate according to the current rules. I cannot answer the other question relevant to Canadian immigration as I have not had clients in the same situation.
I lived in beijing for 3 years but have now moved to Shenzhen. Will i need to return to Beijing to get my police check for my time there?
Thanks for leaving a comment. You can either return to Beijing in person or appoint another person to file the application for your police check.
I am applying for immigration for Australia and they require Police certificates for all countries when I lived for at least 6 consecutive months.i lived in beijing for 2 years so they require criminal certificate how did i get that and do i have to authentificate from embassy?
Hi Maliya. You can obtain a China police certificate in Beijing by either visiting the police office in person or appointing a third-party representative. You will not need to do document authentication.
Hello Pete,
I am applying for immigration for U.S. and they require Police certificates. I studied in Beijing as a foreign student in 2007-2009. I returned home every vacation and never stayed for more than six months at a time. 5 months study – 1,5 months at home. 4 semesters. Do you think a police certificate is required in this case?
Hi Make. Thanks for your comment. It is not required to stay 180 days at one time. If you held a Beijing residence permit for study, you should be able to apply for a police certificate.
But I don’t even remember if I had a permit. But I remember that I had several visas in my expired passport.
Residence permit is a visa-like stamp in your passport.
Hello Pete,
I am applying for Canadian PR and would need to get No criminal record for my stay in Beijing , China .
I entered Beijing on July 22 nd 2006 on category F visa and continued staying in Beijing by moving to Category Z visa from Sep 15th 2006 (resident permit) and retuned to India my home country on 2nd November 2008.
My question is date duration I am expecting on my No criminal record is from 22nd July 2006 to 2nd November 2008, however one of my friend is saying that no criminal record date is usually beginning from when the resident permits starts so in my case no criminal records will state duration from Sep 15th 2006 to 2nd November 2008.
Please advise on what is accurate.
Sincerely,
Srigowri T K
Hi Srigowri,
You raised a good question. Recently, I’ve seen both. In some cases, Beijing police would issue a certificate covering the period when the applicant held an F visa. In other cases, Beijing police would issue a certificate covering from the date when the applicant’s residence permit was issued. According to the officers, the difference comes from whether the F visa period and residence permit period are “continous” based on the residence records shown in the police database. You can only find it out until you actually apply to Beijing police. So, the answer to your question is uncertain.
I stayed in beijing from 2015 to 2017. Now I am out of China.
I am applying for a police clearance certificate and they are asking for my original passport and Pakistan government is not allowing passports to be couriered.
Now my question is that is it possible to start the process without original passport hard copy. Will the scan work or not?
I have the passport in hand and it is expired with all china visas stamped on it.
I am confused.
Hi Yaqoob, thanks for your message. Unfortunately, under the current rules in Beijing you have to send original passports to apply for a police certificate. If you renewed your passport, send both current and old passports.