DTV readiness
Your DTV police clearance certificate
A Thai DTV application is expected to include a police clearance certificate. Which authority issues yours depends on your nationality and where you have lived — it is not the same body for everyone. Whoever issues it, it is the one document you cannot produce on the day, because a police authority works to its own timetable. Start it before anything else in your application.
- Who issues it
- A police authority in your country of nationality or residence — not VisaOS, and not the Thai embassy
- In the UK
- The ACRO Criminal Records Office, which the Royal Thai Embassy in London names
- What it is called
- A Police Certificate — sometimes asked for as a “certificate of good conduct”
- Start it
- First. Before you gather anything else
- Who decides if it is accepted
- The Royal Thai Embassy or Consulate handling your application
AT A GLANCE
Why we ask
Why VisaOS asks you for this
Because the Thai Embassy or Consulate asks for it, and because asking you early is the only useful thing we can do about it.
The Royal Thai Embassy in London lists a police clearance certificate among the supporting documents for both DTV purposes — the workcation route and the Thai soft power-related activities route. It names the ACRO certificate as an example of what it accepts.
VisaOS does not issue it, cannot obtain it for you, and has no view on what it will say. What we can do is tell you it exists before you spend a fortnight assembling everything else.
Which document
Which certificate applies to you
This depends on where you hold nationality and where you have lived — not on where you happen to be right now. Two different processes get confused with each other constantly.
You are applying through the UK
The certificate you need from the UK is an ACRO Police Certificate, issued by the ACRO Criminal Records Office. This is the document the Royal Thai Embassy in London names. It is a different thing from a DBS check, which is for employment and volunteering inside the UK and is not what an embassy is asking for.
A DBS check is a different document, issued for a different purpose. The London embassy names the ACRO certificate.
You are a national of another country, or have lived in one
You may also need a certificate from that country’s own police authority. The Home Office publishes a country-by-country index of how to obtain one, split across three pages by first letter. It is written for people applying to come to the UK, but it is the clearest public list of which authority issues what, and where.
Read it as a directory of issuing authorities, not as a statement of what Thailand requires.
You are unsure which Embassy or Consulate covers you
Which Royal Thai Embassy or Consulate handles your application follows your nationality or your legal residence. That also determines whose document list applies to you, because they differ. Confirm with the Embassy or Consulate that covers you before you order anything.
Being physically present in a country is not the same as being resident in it.
The Home Office country index. Find the authority for a country by its first letter — A to F, G to P, Q to Z.
Applying from the UK?
The UK pathway: what ACRO issues, and how to ask for it
This section is one country worked through as an example. ACRO is the UK police body that issues certificates to people who have been asked for one by an embassy, high commission or consulate. Everything in this section is ACRO’s own published position — confirm the current detail with them before you rely on it.
What it contains. Your conviction history as held on police central records, including both spent and unspent convictions. It is a record, not an assessment — nobody is judging your application at this stage.
How to apply. Online is the fastest route. ACRO also runs a postal service, and applicants in a specific listed set of countries must use the postal route and pay by bank transfer.
How long it takes. ACRO publishes a standard service of up to 12 working days, and a premium service of four working days. Working days exclude weekends and UK bank holidays, and neither figure counts the days of receipt or dispatch.
What it costs. ACRO publishes a premium application fee of £95, with additional copies charged separately. Check the current fee on ACRO’s own page before you apply — fees change and ours is not the authoritative copy.
How long it stays valid. ACRO does not set that. It says plainly that the requesting authority does, that the periods it sees range from one month to a year, and that it is the applicant’s responsibility to check. For a DTV application through London, the embassy publishes a six-month window from the date of issue to the date you submit.
ACRO operates this process, not VisaOS. Apply directly at acro.police.uk, and confirm the current fees, service levels and requirements there.
Sequencing
Why to start this first
The certificate has a beginning and an end, and both matter. Order it too late and your application waits; order it far too early and it may fall outside the window the Embassy or Consulate accepts.
01 Order the certificate as soon as you decide to apply. It is the only part of the application that runs on someone else’s clock.
02 While you wait, prepare everything else — the financial evidence, the documents for your qualifying route, your passport. None of that depends on the certificate arriving.
03 When it arrives, check the issue date. The London embassy expects a certificate issued within six months of the date you submit, so the clock starts the moment it is issued, not the moment you order it.
04 Submit while the certificate is comfortably inside that window rather than at the edge of it.
If you are ordering certificates from more than one country, order them all at the same time. They will not arrive together, and the earliest one is the one that expires first.
In VisaOS
What to upload once it arrives
Upload the certificate exactly as the authority issued it.
The full document, every page, as the PDF or scan you received — not a photograph of a screen and not a cropped extract.
Keep the original file. A re-saved or re-compressed copy can lose the features an Embassy or Consulate uses to check a document is genuine.
If you hold certificates from more than one country, upload each one separately rather than combining them into a single file.
What VisaOS does and does not decide. VisaOS files the document into your application and checks that something is present where the Embassy or Consulate expects it. It does not verify your certificate, does not assess what it contains, and does not decide anything about your application. That decision belongs to the Royal Thai Embassy or Consulate, and to nobody else.
Sourcing
Where this page comes from
Written against the issuing authority and the Royal Thai Embassy that covers the United Kingdom, and explained in our own words rather than copied from them. Requirements are set by those authorities and can change.
What this guide will not do
- Decide whether you are eligible.
- Recommend a strategy for getting approved.
- Promise that a route fits, or that an application will succeed.
- Choose on your behalf.
- Ask for your name, your documents or your financial details.
- Save anything you read or click here.
It is a guide. The Thai authorities set the requirements, and the embassy or consulate handling your application decides what it needs from you.
Official sources last reviewed 31 August 2026. Requirements may vary by embassy or consulate. Confirm current requirements before submitting. Embassies and Consulates differ in what they ask for. Confirm the current requirements with the Royal Thai Embassy or Consulate handling your application, and the current process with ACRO, before you rely on anything here.
ACRO Criminal Records Office — Police CertificatesWhat a UK Police Certificate is, what it contains, how to apply, the service levels, and ACRO’s own warning that validity periods are set by the requesting authority.
Royal Thai Embassy, London — Destination Thailand VisaThat a police clearance certificate is expected for both DTV purposes, that the ACRO certificate is named as an accepted example, the six-month issue window, and the proof-of-residence expectation for applications made through London.
GOV.UK — Criminal records checks for overseas applicantsThe country-by-country index of overseas issuing authorities, used by applicants who are not UK nationals or who have lived outside the UK.
GOV.UK — Get a copy of your police recordsThe official UK entry point for obtaining a record of your own police information.
Start the certificate today
Most of a DTV application can be prepared quickly once your documents are to hand. This one cannot. If you do nothing else after reading this page, order the certificate.
VisaOS prepares your application. The Royal Thai Embassy or Consulate decides it.