How to Notarise a Working With Children Check in Australia

To notarise a Working With Children Check in Australia, a notary sights your original card or the screening agency's letter and certifies a copy, and DFAT adds an apostille or authentication if the overseas employer wants one. First confirm it is what the employer needs. Most overseas schools want a police check, with the clearance only as support.

Key takeaways

• A Working With Children clearance is not a police check. It is a state or territory clearance for child-related work, not a statement of criminal history.
• Most overseas employers want an AFP National Police Check as the core evidence. Ask which type before ordering.
• If your clearance is digital only, ask the screening agency for a letter confirming it. That letter is better evidence than a printout.
• A notary certifies the copy. A notary never confirms the clearance is current, has not been suspended, or anything about your history.
• For an overseas employer, a Justice of the Peace's certification is not recognised and cannot be apostilled.

Who asks for a notarised Working With Children Check?

People look into notarising their Working With Children Check when they are taking child-related work overseas. Common examples are teaching at an international school, volunteering with a charity, nannying or au pairing, and coaching. The overseas employer asks for evidence that the applicant has been screened in Australia, and the clearance is the document the applicant holds.

Before notarising it, find out whether it is what the employer actually wants. Often it is not, or not on its own.

Is a Working With Children Check a police check?

No. Each Australian state and territory runs its own screening scheme for people working with children, under its own legislation and often its own name. The result is a clearance to do child-related work in that state or territory, usually shown by a card or number that Australian employers verify online.

It is not a record of your criminal history. The screening agency does not issue a statement of what it found. It tells employers only whether you are cleared.

Overseas bodies generally need something different: a statement of criminal history they can read. That is normally an Australian Federal Police National Police Check, sometimes a fingerprint-based check, and it is a separate application. Many international schools and recruitment agencies ask for both. The police check is the core evidence, and the clearance is supporting evidence that you are already screened for this kind of work.

So ask the employer two questions before paying anyone.

1. Do you need a police check, and if so, which one? Name-based or fingerprint-based, and how recent.
2. Do you also want evidence of my Working With Children clearance, and in what form: a certified copy, an agency letter, or both?

If the employer wants only the police check, see criminal record checks for overseas use. The rest of this page is for when it wants the clearance too.

What is the scheme called in your state?

Overseas employers may not know that each Australian jurisdiction runs its own scheme. It helps to name yours accurately in your application, and to explain it is a state or territory clearance. The names below are the ones in common use; check the current name with your screening agency.

State or territory	Common name of the clearance
New South Wales	Working with Children Check
Victoria	Working with Children Check
Queensland	Blue card
Western Australia	Working with Children Check
South Australia	Working with Children Check
Tasmania	Registration to Work with Vulnerable People
Australian Capital Territory	Working with Vulnerable People registration
Northern Territory	Working with Children Clearance, known as the Ochre Card

Recognition of a clearance in another Australian state has its own rules, and they differ. Overseas, the employer alone decides what weight to give it.

What counts as the original?

A notary certifies a copy against an original the notary has sighted. What you have as an original depends on the scheme and when you applied.

• A physical card. The notary can certify a copy of both sides.
• A digital card, or an email or letter confirming the clearance. A printout is not an original in the ordinary sense. Notaries handle this differently. Some will certify a printout with wording that says exactly what it is, and others will decline. Ask before booking.
• Only a number. If the clearance exists only as an online record, ask the screening agency whether it can issue a letter confirming the clearance, its number and its expiry. A signed letter from the agency is better evidence for a foreign reader than a screenshot.

Check the expiry date. Clearances run for a fixed period and may lapse if you do not renew. An overseas employer will notice a card that expires during your contract, so renew first if it is close.

What does the notary do, and not do?

An Australian notary public certifies that a copy matches the original, witnesses signatures and administers oaths. The notary checks your identity before doing any of these.

The notary does not confirm that your clearance is current, that it has not been suspended, or anything about your history. An overseas employer that needs to know the clearance is still valid has to ask the screening agency, or rely on a recent agency letter.

If the employer wants a declaration from you, for example that you hold a current clearance and have no pending charges, bring it unsigned. The notary witnesses your signature or administers the oath. The notary does not check whether the statement is true, so be precise in what you declare.

Is a JP certification enough?

For an Australian employer, you do not need a certified copy at all, because it verifies the clearance online. For an overseas employer, a Justice of the Peace's certification is not recognised and cannot be apostilled, so use a notary.

Certify the Working With Children evidence at the same appointment as your police check and passport, since the employer will usually want all three. See document notarisation.

Does it need an apostille or legalisation?

Many overseas employers accept a notarised copy without further authentication. Some employers, and some visa or teaching registration authorities, want the documents authenticated. DFAT, the only body in Australia that issues apostilles, then authenticates the notary's signature and seal. An apostille certifies that signature and seal, never the clearance itself.

• For a destination that is a member of the Hague Apostille Convention, DFAT issues an apostille. Check membership on the HCCH status table on the day.
• For a non-member, DFAT issues an authentication, and the destination's embassy or consulate legalises the document.

The AFP check is different from the clearance. DFAT lists national police checks among the original documents it can legalise, so the check itself may go to DFAT without a notary. Ask the employer whether authentication is needed before paying for it. See apostille and authentication.

What else will an overseas school usually want?

A clearance is rarely asked for on its own. For teaching roles in particular, expect a fuller pack.

Degrees have their own DFAT rule. DFAT legalises an original once the university has verified it, and a notarised copy must state that the original was verified with the institution. See notarising an academic transcript and reference letters for overseas use.

Who decides whether your evidence is enough?

The receiving authority does. For the job itself, that is the overseas employer, often applying its own safeguarding policy or an accreditation body's standard. For a work permit or a teaching licence, it is the immigration authority or the teaching regulator in that country. Each may want a different form of the same evidence. Neither the notary nor DFAT can tell you in advance what a foreign employer will accept, so get the requirement in writing and bring it to the appointment. It lets the notary word the certificate to match.

How should you prepare, step by step?

1. Ask the employer which police check it wants and whether it wants the clearance too, and in what form.
2. Check your clearance's expiry, and renew it first if it will lapse during the contract.
3. Ask the screening agency for a letter if your clearance is digital or exists only as a number.
4. Order the AFP check of the type requested, timed to be recent when you apply.
5. See the notary with the card or letter, your passport and the rest of the pack.
6. Lodge with DFAT only if the employer or an authority asks for an apostille or authentication.

Here is an illustration, not a real case

A Queensland primary teacher accepts a post at an international school in Vietnam. The school asks for an AFP check, her blue card and her teaching qualifications. Her blue card is digital, so she asks the screening agency for a letter showing her clearance number and expiry. A notary certifies copies of the letter, her degree with the verification statement, and her passport. The school accepts the notarised copies without an apostille. She keeps the AFP check original for her work permit.

In short

A Working With Children clearance is a state or territory screening result, not a police check. Most overseas employers want the AFP check first and treat the clearance as support. If your clearance is digital, get an agency letter. The notary certifies the copy, never the clearance, and DFAT adds an apostille only if asked.

People also search for

• Which documents do I need to work overseas?
• How do I certify a copy of my degree?
• Should I use a notary or a JP?
• Can I get certified copies online?
• Does a notary need the original document?

Taking child-related work overseas? Send us the employer's document list and we will explain each step before you book.