How do I get an Israeli police clearance certificate from abroad?

A former Israeli now living in Toronto applies to renew his nursing license, and the provincial regulator asks for written proof that he has no criminal record in Israel. That proof is an Israeli police clearance certificate, a document confirming the absence of a criminal record, issued by the Israel Police under the Crime Register and Rehabilitation of Offenders Law 1981 (Hok HaMirsham HaPlili VeTakanat HaShavim). You do not need to fly to Israel to obtain it. The certificate is issued for the specific foreign body that requested it, then apostilled for use abroad, and the entire process can be run from your home country.

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Detailed Explanation

An Israeli police clearance is often called a certificate of good conduct or, informally, a teudat yosher. It records one plain fact: whether the Israel Police (Mishteret Yisrael) holds a criminal record against your name. Foreign immigration departments, professional licensing boards, and some employers ask for it when a person has lived in Israel or holds Israeli citizenship.

Access to the Israeli criminal register is deliberately restricted by law. An individual generally cannot walk in and receive an open, all-purpose printout of their full record. The register is protected, and the rules on who may see it are strict. Instead of handing you a free-standing copy, the police issue the certificate for a named recipient. You tell them which foreign authority has requested the document and for what purpose, and the certificate is directed to that body. This is why a clearance obtained for a Canadian regulator may not satisfy an Australian one. Each request names its own recipient.

Applying from outside Israel follows one of two routes. The first is through an Israeli consulate in your country of residence, which can accept the request and relay it to the police in Israel. The second, often quicker, is to appoint a representative in Israel, usually an attorney, acting under a power of attorney (yipui koah). You sign the power of attorney before a notary abroad, have it apostilled, and your representative then submits the application, identifies the requesting authority, and collects the certificate on your behalf.

A certificate that will be shown to a foreign authority almost always needs an apostille. An apostille is an internationally recognized stamp confirming that the document is genuine and that the signing official held authority to sign it. In Israel, public documents of this kind are apostilled by the Ministry of Justice or by a Magistrates Court. The step is procedural rather than difficult, and the full sequence is set out in our guide on how to apostille Israeli documents.

Once the certificate is issued and apostilled, it can be couriered to you or sent directly to the foreign authority that asked for it. An Israeli consulate can assist a person abroad who cannot manage the Israeli end alone. Many non-residents prefer the power of attorney route precisely because a representative in Israel can carry the document from the police to the Ministry of Justice and then to the courier without the applicant leaving home.

In Practice: The certificate is issued by the Israel Police under the Crime Register and Rehabilitation of Offenders Law 1981, and for overseas use it is apostilled under the Hague Apostille Convention of 1961. Expect the police issuance fee to fall in the range of NIS 130 to 170, with the Ministry of Justice apostille adding roughly NIS 35 per document. Issuance from the Israel Police commonly takes a few weeks, and the apostille adds a few days, so plan for several weeks overall when working from abroad.

Key Considerations

• Decide early which foreign authority needs the certificate, because the police issue it for that named recipient rather than as a general document.
• The power of attorney you sign abroad must itself be notarized and apostilled before an Israeli representative can act on it.
• Budget modestly. The police fee and the apostille together usually come to well under NIS 250 per certificate, before courier and legal costs.
• If several countries or bodies need the same clearance, you may need a separate certificate directed to each requesting authority.
• Certificates can lose their currency. Many foreign authorities accept only a clearance issued within the past three to six months, so time the request to your deadline.

When to Consult a Lawyer

This question typically requires professional legal advice when:

• The foreign authority has specific wording or formatting requirements that the standard police certificate does not obviously satisfy.
• You believe your Israeli record contains an error, an outdated entry, or a matter that should have been cleared under the rehabilitation provisions of the 1981 law.
• You are arranging the clearance alongside other apostilled Israeli documents for an immigration or licensing file with a firm deadline.

A qualified Israeli attorney should review your specific circumstances before you submit the request to the Israel Police.

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

Obtaining an Israeli police clearance from abroad is mostly a matter of routing the request to the correct authority and apostilling the result. An Israeli attorney can hold your power of attorney, deal with the police and the Ministry of Justice, and courier the finished certificate to you or directly to the body that asked for it.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.