If you need to apply for a police clearance certificate anytime soon, take note: the General Department of Police's system is down for urgent maintenance, and they’ve set up a temporary workaround. If you're in a rush and can't wait, you don't need to line up at the station—just jump onto their official website, download the application form, and fill it out.
Once that's done, bundle the filled-out form together with copies of your ID card and passport, and email the whole lot directly to the designated official address. The local police have confirmed that using this temporary email channel is completely free of charge.
There is a catch, though. Once the main system is fixed and back online, everyone who applied through this temporary email route will still need to go back and resubmit their applications properly through the official online system. So if you're heading abroad or landing a new job and urgently need that certificate, make sure to factor in that you'll have to do it all over again later.
