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A Lebanese police clearance certificate — known in Arabic as السجل العدلي — is the official record stating whether a person has a criminal conviction in Lebanon. It is routinely required for employment abroad, residency and visa applications, immigration and naturalization, and professional licensing.

This guide explains how to obtain a Lebanese police clearance certificate — including from outside Lebanon through a power of attorney — what documents are required, the step-by-step issuance and authentication process, and, if you have a prior conviction, how a record may be cleared through the courts. There is no expedited or “fast-track” route: every applicant goes through the same process.

Obtaining the certificate from abroad (by power of attorney)

Applicants who are outside Lebanon can obtain their certificate without travelling by appointing a lawyer to act on their behalf under a power of attorney. To initiate the process, the following documents are required:

• Power of attorney (POA) authorizing the lawyer to obtain the police record. The POA must be either issued directly at the nearest Lebanese embassy or consulate, or prepared before a notary public and then authenticated by the Lebanese embassy or consulate in your country of residence. Lebanese consular authentication is mandatory.
• A copy of your passport, including the page showing your last stamped exit from Lebanon.
• A copy of your birth certificate.

The issuance and authentication process

Once the documents are received, the procedure is as follows:

1. Authenticate the power of attorney at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Lebanon.
2. Submit the application to obtain the police clearance certificate.
3. Upon receipt, the certificate is translated (for example, into English) by a certified translator.
4. The translation is authenticated by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Lebanon.
5. The authenticated certificate is submitted to your country’s embassy in Lebanon for final legalization.
6. The original, fully authenticated certificate is then sent to you. A scanned copy can be provided if that is all you require.

If you have a prior criminal record

A clearance certificate is issued without complications where the applicant has no criminal record. If a record exists, the certificate cannot be issued until the public prosecutor’s process is completed: a request is filed at the public prosecutor’s office to issue the criminal record statement, which identifies the exact judgments on file.

Once the criminal record statement is issued, the appropriate steps to clear the record can be determined. This typically requires filing a claim before the criminal court, together with the relevant Lebanese judgments, requesting that the record be cleared. A record cannot be cleared except by a court judgment declaring it so.

Conditions for clearing a record (rehabilitation)

Anyone convicted of a felony or misdemeanour may be rehabilitated by judicial decision, provided that seven years have passed for a felony and three years for a misdemeanour after the sentence has been served. This period is doubled in the case of repeat offences. The applicant submits a request to the indictment body in their place of residence after obtaining:

• A new criminal record statement;
• A residence and good-conduct certificate from the local mukhtar;
• A certificate of sentence execution and a copy of the judgment from the issuing court, after the legal period has elapsed since the sentence was served.