NADRA and HEC: the two Pakistan-side gates that set your timeline.

Applicants tend to picture the hard part of a Ukrainian migration file as something that happens in Kyiv — a migration officer behind a desk, a consular decision at the visa intake. In practice, the clock usually starts running weeks earlier, in Islamabad, over two documents that have nothing to do with Ukraine at all: a police certificate from NADRA and, where a degree is in play, an attestation from the Higher Education Commission. Neither is difficult. Both are slow if you begin them late, and both gate everything downstream.

Where the delays actually originate

There are two distinct clocks on a Ukrainian migration file. The first runs on the Ukrainian side — the work permit assessed by the State Employment Service, the Type D visa decided at consular intake, the residence permit issued by the State Migration Service. Those timelines are largely out of your hands. The second clock runs on the Pakistan side, and it is almost entirely within your control: the NADRA police certificate and, for anyone relying on a qualification, the HEC attestation of that qualification.

When files stall, it is far more often the second clock that is at fault. An applicant waits until a job offer arrives before requesting a police certificate; discovers a degree cannot be used until HEC has verified it; then finds that neither document is worth anything in Ukraine until it has been apostilled and translated. Each of those realisations, taken late, adds weeks. Taken early and in parallel, they cost almost nothing.

Gate one: the Police Character Certificate (PCC)

The police clearance a Ukrainian file expects is a nationally recognised Police Character Certificate — not a provincial or thana-level letter. This distinction matters: applicants routinely obtain a local police-station certificate, submit it, and are asked to start again with a nationally recognised document. There is more than one lawful route to that certificate, and either is accepted so long as it is the national-grade document: NADRA issues a Police Character Certificate widely used for overseas purposes, and the Government of Pakistan has been consolidating police records under a unified National Police Bureau (NPB) system, applied for through the Police Khidmat Markaz (PKM) Global Portal. Our police clearance reference sets out the process in full; the essentials are short.

• Apply either through NADRA (its Pak-Identity portal or a NADRA Registration Centre) or through the unified National Police Bureau route via the Police Khidmat Markaz (PKM) Global Portal, with your original CNIC and passport. Overseas Pakistanis can usually initiate the request through a Pakistani mission.
• Standard processing typically runs about one to two working weeks; an urgent tier is usually available at a higher fee. Confirm the current portal, timeline and fee at the official source before paying anyone — routes have been changing as the national system is rolled out.
• Ukrainian authorities generally expect a certificate issued within the last three to six months, so apply close to your submission date rather than far ahead of it.
• Whichever route issues the certificate, it still needs the same downstream chain — apostille at MoFA Islamabad, then certified Ukrainian translation.

The government fee for the PCC is modest — broadly in the low thousands of rupees, more for urgent service — but treat any figure you read, here included, as indicative and confirm the current figure at the official source. Large agent mark-ups on what is a routine government document are one of the clearer warning signs worth noting.

Gate two: HEC attestation of your degree

If your route depends on a qualification — an employer hiring you for skilled work, a student pathway, a professional role — the degree behind it is not simply handed over as printed. An academic degree from a Pakistani institution must be attested by the Higher Education Commission before it can go any further. HEC verifies the award directly with the issuing university and then attests the document; that verification step, not the attestation itself, is what most often introduces delay, because it depends on your university responding.

• Submit the degree, transcripts, and supporting identity documents through the HEC e-portal or at an HEC attestation facility.
• HEC verifies the qualification with the awarding institution before attesting — build in time for that back-and-forth, especially with older or overseas-campus awards.
• Expect a horizon similar to, or a little longer than, the NADRA certificate, varying by service tier and how quickly your university confirms. Verify the current figure and timeline at the official HEC source.
• The attestation fee is a modest per-document government charge; confirm it on the HEC portal rather than accepting an agent's quote.

The order here is fixed and it catches people out: HEC first, apostille second. MoFA Islamabad apostilles the HEC-attested document, not the raw degree. Present an un-attested degree at the apostille counter and you will be turned back to complete the step you skipped.

How both feed the apostille step

Once each document has cleared its Pakistan-side gate — NADRA for the police certificate, HEC for the degree — the two rejoin the same path. Pakistan is a member of the Hague Apostille Convention, so both documents are legalised by a single apostille at MoFA Islamabad rather than through the older, slower embassy-legalisation route. Our apostille and legalisation guide walks the counter process in detail.

Only after apostille does translation happen. The apostilled document — stamp and all — is then given a certified Ukrainian translation by a certified or sworn translator in Ukraine. The sequence is not interchangeable: a translation prepared before apostille omits the apostille itself and has to be redone, so translating early wastes both the fee and the time.

Sequencing the two in parallel to save time

Because NADRA and HEC run through entirely different institutions, they do not compete with each other — and that is the whole opportunity. Start both on the same day and they run side by side; start them one after the other and you simply add one waiting period to the next. The single most effective thing you can do to compress a Pakistan-side timeline is to open both requests at once.

Batching also matters at the apostille counter: hold your documents until both the PCC and the attested degree are in hand, then apostille them together in one visit to MoFA Islamabad, and hand the whole set to a single translator. One trip, one translation order, one clean chain — instead of two half-finished ones that arrive in Ukraine out of step.

What to confirm at source before you begin

Fees and processing times on both the NADRA and HEC sides change, and no page — this one included — should be treated as the live figure. Before you pay anyone or commit to a submission date, confirm the current numbers at the official portals, and read the routes that apply to your case alongside the Pakistan-specific FAQ. If you want a second set of eyes on the documents before they leave your hands, our document review checks the chain — attestation, apostille, translation — for the errors that force a re-issue.

Travel to Ukraine is restricted because of the ongoing war — verify current advisories before making any plans. Nothing here is a promise of a result. NADRA and HEC are Pakistani government processes, and no private party can guarantee any visa, permit, or timeline; the migration decision rests solely with the Ukrainian authorities. Last reviewed: 17 July 2026.

UAVISA.PK · Procedural desk · Reviewed July 2026