Answers for people being Garda vetted through Dublin City Volunteer Centre, from the invitation email to the result.
Start with the organisation that asked for your vetting. They can answer most questions, and their contact details are in your invitation email. For a problem with the form itself, email vetting@volunteerdublincity.ie.
Our name and contact details will be in the invitation email, and your application ID will start with DVC002. We process vetting for community and voluntary organisations in Dublin City that are affiliated with us.
Once the organisation sends us your request, we aim to send your invitation within three working days. It comes from the National Vetting Bureau (NVB), not from us, so check your spam or junk folder. If nothing arrives, contact the organisation.
30 days from the invitation. The NVB will remind you before it expires. The form must be done in one sitting: it isn’t saved if you leave before submitting.
Invitations can’t be extended or reissued. Ask the organisation to send us a new request.
Use the exact email address the invitation was sent to, and check there’s no space after it. If it still doesn’t work, the date of birth on the request may be wrong. Email us your date of birth and we’ll sort it out.
Don’t complete the form. Tell the organisation, so they can correct your details and send a new request.
If you have a valid passport, give the number. It isn’t mandatory, so you can leave it blank if you don’t have one, or if it’s expired, lost or stolen.
Every address you’ve lived at, from birth to now, with no gaps.
Make sure you’ve added your last address, and that there are no gaps in the years. If you’re still stuck, email us a screenshot of the error.
Since July 2025, if the role involves children, the form asks whether you’ve lived in the EU or UK. If you have, you’ll give some extra details so those countries’ criminal records can be checked too. This can add up to 10 working days for EU checks, and up to 20 for UK checks.
Your parent or guardian needs to sign a consent form for the organisation. The email address and phone number on your vetting request should be theirs, so the invitation will go to them.
The organisation must check your ID in person, against a set list of documents. Ask them what to bring.
Use the link in your invitation email, or track it on the NVB website. We’re given no more information about individual applications than you can see there.
Most applications come back from the NVB within about a week, but some take weeks or even months. A delay doesn’t mean there’s a problem, and we aren’t told the reason for it. You can’t fast-track an application, but completing the form quickly and correctly helps.
This usually means one of these:
This is common and nothing to worry about. Statuses can also stay the same for weeks.
Yes, at any time. If you haven’t submitted the form, choose “Cancel” from the link in your invitation email. If you have, email us. The organisation will be told, but you don’t have to give a reason.
It’s the result of Garda vetting. Everyone gets one, whether or not they have a conviction. Once it’s ready, we send it securely to the organisation’s Garda Vetting Officer, usually within one working day.
To protect your data. Some people share an email address with family or friends, and a disclosure reaching the wrong person would be a serious data breach. So we send it only to the named Garda Vetting Officer. You can ask the organisation for a copy.
No. Disclosures can’t be transferred. Each organisation has to vet you for its own role.
Convictions and pending prosecutions. Some older, minor convictions aren’t disclosed: the rules are in section 14A of the National Vetting Bureau Act. We can’t advise on individual cases, so if you’re unsure, get legal advice.
A conviction doesn’t automatically rule you out. The organisation should decide case by case, looking at things like:
They must give you a chance to respond to anything on your disclosure.
You can dispute it. Write to us explaining exactly what you’re disputing, with your name, date of birth and NVB application ID. Email it to vetting@volunteerdublincity.ie or post it to Dublin City Volunteer Centre, The Connolly Building, 42/43 Amiens Street, Dublin 1, D01 E4X5. We’ll pass it to the NVB.
Contact that country’s embassy in Ireland. They can usually tell you how to apply.
Contact the organisation that asked for your vetting, or our vetting team.
