A KYC check takes as long as the client takes to finish the link

People ask how long a check takes because a settlement is on Friday and a brochure promised a result before the coffee cooled. Checked against AUSTRAC's overview of initial customer due diligence and AUSTRAC's delayed initial customer due diligence page on 5 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice. This page does not reproduce that guidance. When the duty starts is customer due diligence before the designated service. What the result contains is what an AML check covers. The matters themselves are customer due diligence requirements. The sector map is /tranche-2.

Two clocks, and only one of them is legal

The product clock is the client. On FreeAML the firm emails a link. The client opens it and completes the check. The firm receives a result it can file. This page will not promise a number of minutes, because the client might finish at once or might ignore the email until the next morning. Abandoned steps are not a completed check. Staff should not photograph documents onto a private account to “save time”. The link is the process.

The legal clock is the designated service. AUSTRAC says you complete initial customer due diligence before you start providing the designated service, by establishing stated matters on reasonable grounds. If you cannot establish a matter on reasonable grounds, you must not provide the service. That is a before-and-after rule, not a two-minute rule. A fast result is convenient. A missing result is a reason to wait, even if everyone is in a hurry.

Delay is a narrow gate

AUSTRAC's delayed initial customer due diligence page says you may be able to delay verifying some KYC information if you provide the designated service at or through a permanent establishment in Australia. You must then complete initial customer due diligence as soon as reasonably practicable and no later than 20 business days after starting to provide the service. The page describes what can be collected first and verified after, and it gives examples. It is not permission to open every matter and verify “when we get to it”. Read the page against the service you provide before you use the 20-business-day figure. This article does not reproduce the exceptions, and it does not extend them.

• Send the link early. The client's delay is the usual delay. Yours should not be.
• Do not start the service to be helpful. A draft contract or a listed property can already be the start of a designated service. Check the guidance for your sector before you assume you have not started.
• A company or trust is KYB. Budget the client's time for the entity and the people, not only for one passport.
• File the time. Note when the link was sent and when the result came back. The note answers a later question about whether you went first.
• Do not invent a same-day guarantee. FreeAML does not publish one, and AUSTRAC does not require one.

Where this page stops

This page is timing. It is not the contents of a completed check, which are in what an AML check covers in Australia.

What the client pays

On FreeAML the firm suite is A$0. The firm emails the client a link. Verification is client-pays. On the public list a personal KYC check is A$20 and a company or trust KYB check is A$40. There is no subscription. Confirm the live amounts on FreeAML pricing. You are not billed for the minutes the client takes. FreeAML does not sell a faster queue and does not guarantee a minute count.

Frequently Asked Questions