The short answer. On paper: the CCF tells you within one month whether your request is admissible, then decides an access request within four months and a deletion request within nine. In practice, in 2024, 70% of access requests and 30% of deletion requests overran those targets, and the Commission has warned that 2025 was worse. A realistic span from discovery to decision, preparation included, is 12 to 18 months.
Nobody selling a fast deletion is quoting the Commission’s own numbers.
The clock the rules set
Article 32 of the CCF’s Statute requires the Commission to say “no later than one month from its receipt” whether a request is admissible. Article 40 then sets the targets its FAQ repeats: “The CCF shall decide on a request for access within four months of the date when the request became admissible. Requests for correction and/or deletion shall be decided within nine months after becoming admissible.” Note the starting point — admissibility, not filing. Once a decision orders deletion, INTERPOL’s General Secretariat implements it “within one month”.
The clock as it actually runs
The Commission publishes its own scorecard. In 2024 only 30% of access requests were decided within four months; 70% exceeded the deadline. Deletion requests did better: 70% within nine months, 30% over. Two structural facts sit behind those figures. Demand is at a record — 2,586 admissible requests in 2024, “the highest number ever recorded” — and the Commission consults the country that issued the notice before deciding, which means waiting for an answer from a police bureau that may be in no hurry.
Why it will get slower before it gets faster
At INTERPOL’s General Assembly in November 2025 the Commission’s Chair said that “among the highest priorities will be to continue to address the workload and associated delay issues” — and that “in 2025, our numbers will be even worse in terms of delays in resolving cases.” Help is arriving: the Assembly voted more resources in 2024, and four new secretariat staff joined in late 2025. But a backlog built over years does not clear in months. The running figures are on the CCF Tracker.
Where the time really goes
Much of a matter’s length is before filing, not after: obtaining the access reply, gathering the record, and compressing it into the ten pages the rules allow. Sequence matters too — access first, then deletion built on the answer — so two clocks may run in turn.
The one exception is an emergency. Where "an applicant's extradition is clearly imminent" or the applicant "is in detention due to data held in INTERPOL's files", the Commission may adopt provisional measures — blocking the data or removing it from the public website — while it examines the request.
Related
- What is INTERPOL’s CCF, and what can it do?
- What is the CCF’s ten-page rule?
- How many Red Notices get refused or deleted?
- Statute of the CCF, Articles 32 and 40 — interpol.int
- CCF — Frequently Asked Questions — interpol.int
- CCF Annual Activity Report 2024, page 18 — interpol.int
- Speech by the CCF Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson to the 93rd INTERPOL General Assembly, November 2025 — interpol.int
- CCF Procedural Guidelines for Applicants, 29 February 2024, sections 2.1.5 and 2.1.6 — interpol.int
Looking forward to any questions or comments that you may have! My goal is to help you, and your questions and comments are answered within one working day. And if you are somewhere in this story yourself: the assessment is free.
Ask a question or comment