All PDFs submitted to the department must be text-searchable.
How to determine whether a PDF is text-searchable
After opening the PDF, try searching for a word known to be in the document (preferably a word that appears on several different pages) by entering the word into the search box (or look for the magnifying glass symbol for search).

If the message below appears, the document is not text-searchable.

How to make a PDF text-searchable
The following instructions apply to making a PDF text-searchable in Adobe Acrobat Professional or Standard:
Click on Document > OCR Text Recognition > Recognize Text Using OCR. Or in newer versions of Acrobat Pro, choose Tools > Scan & OCR.

The text recognition process will proceed page by page. Please note that for a very long document the process may take several minutes to complete. Enabling text-searchability in multiple documents at once can be accomplished through batch processing by using the Action Wizard in Acrobat Pro.
When all the pages are processed, try the same search to verify that the document now is text-searchable.