Everything people ask about the FBI Identity History Summary — how to get one, what it shows, how long it takes, and how we make it faster. $149 flat, submitted electronically.
An FBI background check — properly an Identity History Summary — is your national criminal history record, or confirmation that no record exists. Visas, immigration, foreign residency, international adoption, and some licenses require it. We capture your fingerprints and submit them electronically to the FBI as an approved channeler, so the result usually comes back in a few business days rather than the weeks a mailed request takes. It is $149 flat, federal fee included.
The questions below are the ones people actually search for, answered plainly. If your destination also needs the document apostilled, that is a separate federal step handled by our sister service Federal Apostille USA — ask when you book so the two are sequenced correctly.
You obtain an FBI background check — officially an Identity History Summary — by having your fingerprints captured and submitted to the FBI, either by mailing a request yourself or by using an FBI-approved channeler who submits electronically. We are set up for the electronic route: prints are captured at our West Palm Beach office and transmitted the same day, so the summary typically returns in a few business days rather than weeks.
Yes. You are entitled to request your own Identity History Summary, and it is worth doing before an employer, consulate, or licensing body reads it. The process is identical to any other request — fingerprints captured and submitted — and the result comes back to you. If it shows anything you believe is inaccurate, the FBI provides a formal challenge process to correct it.
Through an approved channeler it usually takes a few business days from your appointment; submitting by mail yourself generally takes several weeks. The electronic route is faster because there is no postal transit in either direction and no paper queue on arrival — and image quality is verified before submission, which removes the most common cause of rejection and restart.
An FBI Identity History Summary includes any criminal history information the FBI maintains on file about you — arrests, related charges, and their dispositions where reported — or confirmation that no such record exists. It is drawn from fingerprint submissions made by law enforcement and authorized agencies nationwide. It does not include credit history, employment history, or civil records; those come from other types of checks entirely.
The fastest route is electronic submission through an FBI-approved channeler, which typically returns a result in a few business days. Mailing a request to the FBI yourself is the slower path because of transit time and processing queues. We submit electronically from our office, and because we verify image quality at capture, your submission is far less likely to be rejected and have to start over.
Not exactly — an FBI background check is a report of your national criminal history, which may show a record or confirm there is none. The “criminal record” is the underlying information; the Identity History Summary is the official document that reports it. If you have no history on file, your summary comes back showing no record, which is a common and completely normal result.
An official FBI background check comes only from a fingerprint submission processed by the FBI — either directly by mail or through an FBI-approved channeler like the electronic route we use. Be cautious of services offering “instant” online checks; those are database searches, not the fingerprint-based Identity History Summary a consulate or licensing body will accept. The official document is tied to your fingerprints, not just your name and date of birth.
An FBI criminal background check shows criminal history reported to the FBI through fingerprint submissions — arrests, the charges associated with them, and their outcomes where an agency has reported the disposition. It reflects what has been submitted to the national database, so it is national in scope rather than limited to one state. It does not show credit, employment, or civil matters.
An FBI Identity History Summary does not technically expire, but the organization requesting it usually does set a limit — most consulates and agencies want one issued within the past three to six months. Because it is a snapshot of the day it was run, an older summary may not reflect your current record, which is why requesters ask for a recent one. Time your request to your filing deadline rather than getting it far in advance.
It is strongly discouraged, and most submissions require prints captured by a trained provider. Self-rolled prints are frequently rejected for poor image quality, which restarts the whole process and costs you the most time of anything. We capture rolled and flat impressions on a certified scanner and verify quality before anything is sent, so the submission is accepted the first time.
What appears is your national criminal history as reported to the FBI — arrests, charges, and dispositions where reported — or a result confirming no record is on file. It draws from fingerprint-based submissions across jurisdictions, so it is broader than a single state check. Sealed or expunged matters are handled through the courts and are outside what a fingerprinting provider can advise on.
You can request your own Identity History Summary, but there is no instant “look-up” — it requires a fingerprint submission, the same as any other request. Once submitted electronically it comes back to you in a few business days. Reviewing your own summary before an employer or consulate does is a smart move, and if anything looks wrong the FBI has a formal process to challenge and correct it.
A general background check is usually a name-and-date-of-birth database search run by a private company; an FBI background check is a fingerprint-based Identity History Summary drawn from the FBI's national criminal database. The FBI version is more authoritative because it matches on fingerprints rather than name, and it is what consulates, immigration filings, and many licensing bodies specifically require. If a requirement says “FBI” or “federal,” a general background check will not satisfy it.
The fastest legitimate way to expedite is to use electronic channeler submission rather than mail — that alone takes the process from weeks down to a few business days. Nobody, including us, controls the FBI's internal processing time itself, so be wary of services promising same-day federal results. What we control is that your submission leaves the same day and is not rejected for image quality, which is where most delays actually come from.
Yes — an FBI background check is fingerprint-based by definition, which is what makes it more reliable than a name-only search. Your fingerprints are matched against the FBI's national records, so the process cannot be completed without them. We capture them electronically and submit the same day as an approved channeler.
Bring a valid government-issued photo ID — a driver's license is ideal because our reader pulls your details straight off the barcode — and, if your destination requires the result apostilled, know the country it is going to. That is the whole checklist. You do not need to bring anything printed or any prior paperwork; we capture everything at the appointment.
An FBI background check is thorough on criminal history specifically, because it searches the FBI's national fingerprint-based database rather than a single state or a name-only index. That national scope is exactly why it is required for visas, immigration, and many licenses. It is not, however, a check of credit, employment, or civil records — those are separate searches with their own sources.
The delay is almost always the mail route and rejected prints, not the FBI's core processing. A mailed request has to travel both ways and join a paper queue, and a poorly captured print is rejected and starts the clock over. Electronic submission through a channeler removes the postal legs, and verifying image quality at capture removes the rejection restart — which is why our route typically returns a result in days.
Call (561) 475-4757 or send the request form. Same or next-day appointments, and we'll tell you if you also need an apostille.
