Obtain Your FBI Criminal History Record

Double-checking the contents of your FBI Criminal History report (CHR) is similar to checking your credit score. Information in your CHR can affect your eligibility for many employment opportunities, may preclude you from certain benefits and may be cause to deny or revoke a security clearance.

The FBI relies on various law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system to provide updates to the record. If you were arrested, tried and found innocent of a criminal charge, the FBI only knows what information the local jurisdiction has updated. Therefore, it is possible that your report shows that you were arrested for a crime but does not show that you were later found innocent of all charges.

Furthermore, there may be things in your past that you believe were expunged from your record. The only way to be sure is to obtain a current copy of the report.

It is far better to know, with certainty, everything that your report contains before you apply for a job. This will save you time and possibly embarrassment if there is something in your history that you were not aware of or forgot to mention to your perspective employer. Furthermore, if the report shows an arrest but doesn't show that you were acquitted of the charges, checking your criminal history before applying for a job will give you time to correct the record before you miss out on an employment opportunity.

Additionally, some countries may require visitors who wish to live, work or travel in that country to provide a "police certificate" or "background check" that proves their character. A copy of your FBI Criminal History should satisfy any such requirements. Also, many jurisdictions require a Criminal History Report to adopt a child or meet other court-order requirements. NOTE: If you require a copy of your CHRI with an Apostille (a formal certification by the US Department of State) please see "Apostille" under "Restrictions and Limitations".

FBI Departmental Order 556-73 allows FBI certified channelers (such as DTIS) to collect fingerprints electronically and then transmit them to the FBI on behalf of the applicant. The FBI sends the results to the Channeler who is then responsible for delivery to the applicant. Under 556-73 the results can be delivered to the applicant electronically IF the Service Provider issues the applicant a strong, multi-factor identity credential to ensure that the applicant and only the applicant is able to access the report on-line.  DTIS conforms to the requirements of FBI DO 556-73.

Traditionally, fingerprints have been captured in ink on paper cards. The process is messy, time consuming and error prone.  With live scan, your fingerprints are captured electronically via a specialized sensor. Once in an electronic format the images can be instantly transmitted for further processing. The procedure is much faster and more accurate than ink-based processing. Furthermore, electronic "quality checks" helps reduce the potential for the prints to be rejected by the FBI.

Our process dramatically reduces the likelihood that the prints will be rejected by the FBI; however, in a small number of cases (< 2%) the prints may be rejected. In these rare cases, you will be contacted by a Customer Support Representative and asked to schedule an appointment to collect a new set of fingerprints. There will be no charge to re-collect and resubmit your prints to the FBI. Please note that there are a very small number of people who simply do not have enough detail in their fingerprints to obtain a useable set of prints.

US Citizens or non-citizens with lawful permanent resident status are eligible. Non-US Citizens without permanent residence status must make the Departmental Order request directly to the FBI themselves.

You must complete the on-line registration process prior to being fingerprinted. 

When you show up for your appointment, the agent will verify your identity and ensure your pre-enrollment data matches your identity documents. Then you will be fingerprinted. Fingerprinting consist of collecting both "slaps" and "rolls". With Slaps, we collect 4 fingers on each hand simultaneously plus the two thumbs at once (a total of 3 images). With rolls, each finger is printed individually and you will be instructed to rotate your finger across the sensor. This will allow the sensor to record the fingerprint detail that wraps around the side of your finger. This process is consistent with FBI fingerprinting requirements.

The entire appointment will typically last less than 10 minutes.

The total cost for this service is $50.00. This cost includes Livescan fingerprint collection, the FBI fee and access to the Results Portal for 30 days.

MasterCard, American Express, Discover and Visa are accepted.

General Refund Policy

• Refunds will not be granted if an applicant has already been fingerprinted.
• Refunds will only be granted if they are requested within 30 days of making a fingerprinting appointment.
• Refunds will be charged a $10.00 processing fee.
• It is the applicant's responsibility to verify that the registration information is correct prior to being fingerprinted.
• Rejections due to improper registration will require re-registration, re-payment (applicant's expense) and re-fingerprinting. Improper registration includes:
  • Entering demographic data incorrectly.
  • Registering under the wrong agency.
• Full refunds will be granted if an error was made by a DTIS customer service representative while registering an applicant through the call center.
• Refund requests must be made by emailing refunds@dtis.com or call our customer support team at (703) 797-2562, Monday-Friday 8am-5pm ET.
• The FBI requires us to purge the criminal history report from our system 30 days after you have been notified it is available. If you fail to retrieve the report in this time period, you will not be able to access the report and you will not be entitled to a refund.
• A very small percentage of people (< 1-2%) fingerprints cannot be processed by the FBI. This usually happens due to very faint prints or excessive damage/scarring of the finger-tips. After two attempts to fingerprint you and have the FBI process those prints, our obligation to provide the service will be complete and you will not be entitled to a refund.

What personal information do I need to complete to register?

To process your request we will need to collect the following FBI-required personal information:

• First and Last Name
• Home Address
• Country of Citizenship
• Last four digits of your Social Security Number
• Date of Birth and Place of Birth (city and state)
• Gender and Race
• Height, weight, eye color and hair color

In addition we require a phone number and email address so that we may contact you if necessary.

DTIS is an FBI-certified Channeler (e.g. an entity approved to collect and send electronic fingerprint images to the FBI for processing). DTIS is also one of three US Department of Homeland Security Designated Aviation Channeling Service Providers (providing fingerprint and name-based background checks to over 400,000 airport workers annually). Since our inception, we have processed over 10 Million fingerprint-based background checks.

Our FBI and DHS certifications require that we be submitted to periodic inspection and audit of our service platform, facility, personnel and processes and procedures. DTIS rigorously adheres to all FBI, DHS and other related state and federal regulations regarding processing of fingerprint information, handling of your personal information and ensuring the security and privacy of your personal data.

For more detailed information regarding our privacy practices, please view our Privacy Policy, published on our website.

If at all possible you should print the receipt from your pre-enrollment process and bring that to your fingerprinting appointment. If you are unable to print the receipt than be sure to carefully record the "Transaction Control Number" (TCN) assigned to you. 

You will also need to bring two forms of identification. One of these must be an official government issued photo-ID such as a driver's license, passport, military ID or state-issued Identification card. The second ID can be a recent utility bill, bank state, payment stub, canceled check or any official document that has your name and current address. (see below for details).

Acceptable primary IDs include:

• State Issued Driver's License or Identification Card
• US Passport
• US Passport Card
• U.S. Active Duty/Retiree/Reservist Military Identification Card (000 10-2)
• Federal Government Personal Identity Verification Card (PIV)
• Department of Defense Common Access Card
• U.S. Tribal or Bureau of Indian Affairs Identification Card
• U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Card
• Permanent Resident Card (form I-551)
• Machine-Readable VISA with I-551 Residency Notation
• Foreign Passport with I-551 Residency Notation

Acceptable secondary IDs (must show your name and home address) and may include:

• Bank Statement /Paycheck Stub
• Electric Bill
• Birth Certificate
• Marriage Certificate
• Citizenship or Naturalization Certificate
• School ID w/ Photograph
• Vehicle Registration/Title
• Voter Registration Card
• Bank Statement/Paycheck Stub

The name on the primary identification card must match the name entered during pre-enrollment. The address, on at least one of the two forms of identification, must match the address entered during pre-enrollment. If the name and/or address on any of your identity documents does not match the name/address on your application form you will be asked to provide additional documentation that explains the difference (e.g. divorce papers, US postal change of address card, court approved name change, etc.).

Unlike many of our competitors, DTIS does not penalize you if you do not show up for your appointment or cancel within 24 hours of the appointment. However, we would appreciate it if you did contact us if you plan to cancel. Also, please be advised that if you show up late for an appointment, you might have to wait for the next available slot.

No, unfortunately. Previously collected fingerprints are not retrievable or transferable from other state or federal agencies. You are required to have a new set of fingerprints collected. However, if you require a Florida State Level 2 Background Check, we can use the same set of prints for requesting your own copy of the CHRI. You will need to select the "DoubleCheck Option" on the website during pre-enrollment for the Florida State Check.

The FBI Criminal History Record Information (CHRI), also known as an Identity History Summary Check, is a listing of information retained by the FBI in connection to arrest information, such as agency name, date of arrest, the arrest charge, and the disposition of the arrest, if known by the FBI. The CHRI is more commonly known as a "rap sheet".

The report will contain whatever information is reported to the FBI by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and/or judicial system (e.g. county court, circuit court, state police, local police, etc.). In many cases, local entities do not submit information on misdemeanors and minor infractions. Contact your State Police for information about accessing the information your state may be holding on you. This is typical done by a State Police Identification Bureau or Criminal Records Division.

You will access your results on-line via a secure Results website. DTIS strictly adheres to the FBI CJIS Security Policy for providing remote access to CHRI data and requires you to authenticate your identity using strong, multi-factor authentication (MFA). In our case, the multi-factors are your DTIS User Account and a security access code that you will receive on your phone. For your own security, we strongly suggest that you do not access your report from a public computer or a computer connected to an unsecure public WiFi network.

First, you will receive an email notification when the results are ready to be retrieved.

To ensure that you and only you can access your results, you will first need to login into the DTIS results website (insert link to login). Next you will be asked to provide a phone number to a phone that is registered in your name. If you do not have access to a phone or your phone is registered under a different person's name (spouse, parents, etc.) then you will need to click on "I do not have a phone available" and in this case your results will be mailed to you.

If you have a phone, you will enter the phone number and then select whether you want to receive your security code via text message or a voice call. After you receive the code enter the value in the website. The code is only valid for 10 minutes. If you don't enter a valid code in this time you will have to start over and request a new code.

Once you have successful entered the security code your report will be displayed on the screen and you will be prompted to download it to your computer. After downloading, please confirm that the download was successful and that you can view the downloaded report on your computer. Instructions for doing this vary widely based on your computer operating system and type of browser you are using. In general, the report should download to the default location for such files on your computer, typically the folder "Downloads" on an MS-Windows computer.

The FBI has strict guidelines on how long we are permitted to hold your results.

1. We must delete the report from our server within 30 days of notifying you that the results are available. This is true even if you never access the report.

1. We must delete the report as soon as you have provided confirmation that you have successfully downloaded the report.

I received email notification that my FBI report is available online; but, when I access the results portal there is nothing there.

FBI requirements do not permit us to hold the results for more than 30 days from the time they are received from the FBI. We will send you a notice when the results first arrive. If you have not accessed the results within 15 days we will send an email reminder. Finally, if you have not accessed the results within 27 days you will receive a warning that the results will be deleted in 72 hours. If you fail to retrieve the report within the 30 day window you will not receive a refund and if you still want to see the results you must recomplete the process from the beginning

We are also required to purge the report from our system, immediately after you access and download the report. Therefore, if you had previously accessed the report, it will have been deleted and even if it is still within the 30 day window, the report will no longer be accessible online. When accessing the report online, the first time, it is very important that you download the report to your computer and confirm the download we successful before exiting the results portal.

Results of fingerprint-based checks are often returned within 24 hours or less. However, as processing times are dependent on FBI backlog, you should allow 3-5 business days to receive the results.

No. If you require an apostille for your CHRI report you must request a signed and sealed copy of the CHRI directly from the FBI. Refer to the following FBI website for details. An apostille is a certification process through which the US Department of State assures participating foreign countries that the document is a genuine US government agency document.

Yes. Your criminal history results will be displayed to you in PDF format. We urge you to save and/or print a hard copy of this file for your records. Once your electronic results have been purged from our system, you will not be able to access them without completing the process again. (Download free Adobe Reader).