FBI Identity History Summary: How to Request, Submit, and Correct

To request your FBI Identity History Summary, send the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division three things: a completed request form, an original fingerprint card on Form FD-1164, and the $18 processing fee. You can submit electronically through a participating U.S. Post Office, by mail to CJIS in Clarksburg, West Virginia, or through an FBI-approved channeler. The report, sometimes called a rap sheet, lists arrests and dispositions tied to your fingerprints in the FBI’s national database.

What to Gather Before You Submit

Every request has the same three pieces. Missing any one of them stalls or cancels the whole submission, so put the package together before you start.

The Request Form

Download the Identity History Summary Request Form from the FBI’s Identity History Summary Checks page. It asks for your full legal name, date of birth, place of birth, and the last four digits of your Social Security number.¹ Providing the Social Security digits is technically voluntary, but the FBI cannot process your request without them.²

Check every field before mailing. A misspelled name or a transposed digit in your date of birth can keep the system from matching your prints to an existing record, and you would have to start over.

Your Fingerprints

The FBI requires a current, original fingerprint card on Form FD-1164.³ Photocopies and scanned images don’t carry the ridge detail the FBI needs. Get printed at a local police department, sheriff’s office, or private fingerprinting service; expect a separate fee to the provider, generally somewhere in the $20 to $60 range depending on location and whether you go to a government agency or a commercial shop.

All information on the card must be typed or printed in black ink.² The FBI accepts FD-1164 cards printed on standard white paper, though many fingerprinting agencies prefer heavier card stock.³

Ask the technician to check the card for clarity before you leave. Smudged or faint impressions can be classified as illegible and get your entire request returned. If that happens, you’ll need to be re-fingerprinted and resubmit, but the FBI will not charge a second processing fee when the first set of prints was identified as illegible.

Payment

The $18 fee is non-refundable.³ If you’re mailing your request, pay by money order or certified check made payable to the Treasury of the United States, or fill out the FBI’s Credit Card Payment Form and enclose it.⁴ Do not send cash, personal checks, or business checks. Those will not be returned and will be destroyed.

Choose How to Submit

You have three routes. Electronic submission through the Post Office is the fastest official option. Mail is slower but needs no internet access. A channeler costs more but can shave time off the turnaround.

Electronic Submission Through the Post Office

Submit your request electronically through the FBI, then visit a participating U.S. Post Office to have your fingerprints captured and sent electronically as part of the same request.³ Not every post office participates, so check the FBI’s site or call ahead. The Post Office may charge additional fees on top of the $18. You can opt in to email status notifications during the process.

Results from electronic submissions are delivered electronically, with an option to also receive a hard copy by First-Class Mail.³ The FBI does not publish a guaranteed turnaround, but this route is faster than mail.

Mail-In Submission

Put your completed request form, original FD-1164 fingerprint card, and payment into one envelope and mail it to:

FBI CJIS Division – Summary Request
1000 Custer Hollow Road
Clarksburg, WV 26306⁵

Use a trackable shipping method to confirm delivery. Once CJIS receives and validates your payment, your request enters the queue. Requests are processed in date order, so there is no way to jump the line on a standard mail-in submission.³ Results come back by U.S. First-Class Mail to the address on your form, and delivery can run several weeks depending on volume and transit.

FBI-Approved Channelers

Channelers are private companies the FBI has approved to accept your fingerprints, forward them electronically to CJIS, and deliver results back to you faster than the standard mail-in route.⁶ They charge their own service fee on top of the FBI’s $18, and turnaround varies by company. If you’re facing a tight deadline for a visa or overseas job, a channeler can be worth the extra cost. The FBI publishes the current list of approved channelers on its site.

What Will Come Back

If the FBI has records tied to your fingerprints, your Identity History Summary lists arrest charges, arrest dates, and the disposition of each case when that information is available.⁷ It may also include probation, parole, or corrections information submitted by federal, state, and tribal jurisdictions. If nothing matches, you’ll receive a “no record” response instead.

Read the report carefully. Arrest entries sometimes appear without a final disposition because the court or agency never sent that update to the FBI. That gap can make a case look pending when it was actually dismissed or ended in acquittal years ago. The report is only as complete as what agencies have submitted; if a local police department never forwarded fingerprints after an arrest, that arrest will not show up.³ The FBI also has no authority over sealing or expungement of state-level records, so for a full picture in a particular state, contact that state’s identification bureau directly.

Fixing Errors in Your Report

You can challenge inaccurate or incomplete entries at no cost. Send a written request to the FBI that identifies the specific entries in dispute and attach supporting documents such as court records, a docket sheet, or an expungement order.³ Challenges are processed in date order, and the FBI typically responds within 45 days.

You can also go straight to the agency that originally submitted the entry and ask them to correct it. When you challenge through the FBI, the bureau forwards your dispute to that contributing agency and asks them to verify or correct the record, then updates its file based on their response.⁸ Walking into a county clerk’s office with proof in hand can sometimes resolve things faster.

If You Need the Report for a Foreign Government

Many foreign governments require an apostille on an FBI background check before accepting it for a visa, work permit, or international adoption. An apostille is a certificate from the U.S. Department of State confirming the document is authentic. To get one, send your original Identity History Summary with Form DS-4194, a $20 fee per document, and a self-addressed prepaid return envelope to the State Department’s Office of Authentications, listing the destination country on the form.⁹ Routine mail processing runs about five weeks and is not expedited. If you’re planning an international move, request your FBI report early enough to leave room for both the FBI’s processing time and the apostille afterward.

Sending Someone Else or Changing Your Address

If you want an attorney or another person to handle the request, include a signed release authorizing the FBI to share your results with that person. Someone else may also pay the $18 fee on your behalf. If your address changes after you submit, complete the FBI’s Address Change Request Form and fax it to (304) 625-9792 or email it to identity@fbi.gov.³

1
FBI.gov. Identity History Summary Request Form
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Federal Bureau of Investigation. FD-1164 Identity History Summary Request
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Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Frequently Asked Questions
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Federal Bureau of Investigation. Credit Card Payment Form
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Federal Bureau of Investigation. Requesting FBI Records
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Federal Bureau of Investigation. List of FBI-Approved Channelers for Departmental Order Submissions
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U.S. Department of Justice. Job Aid – How to Read an Identity History Summary
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eCFR. Title 28 CFR Part 16 – Section 16.34
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U.S. Department of State. Requesting Authentication Services