How Far Back Does a Fingerprint Background Check Go?

How many years back a fingerprint background check goes depends less on the fingerprints and more on the law that governs the report. The FBI’s criminal history database has no expiration date, so a fingerprint match can pull up an arrest or conviction from decades ago. What a requester actually sees, though, is filtered by federal reporting limits, state restrictions, and the reason the check is being run. For most private employment checks, non-conviction records older than seven years drop off. For licensing, law enforcement, and higher-salary jobs, the record can go back indefinitely.

The FBI Database Has No Time Limit

The FBI stores criminal history through its Next Generation Identification (NGI) system, which replaced the older IAFIS in 2011.¹ A fingerprint submission is compared against NGI and cross-referenced with the National Crime Information Center and the Interstate Identification Index.²

The file contains every arrest, detention, indictment, and formal charge reported by federal, state, local, and tribal agencies, along with the outcome: conviction, acquittal, sentencing, or release.² Nothing in that file ages out on its own. There is no automatic seven-year purge, no ten-year rollover. The database is a permanent ledger, and that permanence is why fingerprint-based checks are treated as more thorough than name-based commercial searches.

The reach of any given check, then, comes down to the rules that decide what part of the ledger the requester is entitled to see.

The Seven-Year Rule for Employment Checks

When a private employer hires a background check company to run your fingerprints, the Fair Credit Reporting Act controls what the report can contain. Under the FCRA, a consumer reporting agency cannot report arrest records older than seven years.³ The same cap applies to civil suits, civil judgments, and other “adverse items of information.”

Convictions are treated differently. The FCRA explicitly carves them out of the seven-year limit, so a conviction can be reported no matter how old it is. If you have a felony conviction from 25 years ago, a compliant employment background check can still surface it.

The seven-year clock on a non-conviction arrest runs from the date the arrest was entered, not from the date charges were dropped or the case was dismissed.⁴ So a case that dragged on for years before being dismissed can still fall off seven years after the original arrest date.

The $75,000 Salary Exception

The seven-year restriction disappears entirely for higher-paying positions. If the job pays $75,000 or more per year, the FCRA’s limits on reporting arrests, civil suits, and other adverse non-conviction information do not apply.³ At that salary threshold, a consumer report can go back indefinitely on everything, not just convictions. The threshold has never been adjusted for inflation since the FCRA was enacted, so more jobs fall above it each year.

When the FCRA Does Not Apply at All

The FCRA governs only reports prepared by consumer reporting agencies. When a government agency runs your prints directly through the FBI’s database for licensing, security clearance, or law enforcement purposes, the FCRA is not in the picture. Those checks return the full, unfiltered record regardless of age. Federal regulations authorize dissemination of the complete criminal history for these purposes.⁵ If you are applying for a professional license, a job with a state or federal agency, or a firearms-related check, assume the requester will see everything.

State Laws Can Shorten the Window Further

A number of states impose tighter rules than the FCRA, and where state law is stricter, it controls. Some states ban reporting non-conviction records entirely, no matter how recent. Others extend the seven-year cap to convictions as well, at least for jobs below a certain salary. A few states have eliminated the $75,000 salary exception, so the seven-year limit applies regardless of what the job pays.

The specifics vary widely. Some states restrict reporting of misdemeanor convictions after a set number of years while leaving felonies reportable indefinitely. Others allow employers to consider only convictions directly related to the job. Because these laws differ so much and change often, checking your state’s rules before assuming what will or won’t appear is worth doing.

State reporting limits generally do not apply to law enforcement or federal security clearance reviews. The full federal record remains accessible to those users.

Expunged and Sealed Records Can Still Surface

A state expungement or sealing order is supposed to make a record disappear from background checks, and for most private employer searches it does. The FBI’s database is a separate system, though, and a state court order does not automatically update it. After a state expungement, the state agency that originally reported the record has to separately ask the FBI to update or remove the entry. When that step is skipped, the old record can keep appearing on federal fingerprint checks years later.

The FBI will remove or modify an entry at the request of the agency that submitted it, or on a federal court order specifically directing expungement.⁶ If you have had a state record expunged and want the FBI’s file to reflect that, the FBI directs you to contact the State Identification Bureau in the state where the offense occurred.

Even when an expungement is processed, some authorized users may still see the record. Law enforcement agencies and certain employers legally permitted to access sealed records keep that access. How much protection expungement provides depends on the state’s statute and the type of check being run.

Juvenile Records

Juvenile adjudications receive more protection than adult records. Most states require juvenile fingerprints to be returned or destroyed in certain situations, such as when no charges are filed, when the case ends favorably, or when the person reaches the age of majority. Only about a third of jurisdictions forward juvenile fingerprints to a central repository at all, and fewer send them to the FBI.

Where juvenile records do exist federally, state laws often restrict whether they can be shared for employment or licensing. A standard fingerprint check for a civilian job or professional license will rarely surface juvenile records. The main exceptions are law enforcement positions, security clearances, and firearms-related checks. The 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act expanded the use of juvenile records specifically for firearm eligibility checks on people under 21.⁷

See Your Own Record Before Someone Else Does

You have the right to see what the FBI has on file under your fingerprints, through what is called an Identity History Summary check. The fee is $18. You can submit fingerprints electronically at a participating U.S. Post Office, go through an FBI-approved channeler, or mail a completed fingerprint card directly to the FBI.⁶

Requesting your own record before applying for a job or license that requires fingerprinting lets you see exactly what will come up and gives you time to fix problems. Many FBI files are incomplete because a local agency never reported the final outcome of a case, so an arrest that ended in dismissal can appear without any notation that the charges went nowhere.

If your summary contains inaccurate or incomplete information, you can challenge it at no cost. The challenge should identify the entries you believe are wrong and include supporting documentation, such as court records showing a dismissal or proof of expungement. The FBI estimates a response within about 45 days.⁶ Missing disposition data is the most common problem, and the fix usually involves getting the arresting agency or court to submit the outcome to the FBI. For questions about the challenge process, the FBI can be reached at identity@fbi.gov or 304-625-5590.

Fixing the state record and the federal record are two separate processes. Completing one does not complete the other, so if a record concerns you, plan to work both channels.

1
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Next Generation Identification (NGI)
2
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Privacy Impact Assessment for the Fingerprint Identification Records System (FIRS) Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) Outsourcing for Noncriminal Justice Purposes – Channeling
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 15 – 1681c Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
4
SHRM. FCRAs Seven-Year Reporting Window Begins with Charge Not Dismissal
5
eCFR. 28 CFR 20.33 Dissemination of Criminal History Record Information
6
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Frequently Asked Questions
7
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. Crime Data Bipartisan Safer Communities Act