Live Scan results are sent straight to whoever ordered the background check, so there is no portal or receipt that lets you view them directly. To see what came back, you request your own copy of the underlying criminal history: the FBI Identity History Summary at the federal level ($18) and a personal-review copy from your state’s criminal record repository. Both are separate from the Live Scan your employer or licensing agency ran, and both use your fingerprints to pull the same records the requesting agency saw.
Why the Results Don’t Come Back to You
When an employer, licensing board, or government agency orders a Live Scan on you, the response is transmitted directly to that agency through secure electronic channels. You are not copied. This holds for both state-level checks and FBI checks. The requesting agency uses the information in its decision, but it has no obligation to hand you the raw results unless it plans to take adverse action against you based on what it found.1Federal Trade Commission. Using Consumer Reports – What Employers Need to Know
You submitted the fingerprints, so it feels like the results should return to you. The system is built around the requesting agency instead. To see what is actually in your file, you go through a separate personal review process at the federal level, the state level, or both.
Requesting Your FBI Identity History Summary
The FBI maintains a national, fingerprint-linked database of criminal history records. Your Identity History Summary, sometimes called a rap sheet, is the federal version of that record, and federal regulations give you the right to request your own copy.2eCFR. 28 CFR Part 16 Subpart C – Production of FBI Identification Records in Response to Written Requests by Subjects Thereof
You have two ways to submit the request:
- Through an FBI-approved channeler. Channelers are private companies authorized to collect your fingerprints electronically and forward them to the FBI. The FBI publishes a current list of approved channelers. Electronic submissions come back faster, but the channeler charges its own service fee on top of the FBI fee.3Federal Bureau of Investigation. List of FBI-Approved Channelers for Departmental Order Submissions
- By mail directly to the FBI. You send a completed FD-258 fingerprint card and your payment to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division in Clarksburg, West Virginia. Slower, but no channeler surcharge.
The FBI’s fee is $18, payable by certified check or money order to the U.S. Treasury.4eCFR. 28 CFR Part 16 Subpart C – Section 16.33 Channelers may accept credit cards for their portion. Electronic requests can turn around in a few business days; mail-in requests take several weeks.
One boundary worth noting: an Identity History Summary obtained for personal review cannot be used for employment, licensing, or adoption purposes. If someone else needs the result, it has to come through the requesting agency or a state identification bureau.5Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Review
Requesting Your State Criminal History Record
Your state criminal record is maintained separately from the FBI’s file and may contain different information. Each state runs its own criminal record repository, and each sets its own procedure. In most states, you submit fingerprints through an electronic fingerprinting provider (the same Live Scan technology) along with a state-specific application form and a processing fee. Some states still accept mail-in fingerprint cards.
State fees for personal record review generally run from around $10 to $40. The fingerprinting provider usually charges a separate rolling fee for capturing your prints, which can add $20 to $60 or more depending on location. Some states waive fees for people receiving public assistance or meeting a low-income threshold, so it is worth checking before you pay.
Use the correct form. The application, reason code, and mailing address for a personal review are not the same as what an employer or licensing agency would submit. Filing on the wrong form gets your request rejected or routed to the wrong place. Your state attorney general or department of public safety website will have the right forms and instructions.
Reading What Comes Back
An FBI Identity History Summary is built from fingerprint submissions the FBI has received from federal, state, and tribal agencies. It lists arrests, the agencies that submitted the fingerprints, arrest charges, and dispositions when the FBI has them. It can also include records tied to federal employment, military service, or naturalization.6eCFR. 28 CFR Part 16 Subpart C – Section 16.31
Convictions, sentencing, and fines appear. So do arrests that never led to a conviction: if the arresting agency submitted prints but never followed up with a disposition, the arrest can sit on the record indefinitely with no resolution shown. Most disputes start here.
Sealed and expunged records are the other common trouble spot. Court orders to seal or expunge are supposed to remove records from the databases, but there can be a real lag between a court order and the FBI file being updated. If something appears that should have been sealed or expunged, that is exactly the kind of error to challenge.
Your Rights if an Employer Ordered the Check
If an employer is running the background check and considers using it to deny you a job, the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act imposes specific obligations before and after that decision.
Before taking adverse action based on a background report, the employer must give you a copy of the report it relied on and a written summary of your rights under federal law.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports This pre-adverse action step is supposed to let you review the report and flag errors before the decision is finalized.1Federal Trade Commission. Using Consumer Reports – What Employers Need to Know
If the employer then denies you, it must send a separate adverse action notice with the name and contact information of the company that supplied the report, a statement that the reporting company did not make the hiring decision, and notice of your right to dispute the report’s accuracy and obtain a free copy within 60 days.1Federal Trade Commission. Using Consumer Reports – What Employers Need to Know
Employers also need your written consent before ordering the check, provided through a standalone disclosure document.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports Skipping any of these steps may violate federal law. People lose job offers over background check errors all the time and never push back because they do not know these protections exist.
Fixing Errors on Your Record
Challenging the FBI Record
You can submit a formal challenge to the FBI at no cost. Identify the information you believe is wrong and attach supporting documents, such as court records, dismissal orders, or proof of identity theft.8Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Frequently Asked Questions
The FBI’s average response time is about 45 days from receipt. The FBI is not the source of most arrest data on the record; it compiles what local and state agencies send in. If the error originated at the local level, the FBI may direct you to the submitting agency to correct the source record. For federal arrest data, expungement from the FBI’s file happens only at the submitting agency’s request or by a federal court order specifically directing expungement.8Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Frequently Asked Questions
Challenging the State Record
State challenges follow procedures set by each state’s repository. In most states, a dispute form comes with your record copy. Fill it out, attach supporting documents, and submit it to the state agency for review. If the state denies the challenge, many jurisdictions offer an administrative hearing as a next step. Your state attorney general or department of public safety has the specific forms and mailing addresses.
Keep copies of everything you submit, and follow up if you have not heard back within the stated timeframe. An uncorrected record produces the same bad result every time a new background check runs.
If the Check Seems Stuck
For an employer or licensing check, contact the requesting agency first. It can usually check the status of your submission and tell you whether results are pending, completed, or flagged. Many states also offer an online status tool where you enter the transaction identifier number from your Live Scan receipt along with your date of birth.
Fingerprint rejection is the most common cause of delay. Poor-quality prints trigger automatic rejection, and you go back to a fingerprinting provider to resubmit. After a first rejection, you are typically not charged the government processing fee again, though the provider may or may not waive its rolling fee. Bring the rejection notice; it contains transaction numbers the provider needs.
Not every rejection is about print quality. Data entry errors cause a surprising share of problems: prints submitted out of sequence, wrong transaction numbers, incorrect demographic codes. If you have been rejected more than once for quality despite clean prints, ask the provider to double-check the data fields before resubmitting.
For personal record requests sent directly to the FBI by mail, processing simply takes longer. If several weeks have passed without a response, contact the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division for a status update. Electronic submissions through approved channelers move faster and usually provide tracking or confirmation numbers so you can follow progress yourself.