North Carolina’s Form F-3, the Personal History Statement, is the sworn document every applicant for law enforcement, justice officer, or telecommunicator certification must complete and have notarized within 120 days of the employment date. Your hiring agency uses it as the roadmap for a full background investigation. It is not a job application, and the North Carolina Department of Justice draws that distinction clearly: the F-3 exists so an investigator can verify your history against independent records.
Both the Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission and the Sheriffs’ Education and Training Standards Commission require the same form.
Where to Get the Form
Most agencies hand you a copy during the application process, but the current version (January 2021) is also posted on the Sheriffs’ Education and Training Standards Commission’s forms page on the NC DOJ website. Download the supplements at the same time: the Additional Work History form and the Additional Charges form give you room to keep going when the main document runs out of lines.
You will also see Form F-8, the Mandated Background Investigation Form, on the same page. You do not fill that one out. Your agency’s background investigator completes the F-8 separately.
What to Gather Before You Start
The F-3 asks for exact dates, addresses, phone numbers, and names going back ten years or more. Filling it out from memory almost guarantees discrepancies, and every discrepancy slows your investigation. Pull the following together first:
- Every residential address for the past ten years, with street address, city, state, county, and landlord name.
- Every employer for the past ten years, or back to age 16 if that reaches further, with supervisor names, exact dates, duties, and the reason you left.
- Education records for high school (including whether it was traditional, homeschool, GED, or distance learning) and any colleges or continuing education programs, with dates and degrees.
- Your DD-214 if you served in the military, showing the characterization of each discharge.
- Financial information: total current debts, average monthly expenses, credit references with account balances, and any civil judgments or bankruptcies.
- Criminal and traffic history: dates, courts, and dispositions for every citation, arrest, or charge, including anything dismissed or expunged, and any incident where you were questioned as a suspect.
- Names and current contact information for personal references.
Investigators compare every answer against independent records. A wrong date or forgotten employer becomes a flag you then have to explain.
Working Through the Sections
The form is laid out in a logical order. Go straight through rather than jumping around.
Personal Information
Full legal name, prior names and aliases, Social Security number, date and place of birth, citizenship, and contact details. This section also asks whether you object to wearing a uniform, working nights, working rotating shifts, or being away from home overnight. A “yes” is not a trick; it signals a potential mismatch with the job.
Education and Residences
List every school and program with dates, degrees, and fields of study, then walk your address history back ten years starting with where you live now. Include each landlord’s name. The investigator may call them.
Family History
Marital status, current and former spouses, biological and adopted children and stepchildren, other dependents, whether any immediate family member is incarcerated or on probation, and whether you are related to anyone employed at the hiring agency. Answer every sub-question. Blanks read as evasive even when the honest answer is “no.”
Financial History
Total debts, average monthly expenses, any income beyond your salary, credit references with amounts owed, and any civil judgment or bankruptcy. Your investigator will pull credit independently, so your figures need to be in the right range. You do not need to know your credit score. You do need an honest accounting of what you owe.
Work History
Every employer for the past ten years or back to age 16. For each one: supervisor, dates, duties, and reason for leaving. If you were terminated, say so. The investigator will confirm it with the employer, and the lie is worse than the termination. The section also asks whether a criminal justice agency ever withdrew a conditional offer, and whether any professional certification or license you held was suspended or revoked. Use the Additional Work History supplement if you run out of room.
Military Service
Service dates, branch, rank, and discharge characterization for each period of service, backed by your DD-214. A less-than-honorable discharge does not automatically disqualify you, but it draws close scrutiny during the moral character review.
Criminal and Traffic History
This is where most applications succeed or fail. Disclose every criminal charge, traffic violation, citation, and arrest, including anything dismissed or expunged, and any time you were questioned as a suspect. Your answers get checked against statewide court records through the Administrative Office of the Courts system and national databases through the Division of Criminal Information network. Use the Additional Charges supplement if you need more space. Leaving something out because you assumed it did not count is the fastest way to create a discrepancy that derails everything else.
Getting the Form Notarized
The completed F-3 has to be notarized before your agency will accept it. That means appearing in person before a commissioned North Carolina notary public, showing government-issued photo identification, and signing the form while the notary watches. The notary then applies a seal and signature certifying that you swore to your statements. Once notarized, the F-3 is a sworn affidavit, and a false answer carries the same weight as lying under oath.
Under North Carolina law a notary may charge up to $10 per signature for an in-person acknowledgment or jurat. Remote online notarization is capped at $25 per signature. Banks, law offices, and shipping stores commonly offer notary services, and some hiring agencies keep a notary on staff.
Submitting the Form
Submit the notarized F-3 to your hiring agency, not to the state. Most agencies want the original with the notary’s wet seal, so hand-deliver it or use a trackable mailing service. Photocopy the whole packet for yourself before you turn it in. The 120-day deadline from your employment date applies under both the Criminal Justice Commission’s rules and the Sheriffs’ Commission’s rules.
What the Investigator Does With It
Your agency’s background investigator uses the F-3 as the basis for the investigation documented on Form F-8. Verification runs through several channels: a statewide court search through the Administrative Office of the Courts, a national criminal check through the Division of Criminal Information network, an out-of-state name query if you have lived elsewhere, direct contact with former employers and your personal references, an independent credit check, and confirmation of your DD-214.
The investigator then signs a statement saying whether the results match what you reported. If a discrepancy shows up, NC DOJ guidance says you should be given a chance to update the F-3 before the packet moves to the Division, especially when the issue involves criminal history. A pattern of omissions or a deliberate lie is treated differently and can end the process.
Convictions That Will Keep You From Certification
Before you spend hours on the form, know the automatic bars. For law enforcement officer applicants, the Criminal Justice Commission prohibits certification if you have been convicted of:
- Any felony.
- Any crime punishable by more than two years of imprisonment.
- A Class B misdemeanor within five years of your application date.
- Four or more Class B misdemeanors regardless of when they occurred.
- Four or more Class A misdemeanors, unless the most recent conviction was more than two years before your application date.
Federal law adds a separate bar. The Lautenberg Amendment permanently prohibits anyone convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence from possessing a firearm, with no exemption for law enforcement. Because the job requires carrying a firearm, that conviction effectively disqualifies you from any armed law enforcement role. The prohibition applies retroactively to convictions before the 1996 law, and a state-level expungement does not restore firearm rights. Only a federal court order or a presidential pardon does.
Applicants must also be U.S. citizens, at least 20 years old (18 for telecommunicators), high school graduates or the equivalent, and must pass a medical exam, psychological screening, drug screen, and the full background investigation. The psychological screening is valid for one year from the date it was administered.