How to Get a Criminal Background Check on Yourself: FBI, State, Private

You can run a criminal background check on yourself through three sources: the FBI, your state’s criminal records agency, and the private screening companies that keep files on consumers. The FBI’s Identity History Summary Check costs $18 and is the standard starting point for a federal record. A state check often catches local arrests and dispositions the FBI never received. And under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the private companies that actually produce most employer background reports must show you what they have on file. Running these checks before an employer or landlord does gives you time to correct errors and, where the law allows, seal or expunge old records.

Request Your FBI Identity History Summary

The FBI Identity History Summary, sometimes called a rap sheet, is built entirely from fingerprint submissions sent to the FBI by law enforcement agencies. It lists the submitting agency, the date of each arrest, the charges, and the case outcome when the reporting agency provided one.¹ It can also reflect federal employment, naturalization, or military service records tied to your fingerprints.²

Know the limits before you rely on it. The FBI only sees events where fingerprints were submitted. Arrests by agencies that didn’t send prints, traffic infractions, civil matters, and many local ordinance violations won’t appear. Some agencies are slow to report dispositions, so an arrest may show without the dismissal or acquittal that followed. That gap is one of the most common problems people find when they pull their own record.

Three Ways to Submit

The fee is $18 no matter which route you pick.³

Electronically. Register through the FBI’s portal at edo.cjis.gov, then visit a participating U.S. Post Office to have your fingerprints captured digitally. Electronic requests process faster than mail, and results come back electronically with the option of a mailed copy. The Post Office may add its own fingerprinting fee.³

By mail. Send a completed fingerprint card and $18 by certified check, money order payable to the Treasury of the United States, or credit card to the FBI CJIS Division in Clarksburg, West Virginia. No cash, no personal checks.¹ Results return by First-Class Mail. Allow several weeks; the FBI does not expedite for any reason.

Through an FBI-approved channeler. Channelers are private companies that contract with the FBI to collect your prints and fee, forward the request electronically, and deliver results to you.⁴ They charge a service fee on top of the $18, but they roll fingerprinting and submission into one visit. The current list is on the FBI’s website.

If you cannot afford the $18, the FBI accepts fee waiver requests. Contact the CJIS Division at (304) 625-5590 or identity@fbi.gov for instructions before submitting.³

Order a State Criminal Records Check

A state check covers arrests and case outcomes processed inside that state and is maintained by an agency such as a state police department or bureau of investigation. Names differ by state.⁵ Because the state agency sits closer to the courts and local police, it often carries granular detail that never made it into the FBI system, especially for minor offenses.

Procedures vary. Most states offer some mix of online portals, mail-in forms, and in-person requests. Some accept name-based searches for personal requests; others require fingerprints. A handful require notarization. Fees typically fall between $15 and $65.

Find your state’s agency through the FBI’s State Identification Bureau Listing rather than a generic web search. Many commercial sites that look official are paid services reselling public data at a markup.

Ask Private Screening Companies for Your File

Most people don’t realize this: the background check an employer runs on you doesn’t come from the FBI. Employers hire private screening companies, called consumer reporting agencies under federal law, that build their own databases from court records, public records, and other sources. Those databases can differ from your FBI rap sheet, and they’re where errors most often cost people jobs and apartments.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives you the right to see everything in your file. Every nationwide consumer reporting agency must provide a free disclosure of your file once every twelve months on request.⁶ The agency must deliver the report within 15 days. Outside that free annual window you can still request the file at any time; the agency may charge a reasonable fee.

The disclosure must include all information in the file, its sources, and a list of everyone who requested a report on you in the past two years for employment purposes or the past year for other purposes.⁷ If you’ve already been denied a job or housing based on a screening report, the company that made the decision has to tell you which screening agency produced it. Contact that agency directly. If you don’t know who has files on you, the major employment screening firms accept consumer disclosure requests through their websites, and starting with a few of the largest is a reasonable approach.

Where to Get Fingerprinted

Both the FBI and many state agencies require fingerprints. Your options:

Local law enforcement. Many police departments and sheriff’s offices fingerprint the public. Costs run from free to around $35.
Participating U.S. Post Office locations, if you’re submitting an electronic FBI request.
Private services, including UPS Stores, dedicated fingerprinting businesses, and FBI-approved channelers. Higher price, more flexible hours.

Call ahead. Not every police station or Post Office offers the service, and some require appointments. If you’re using an ink card, press firmly and roll each finger evenly. Smudged prints are the most common cause of processing delays.

Fixing Errors on What Comes Back

Background check errors are more common than most people expect. Someone else’s record can attach to yours through a common name, dismissed charges can look like open cases when dispositions are missing, and outdated entries can linger past the point they should have been removed.

Disputing an FBI Entry

If your Identity History Summary is wrong or incomplete, you can challenge it by contacting the law enforcement agency that submitted the record or by sending a written challenge directly to the FBI’s CJIS Division. Identify which entries are wrong and attach supporting documents such as court records showing dismissal or acquittal. The FBI will contact the reporting agency to verify or correct the entry.¹ Most states also require corrections to move through the state identification bureau before the FBI’s file updates.⁵

Disputing a Private Screening Company

Consumer reporting agencies work under stricter timelines than the FBI. When you dispute information, the company must investigate and resolve the dispute within 30 days, extended to 45 total if you provide additional evidence during the review.⁸ The agency must notify you of the results within five business days after finishing. If it refuses to correct the record and you still disagree, you can add a brief statement to your file explaining the dispute.⁹

Creating obstacles for consumers trying to exercise these rights is itself an FCRA violation.¹⁰ If a company stonewalls you, document everything and consider filing a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Cleaning Up What You Find

Pulling your own record is often the first step toward cleaning it up. Expungement erases a record; sealing hides it from most public searches while keeping it accessible to law enforcement.

Most states have their own expungement or sealing statutes, and eligibility varies widely. Some states allow expungement of certain misdemeanors and low-level felonies after a waiting period. Others run “clean slate” laws that automate the process for qualifying offenses. Your state’s criminal records agency or a local legal aid organization can lay out the specific criteria.

Federal expungement is far narrower. There is no general federal expungement statute, and federal courts have no broad authority to erase records of a valid conviction. Courts can expunge only in limited circumstances, such as an arrest or conviction found invalid or the result of a clerical error. The main exception is the Federal First Offender Act: if you’re found guilty of simple drug possession under federal law, have no prior drug convictions, and haven’t previously received this treatment, a court can place you on probation for up to one year without entering a conviction, dismissing the case on successful completion. Full expungement of all records is available only if you were under 21 at the time of the offense.¹¹

Even when expungement isn’t available, pardons, certificates of rehabilitation, and restored rights can change what shows up on your FBI Identity History Summary.¹

1
Federal Bureau of Investigation. How to Challenge and How to Obtain Your FBI Identity History Summary
2
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Requesting FBI Records
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Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Frequently Asked Questions
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Federal Bureau of Investigation. List of FBI-Approved Channelers for Departmental Order Submissions
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Federal Bureau of Investigation. State Identification Bureau Listing
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681j – Charges for Certain Disclosures
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681g – Disclosures to Consumers
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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Long Does It Take to Repair an Error on a Credit Report
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy
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Federal Trade Commission. What Employment Background Screening Companies Need to Know About the Fair Credit Reporting Act
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3607 – Special Probation and Expungement Procedures for Drug Possessors