How to Request Your FBI Identity History Summary

To request your FBI Identity History Summary, submit a completed request form, a set of fingerprints on an FD-258 or FD-1164 card, and an $18 fee to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division. You have three ways to do it: electronically through the FBI’s online portal, by mail to Clarksburg, West Virginia, or through an FBI-approved channeler. The route you pick sets your price and your wait: electronic submissions come back in three to five business days, channelers often deliver in 24 to 48 hours, and mail runs twelve to fourteen weeks.¹

Who Can Submit the Request

Only you can request your own summary. A parent can request on behalf of a minor child, and a legal guardian can request on behalf of someone a court has declared incompetent. Citizenship is not a requirement; foreign nationals who have been fingerprinted in the United States at any point can use the same process, which is why the request often turns up in residency and work permit applications abroad.

What to Gather Before You Start

Biographical Information

The request form asks for your full legal name, date of birth, place of birth, country of citizenship, current mailing address, and the last four digits of your Social Security number.² One detail catches people off guard: if you want those last four digits printed on the response letter, you have to write either the last four or the full nine digits on the fingerprint card itself before submitting.¹ Many licensing boards and foreign consulates require those digits on the face of the summary, so check what the requesting agency expects before you submit.

Fingerprints

Prints must be taken on a standard FBI fingerprint card, either the FD-258 or the FD-1164, and must include clear rolled impressions of all ten fingers plus flat impressions of both hands.³ Poor-quality prints are the most common reason requests get bounced back, so use a local law enforcement agency or a certified fingerprinting vendor rather than trying to roll your own. Private fingerprinting typically runs $5 to $60 depending on the provider.

Submitting Electronically

The electronic option is the standard fast route directly with the FBI. Start on the FBI’s secure portal, complete the online application, and pay the $18 fee by credit card.⁴ After you register, the system gives you instructions for getting your fingerprints to the FBI.

You then have two choices. You can mail the completed fingerprint card in yourself, or you can have your fingerprints captured electronically at a participating U.S. Post Office. The Post Office option adds a $50 service fee on top of the FBI’s $18 but skips the mailing step entirely.⁵ Bring a valid government-issued photo ID and your FBI order confirmation number to the appointment.

Not every Post Office offers this service. Search by ZIP code on the USPS fingerprinting page before you commit to a location.⁶

Submitting Through an FBI-Approved Channeler

Channelers are private companies the FBI has authorized to accept your fingerprint submission, collect payment, and forward the request electronically to CJIS on your behalf.⁷ In many cases they deliver an electronic PDF within 24 to 48 hours, which makes this the fastest path available.

The tradeoff is price. Channelers set their own service fee on top of the $18 the FBI charges, and those fees vary. Two things to check before you pay: compare pricing across several providers, and confirm the company appears on the FBI’s official approved channeler list. The FBI will not process submissions that come through an unauthorized vendor.

Submitting by Mail

You can send the whole package to the FBI CJIS Division in Clarksburg, West Virginia. Include the completed request form, the fingerprint card, and $18 payment.² For mail submissions, the FBI accepts only a certified check or money order made payable to the Treasury of the United States. Personal checks, business checks, and cash will not be processed.¹

Mail works fine if nothing is on a clock. If you have a filing deadline for a visa, an adoption, or a licensing board, the electronic path or a channeler is worth the added cost.

How Long It Takes and How Results Arrive

Turnaround depends entirely on the route:

Electronic submission through the FBI: three to five business days after the FBI receives your fingerprints. The USPS electronic capture option shaves off the mail transit for the card.
FBI-approved channeler: often 24 to 48 hours, delivered as an electronic PDF.
Mail submission: twelve to fourteen weeks for processing, plus mail time in both directions.

The FBI does not offer expedited processing on any of these routes.¹ Your only real speed lever is which path you pick.

Results come back as either a secure electronic file you download or a hard copy mailed First-Class. The summary will read “No arrest data identified” if the FBI has nothing on file for your fingerprints, or it will list entries with arrest dates, charges, and dispositions where the outcome was reported.

If You Need It for Use in Another Country

Foreign governments almost always require the summary to carry an apostille, a certificate from the U.S. Department of State that authenticates the document under the Hague Apostille Convention. Without it, the FBI summary alone is not recognized in most treaty countries.

The Department of State’s Office of Authentications handles apostille requests. Submit the original FBI Identity History Summary along with Form DS-4194 and $20 per document.⁸ Timing again depends on how you submit:

Mail-in: allow five weeks from the date the office receives your request. Include a self-addressed prepaid return envelope using USPS or UPS postage, not FedEx. Pay by check or money order made payable to the U.S. Department of State.
Walk-in drop-off in Washington, D.C.: seven business days. Available Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., at 600 19th Street NW. Payment by credit card, debit card, or contactless only.
Emergency appointment: same-day processing, restricted to life-or-death emergencies involving an immediate family member abroad.

Plan backward from your deadline. Mail to the FBI plus mail to the State Department can put you four to five months out from a usable document. Electronic FBI submission paired with a walk-in apostille appointment compresses that considerably.

How Long the Summary Stays Good

The FBI does not stamp an expiration date on the Identity History Summary. It is accurate as of the moment the search was run, and that is all it claims. Whether a licensing board, an adoption agency, or a foreign consulate treats yours as current depends on that entity’s own rules. Some countries want the summary no older than six months; others accept up to a year. Confirm the freshness rule with whoever is asking for it before you submit, because reordering is far cheaper than being turned away.

If the Summary Comes Back With Errors

You can challenge information you believe is inaccurate or incomplete either by contacting the agency that submitted the entry or by writing to the FBI’s CJIS Division directly.⁹ A challenge must be in writing, must identify the specific entries in question, and should include supporting documentation such as a court docket, an expungement order, a final judgment, or a disposition form from the prosecutor’s office.¹ The FBI then contacts the submitting agency to verify or correct the entry.

Missing dispositions are the most common issue. To fix one, contact the clerk of the court where the case was resolved, request a certified copy of the final disposition, and submit that with your challenge. The FBI’s challenge process averages about 45 days from receipt.¹

Expungement works differently depending on the arresting jurisdiction. For state arrests, contact the State Identification Bureau in the state where the offense occurred, since expungement law varies by state. For federal arrests, the FBI removes the record only when the submitting agency requests it or when a federal court order specifically directs the expungement.¹

1
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Frequently Asked Questions
2
FBI.gov. Identity History Summary Request Form
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Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Request FD-1164
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Federal Bureau of Investigation. Credit Card Payment Form
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USPS.com. USPS Fingerprinting Services Registration
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USPS.com. USPS Fingerprinting Services Registration – Location Search
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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 State. Requesting Authentication Services
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Federal Bureau of Investigation. How to Challenge and How to Obtain Your FBI Identity History Summary