If you’re an American applying for second citizenship or residency, there’s a good chance you’ll have to submit an FBI background check as part of your document package. Sometimes it’s called a “rap sheet” or “criminal history.” The official name for the background check is an FBI Identity History Summary (“IdHS”).
Here, we’ll call it either the FBI IdHS or the FBI background check.
In this article, we’ll go over the important basics of what exactly the FBI IdHS is, the information it contains, who houses the records, how they get the information, and of course, most importantly how to make corrections, especially if they’ll benefit your second citizenship application.
The report typically spans 2-6 pages in length and sports an acronym-rich economy of expression that one might expect from the FBI. An explainer on how to decipher the acronyms can be found here .
Applicants who have walked the straight and narrow have two-page reports that state there is “no arrest data at the FBI” whereas freewheeling former frat boys may have four, five or six page reports.
An FBI IdHS from a subject with no criminal record. Hopefully yours looks like this .
The three ways to get your FBI background check are a) by fingerprinting at an approved USPS location, b) via an FBI approved channeler or c) by mailing old fashioned paper fingerprint cards.
If you’re going to tussle with paper and ink, you’ll need an FD-1164 (shown below). Make sure you have plenty of wet paper towels and patience.
Step-by-step guides on how to order the report can be found here and here . Instructions to apostille the report can be found here .
One can request their FBI IdHS from the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (“ CJIS ”) Division, which, of course, is part of the FBI. The FBI in turn, is a sub-agency of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”).
The FBI CJIS houses the data on the FBI IdHS and receives the request for a copy of the FBI IdHS.
However, the FBI CJIS is not the source of the data appearing on the IdHS. The data on the FBI IdHS is submitted by local, state, and federal criminal justice agencies. These include law enforcement agencies, courts, prosecuting agencies, and parole agencies. This is an important point because if one seeks to correct any data relating to an arrest, charging or conviction on the FBI IdHS, the request for correction must be made to the criminal data repository for the state the criminal justice agency that submitted the data to the FBI CJIS is located in (for state-level criminal justice agencies). We'll explain this point further below and give an example.
