Police Clearance Certificates

A Police Clearance Certificate, also known as a Criminal Background Check, Criminal Record Check, Certificate of Good Conduct, or in the case for Americans, an FBI Identity History Summary, is a document detailing an individual's criminal history. It is commonly required as part of a visa and/or citizenship application.

If you have lived longer than 180 days in countries outside the US, you are typically required to get background checks for those countries as well.

For your US background check, you will just need to get an FBI Identity History Summary, including an Apostille of the check and in some cases a sworn/certified Translation.

Getting an FBI Identity History Summary

This link provides information on ordering online or via mail. This process includes a check of your fingerprints, either through a hard card (physical paper where your fingerprints are recorded) or electronically.

The procedure prior does not include storage of the fingerprints nor reference to FBI or other federal fingerprint databases.

Note that ordering this document from outside the USA is extremely difficult due to the fingerprinting requirement.

The results that are mailed back to you then need to be forwarded to US Department of State Office of Authentications for an Apostille or authentication.

If you have resided on a permanent basis in other countries than the USA, you may need to obtain similar police certificates. Refer to the national law enforcement agencies of those countries for their procedures.