Obtaining Your Identity History Summary Identity History Summary Checks for Employment or Licensing

If you are requesting a background check for employment or licensing within the U.S., you may be required by state statute or federal law to submit your request through your state identification bureau, the requesting federal agency, or another authorized channeling agency.

The FBI's authority to conduct an Identity History Summary check for noncriminal justice purposes is based upon Public Law (Pub. L.) 92-544. Pursuant to that law, the FBI is empowered to exchange Identity History Summary information with officials of state and local governments for employment, licensing — which includes volunteers — and other similar noncriminal justice purposes, if authorized by a state statute which has been approved by the Attorney General of the United States. The U.S. Department of Justice has advised that the state statute establishing guidelines for a category of employment or the issuance of a license must, in itself, require fingerprinting and authorize the governmental licensing or employing agency to exchange fingerprint data directly with the FBI.

An Identity History Summary search obtained pursuant to U.S. Department of Justice Order 556-73 may not meet employment requirements. Governmental licensing or employing agencies covered by federal laws and/or state statutes may refuse to accept Identity History Summary information directly from the subject of the summary, as there would be no way to verify that the information contained on the summary had not been altered. Also, an Identity History Summary provided to the subject for personal review contains only information maintained by the FBI and may lack dispositional data and/or arrest records that are maintained only at the state level.

You should contact the agency requiring the fingerprinting or the appropriate state identification bureau for the correct procedures to follow.