How to Apostille an FBI Background Check

First, make sure you have the right document

There are two different "background checks" in the US, and choosing wrong costs weeks:

• FBI Identity History Summary (federal) — issued by the FBI, covers the whole country. This is what most foreign work-permit offices require.
• State background check (e.g. a California DOJ Live Scan report) — covers one state only, and cannot be authenticated by the US Department of State. It goes to that state's Secretary of State instead, and most foreign employers won't accept it.

The process, step by step

1. Get fingerprinted

The FBI report requires fingerprints — the one step that genuinely requires a physical presence.

• In the US: electronic fingerprinting (Live Scan) at many UPS Stores, some police departments, and dedicated fingerprinting services; or ink cards (form FD-258).
• Already abroad: ink fingerprint cards can be taken locally in most countries and mailed to a US channeler. This works, but rejection rates for smudged or improperly rolled prints are meaningfully higher — and a rejection restarts the clock.

2. Order the FBI report

Two routes: directly from the FBI (edo.fbi.gov, roughly $18) which typically returns an electronic PDF within a few business days after electronic submission; or through an FBI-approved channeler (roughly $50), which is faster.

What you receive is an electronic PDF — this matters, because a printout of that electronic report is accepted for authentication. There is no "original" to hunt down.

3. Apostille through the US Department of State

The FBI report is a federal document. It must go to the US Department of State's Office of Authentications in Washington, DC — not to any state Secretary of State.

Your submission includes: the printed FBI report, a completed form DS-4194 stating the destination country, the federal fee (roughly $20 per document), and a prepaid trackable return label.

Timeline: standard mail processing has historically run four to eight weeks or longer. Expedited courier channels in DC typically deliver in about 5–10 business days.

4. Translation, if required

Many destination countries require a certified translation of both the report and the apostille page. Some receiving offices insist the translation be done locally in their country — confirm this before paying for a US-side translation.

5. Ship

Tracked international courier. Scan everything front and back before it leaves — if a package is lost, a complete digital record is what lets you rebuild quickly.

Three mistakes that cause rejections

Sending it to the wrong office

Mailing a federal FBI report to a state Secretary of State. The state has no authority over federal documents and will return it unprocessed — typically a month lost.

The report goes stale

Many work-permit offices require the FBI report to have been issued within the last six months. Here's the hidden trap: if your report is three months old and federal authentication takes another six weeks, plus translation and shipping, you may arrive at the receiving office right at or past the deadline. Count backward from the day it will be submitted abroad, not from today.

Rejected fingerprints

Especially with ink cards taken outside the US. A rejection means starting over. If your timeline is tight, use electronic fingerprinting when possible.

Doing it yourself vs. hiring help

DIY: roughly $40–60 in government fees and postage, and typically five to ten weeks at standard federal speed. If your deadline is comfortably distant, the steps above are the complete path — nothing is hidden.

Our service: we coordinate fingerprinting, obtain the report, prepare and submit the DS-4194, track it, arrange translation, and ship — with status updates throughout. Our expedited channel compresses the federal step from weeks to days when a start date is close.

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