Do you need to apostille your Criminal Background Check?

When you plan to go to a foreign country for work, study, or another essential reason, you will be required to present a certificate, confirming that you have no criminal history or felonies which will impede your travel to the country of your destination. A standard document requested by a country of your destination in this case is a background check issued within the past 90 days with an apostille.

The most common reasons why a criminal background check is requested: 

• Application for a dual citizenship
• Application for Travel documents / Visa 
• Teaching abroad
• Study abroad
• International adoption
• Marriage abroad
• Inheritance 
• Retiring abroad
• Purchasing Property, etc.

The FBI, Police department, Sheriff, and State are authorized to issue a Background Check statement.  A majority of countries will accept an FBI Background Check with an apostille.  Your Background Check statement must be issued within the past 90 days to be acceptable. 

Please mail in the original or a certified copy to our office for apostille processing.
 
An apostille on your Background Check is always processed by the same state that issued your document. For example, if your Background Check was performed by the local Police, Sheriff, or State office in the State of Florida, only the Florida Secretary of State can authenticate your document. No Secretary of State is permitted to complete authentication of documents issued by a different State.  

If the country of your destination asks that a local police station provides a Background Check, you need to contact your local police station and ask them to write a letter stating that they don’t have any records of your criminal history. Typically, it takes a few business days to obtain a Police Background Check. Once your Background Check statement is available for pick up, you will need to bring a Notary Public with you to notarize the signature of the signing officer and to attest it with the affidavit. You are ready to mail your Police Background Check to our office for an apostille once you have your document signed and notarized. 

If the country of your destination asks that a local Sheriff’s Department performs a Background Check, you need to contact your local Sheriff’s Department and ask them to write a letter stating that they don’t have any records of your criminal history. Typically, it takes a few business days to obtain a Police Background Check from the Sheriff’s Department. Once your Background Check statement is available for pick up, you will need to bring a Notary Public with you to notarize the signature of the Deputy and to attest it with the affidavit. You are ready to mail your Police Background Check to our office for an apostille once you have your document signed and notarized. 

It is a little more complicated to obtain a Background Check from the Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of the Attorney General, as the results of the Background Check from DOJ are more extensive and typically include credit history and past employment verification in addition to the criminal record history. To apply for a DOJ Background Check, you should contact the Department of Justice in your state and file a formal request for the report. Your State’s Office of the Attorney General should provide you with detailed application instructions. Note, that not all state offices can process a Background Check. In this case, your State DOJ will direct you to the local Police or Sheriff’s department.

If you are required to provide an FBI Background Check you should contact an FBI-approved Channeler for detailed step-by-step instructions and a fingerprint card. As soon as you receive the results of your Background Check, please mail them to our office for apostille processing.  If you are out of the country and require an FBI background check, please contact an FBI-approved Channeler and they will provide you with instructions on how to obtain a digital copy of an FBI Background Check.  Please email us a pdf copy of your FBI background check for apostille processing.

The apostille process can be quite complex and if you are not familiar with it, it’s best to trust professionals like Multichoice Apostille to take care of it. If you need a USA apostille on a birth certificate, marriage certificate, death certificate, or other documents, please choose our apostille services. Multichoice Apostille has almost 20 years of experience in processing authentication documents for use abroad. We will take care of all the complicated details for getting your documents certified while you can focus on other things. We apostille USA birth certificate, death certificate, marriage certificate, divorce decree, school transcripts, FBI background check report, Social Security letter, and other documents. Multichoice Apostille is your unmatched service provider for USA apostille!

Our experts are available Monday through Friday from 10.00 AM to 6.00 PM. Please call us with any questions at 1-770-447-0360 or toll-free 866-416-0747, for easy-to-follow detailed instructions.