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Thread: USA to NZ - FBI Background Check

  1. #1
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    Smile USA to NZ - FBI Background Check

    It doesn't specify whether or not you have this sent from the FBI to you or to NZ immigration, but it needs to go in with your visa application, correct? so I assume we request the background check and have it sent to our house here in the US to include w/ visa app? anyone been through it?

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    Yes, have FBI send the report to your house, and include it together with your entire application packet.
    INZ will only start processing your application when you have every document required. I.e., if any one document is lacking in the packet, they will mail the entire pack back to you to be filled in.

  3. #3
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    I would recommend going through on the "FBI recommended channelers". We paid $50 and received my report within an hour via e-mail. From what I hear the $15/$20 extra is well worth not having to go through the FBI hassle.

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    Quote Originally Posted by iluvmykiwi View Post
    I would recommend going through on the "FBI recommended channelers". We paid $50 and received my report within an hour via e-mail. From what I hear the $15/$20 extra is well worth not having to go through the FBI hassle.
    really? hmm we already did our fingerprints at the police station and aren't in a huge hurry but good to know!

    ETA: I can't go through a channel anyway as a non US citizen

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by zjpq13 View Post
    really? hmm we already did our fingerprints at the police station and aren't in a huge hurry but good to know!

    ETA: I can't go through a channel anyway as a non US citizen
    For anyone else who is not in a huge hurry, but is a US citizen (and living in the US): the FBI will very quickly make you be in a hurry. They can easily take 12 weeks, and if your finger prints are less than perfect, it could be another 12 weeks.

  6. #6
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    Are you an alien resident? My husband got his fingerprints done in one place, then sent them through another FBI channeler and he got his without any issue. He's an alien resident. If you want I can inbox you the information of the place he went through.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by iluvmykiwi View Post
    Are you an alien resident? My husband got his fingerprints done in one place, then sent them through another FBI channeler and he got his without any issue. He's an alien resident. If you want I can inbox you the information of the place he went through.
    What's the point of the channeler? You can go to the police station and then send them to the FBI yourself. If you don't mind waiting the 12 weeks, why the middle man?

  8. #8
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    I could comment on sending the application directly to FBI - did it in Nov 2012.

    I did my finger prints in an NZ police station (for free), made sure it was very clear, and send it together with the application and bank draft to FBI. It was a nervous few weeks, plus it was nearing the ITA submission deadline, Christmas season and we were going away and all that. Sent off from NZ in mid November, got it back a few days before we left for vacation in end Dec. The good thing is, there is a number you could call to check on the status. Real human talking and checking for you! I was impressed

    More here: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/cri...est-to-the-fbi

    Submit this request as early as you can. I kept thinking I didn't have to do it since I left US soooo long ago surely it didn't matter anymore. Until a college friend asked me casually one day whether I needed to do it that I went back to the EOI list to find out that I need a report from every country I've lived more than 12 months in the last 10 years. I counted... I left the US 9 years ago! Oh my oh my... panic! Lesson learned: keep checking the checklist. Is there anything else you might have missed?
    Last edited by breeze; 26th January 2014 at 12:41 AM.

  9. #9
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    The point of the channeler is that they have much faster turnaround than going through the FBI directly (but you pay a price for this, obviously).

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by parpalhou View Post
    The point of the channeler is that they have much faster turnaround than going through the FBI directly (but you pay a price for this, obviously).
    I would add: Your more advanced states (dare I say California) have not done ink fingerprints for anything in over 10 years. This presents a couple of problems: 1) There are fewer and fewer people that know how to do them (or are so out of practice that they cannot do them without some practice) and 2) The places you would think would do them (e.g. police stations) have either stopped doing them, or will do them between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm every other Wednesday as a service to crazy people who want to request copies of their FBI record.

    We had ours done in 2009; at the time, mailing in ink fingerprints was the only way you could request a copy of said FBI record. I would hazard that the FBI was the only entity left in the US that was still requiring non electronic versions (even a copy of an electronic version was not adequate).

    Shortly thereafter, they began taking Livescan (I'm not sure if that's the name they use; it is what the California Board of Pharmacy called it in 1999). The only drawback I see is that it is more expensive than ink (which you can get done anywhere between free and $10, plus a small fee to the FBI). The drawbacks of ink I've already mentioned, but let me elaborate. Because the person at the police station has not done 15 of these the night before, he/she will not know what good prints are supposed to look like. You won't find out that the prints are no good until the FBI rejects them. There used to be an option to write "I'm in a hurry" on the envelope...this is like telling your mechanic you need your car back for the weekend. Everyone needs his/her car back for the weekend.
    Maybe their customer service has improved, but in 2009, there was a number you could dial, and a person would answer and say: "Not processed yet..." We had signed proof of receipt, but after that it goes into the abyss that is the US Government. If memory serves, medicals are only good for 4 months. Your first shot at fingerprints can take 3...we were coming up on the end, so my wife started getting desperate. I think she sent a third set (FedEx) with a prepaid FedEx envelope inside. She was getting ready to fly to DC when a friend who works for the FBI in DC pointed out that they are processed in West Virginia, where there is absolutely no "public face" to the organization. The person you talk to on the phone is in Maryland (going from my hazy 2009 memory).

    Pay the extra $50! I believe anyone currently living in the US can do Livescan; I would like to apologize on behalf of the US Government for anyone that has moved on already and must go the ink route.

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