FAQ

Why Am I Being Fingerprinted?
Many industries including, but not limited to, banking, insurance, securities, healthcare and teaching are required by law to perform fingerprint-based background checks. For example, the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, 12 U.S.C. 1829 requires that banks perform fingerprint based background checks on employees. There are also many state-based laws that require employers to perform these types of background check.

If you are applying for a license, you are also required to have fingerprints taken. Insurance, securities, many healthcare professions, teaching and many other professional licenses require you to be fingerprinted. 

Once you are fingerprinted your fingerprints are, in most cases, sent to the FBI for a search of the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, more commonly known as IAFIS.  IAFIS is a national fingerprint and criminal history system maintained by the FBI.

Why Do You Need My Fingerprints to Search the FBI’s Database Rather Than Simply Using My Name?  
There are potentially many matches that would come up if we just searched the FBI’s database using your name. This would cause a great deal of confusion and inaccurate results.  Since your fingerprints are unique to you, the possibly of mismatched results is virtually impossible.