U.S. citizens or anyone who has been in the United States for a certain period of time, may be asked to present a “certificate of good conduct” or “lack of a criminal record” for a variety of reasons for use abroad, including adoption, school attendance, employment, etc. There are a variety of options available to you seeking to obtain proof of your lack of a criminal record.
One is the FBI background check we've discussed before, click here for details.
Another is the Local Police Background Check. For the local report, you may get it from the city, county, or state department.
Which one should you have? A federal or a local background check?
In most cases, the country requesting the Apostille or Authentication for the Background Check will mention the government agency you should obtain it from.
So, how to get your local criminal background check and have it authenticated or apostilled? Here are the steps.
Apostille or Authentication of a local criminal background check
▶️ For Hague Apostille Countries.
Step 1: Get a notarized local criminal background check
Go to your local police department where you reside or last resided in the United States, request that the police conduct a local or state criminal records search and provide you with a document reflecting that there is no history of a criminal record. Local police departments may require your personal appearance in order to conduct the search. The local criminal background check you obtained should bear the officer's signature, and that signature must be notarized. You'll need to ask the police department to return you a notarized result or take a mobile notary with you if they do not have any notaries in their office.
Step 2: Get it apostilled by the Secretary of State of that issuing state
For a state-issued document, it does not require additional certification from the U.S. Department of State or the embassy or consulate of that destination country to be recognized. Once the apostille certificate is issued, you are all set!
You can do it step by step, or order our apostille service below.
▶️ For Non-Hague Apostille Countries.
Step 1: Get a notarized local criminal background check
Step 2: Get it authenticated by the Secretary of State
Step 3: Get it authenticated by the U.S. Department of State (if needed)
Step 4: Get it legalized by the embassy of your destination country in the U.S.
Below is our service package for the above steps.
Note: Please be aware of how old the local criminal background is. There are a few states that have set limits on how old a document can be. For example, documents issued from Virginia cannot be older than 12 months, and documents issued from Texas cannot be older than 5 years.
Then please mail us the original documents for further processing based on the instruction you received from our team.
That's it. Once the apostille or authentication process is completed, we will mail it to your mailing address, either domestically or internationally. Shipping costs apply.
We provide apostille, authentication, and embassy legalization services for other personal documents and corporate documents issued in 50 states and DC.
If you have any questions and do not know which service to order, please contact us by describing ① the type of the document, ② which state the doc is from, and ③ in which country the doc will be used, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
American Notary Service Center Inc. provides fair, fast, confidential, and professional document notarization and certification services for our clients. We also provide various assistance services to small businesses led by socially and economically disadvantaged groups. Our service helps small businesses obtain federal government contracts, gain a foothold in the market, and boost their sales. For more information, please visit our website at www.usnotarycenter.com, and contact us by calling 202-599-0777 or by email at info@usnotarycenter.com.