Expedited Criminal Background Checks

Residencies & citizenships
1

I have not yet selected which fund I will invest in for my PGV, but I want to get moving on the documents needed. I have looked at the FBI site and they show “chanellers” which can provide expedited service in obtaining a CR, some of which offer electronic results emailed within days (would these meet the requirement?). Does anyone have any experience regarding the quickest way to meet the PGV requirement for FBI Criminal Records?

2

Just go to the post office. We got our background checks back same day, like within a couple of hours.

The bigger issue is getting said background check apostilled, which takes many weeks!

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I never quite figured out what Chanellers do. But the process without chanellers is simpler than I thought. This is all from memory, but:

  • go to the FBI website and submit an online request, I think you end up at https://www.edo.cjis.gov/
  • you get an email straight back with a link and a PIN. Using those you complete your application online
  • you get another email straight back from FBI confirming receipt of your application
  • Then go to https://ips.usps.com/IdentityCapture/ to register with the USPS fingerprint service. Once done, go to your nearest USPS that does fingerprinting. You submit your prints electronically, pay $50, they send them electronically to FBI
  • within minutes (in our case at least) you should get an email back with your FBI record (hopefully clean!)

Some people on these forums have said it’s sufficient to file that as part of your initial SEF application. But to get an apostille, we used Monument Visa. You register and pay them, email them the FBI report, and they put it in to DoJ for apostille. Takes a few weeks (in our case six, others have recently said it’s four), but eventually they receive the apostille back and will FedEx it to you or your Portuguese lawyer as you prefer.

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4

Chanellers are useful if you cannot get an appointment with the USPS or other entity that will take your fingerprints electronically as @cj807 describes. Chanellers will do it electronically (in most cases) and allow appointments. I am not sure you can always get that with the USPS or other government entities, or at least you may have to wait longer for such appointments. Otherwise, its the same process with them and will take a few minutes to a few days to get your background check back. If you cannot find someone to take fingerprints electronically, then it will take quite a while as you will need to mail in a fingerprint card.

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