International Criminal Record Check

With the number foreign-born workers continuously growing in the labor force, your hiring process will need to correspond with this growth.

An International Criminal Record Check is being driven by this rapidly growing number of foreign-born workers as the baby boomer generation grows near retirement.

Foreign-born workers will continue to increase. The need for an International Criminal Record Check will be part of this increase with the addition of approximately 900,000 immigrants per year. A true national or official criminal search is found in very few countries as they are limited to felonies or serious matters.

Information Direct does not limit its search and allows an employer to demonstrate true diligence in the hiring process. This search also discourages international applicants to hide something in the information they’re providing. While the system for an International Criminal Record Check may not be perfect, all checks meet the requirements under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. All checks are conducted pursuant to a signed release.

Police Certificates

The Government does check international people before entering the United States, but certain documentation for international people may not be available in some countries. The US Consulate requires documents for anyone from a foreign country applying for an immigrant visa. One of those documents is a police certificate. But according to the Department of State, 38 countries, including Mexico, police certificates are not available.

A police certificate, by definition under the US Consulate, is a certification by the police or other appropriate police authorities reporting information entered in their records relating to the alien. But the term ‘appropriate police authorities’ can be defied differently. For example, an alien’s current residence or country of the alien’s nationality indicated in the visa application, an ‘appropriate police authority’ means those of a country, area or locality in which the alien has resided in for the last 6 months. In other countries, it could mean for at least one year.

For an International Criminal Record Check , a consular officer may require a police certificate regardless of length. That means the certificate can be required if there’s reason to believe that a police record exists in the country, area or locality in question.

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Police Certificates for Immigrants

Information Direct will adhere to laws provided in obtaining an International Criminal Record Check , while identifying the policies under the US Department of State in order to conduct searches and obtain records. One policy, 9 FAM 42.63 exhibit XI, consulate personnel are instructed not to attempt to obtain police certificates in countries where they are not available.

A police certificate may not be available for certain reasons. Reasons may be that the records don’t exist, or that the government makes it so difficult to obtain them that it causes hardship to the applicant in the requirement to obtain them.

Information Direct will assist in filtering the process to determine such requirements. As will be outlined in the search for an employer, a police certificate is only required of those applying for an immigrant visa. For non-immigrant visa applicants, they are asked if they have ever been arrested or convicted. Answering yes means it will need to be explained. A yes answer to that questions requires presentation of a police certificate. A no answer to that questions means that there is no further investigation to be conducted.

Non-Immigrant Visas

It’s important to identify the types of visas for non-immigrants, and Information Direct will help identify them for you because some are more prevalent than others. The different types of non-immigrant visas include F1 Student Visas. There are approximately 500,000 foreign students residing in the US on this visa.

The H1-B visa, in addition to the student visas, is also a non-immigrant visa and allows applicants with professional or specialized employment backgrounds to obtain employment in the US for an initial 3-year period. The H1-B visa has about 165,000 issued each year. Projections in 2001 and 2002 put the number of issued visas at approximately 195,000 per year.

For foreign workers to be brought in on seasonal businesses, there’s the J1 visa, or the exchange visitor visa. This is a non-immigrant visa among several others, which does not have a number for the volume at which they are issued each year.

International Applicants

Government screenings using law enforcement databases are utilized for some of the more extreme measures. Such searches conducted by the Department of State are designed to keep known terrorists out of the US and other international fugitives wanted by Interpol. They are not designed to keep out everyday citizens with minor run-ins with the law within their countries.

It will be noted in an International Criminal Record Check when there’s a change in visas. This may occur while someone from a foreign country is in the US. An individual could enter the US under a student visa, and after they are hired for employment, they can change their status to H1-B and then request a green card. But for this instance, during the screening process, they would never have submitted a police certificate unless the INS required additional documentation in granting their green card.

Reliable Information

The reliability of information in an International Criminal Record Check is one of the biggest, if not the biggest challenge. Despite other challenges whether during the screening or in obtaining the records, reliable information is the primary issue. Information Direct will only commit to the best available sources.

Because obtaining court data from foreign countries in an international search is not possible in most cases due to indexing issues or and poor record keeping, Information Direct conducts searches using the best available sources of information that comes from the court, police, prosecutor’s office or a combination of these sources to give you the most reliable and complete records.

Whether it’s a search in the US or a foreign country, there are no guarantees for information with the International Criminal Record Check . Searches go directly through court personnel, or agents from the country being searched if the dealing directly with court personnel is not possible. Agents however in most cases are private investigators and utilize their contacts. Their contacts will provide a search that utilizes the best available source of information for that country or the town or city that records are being searched.

The level of services you expect with searches with county records is the same level of service you can expect with records for foreign-born applicants. If required, certified documentation of results found in an International Criminal Record Check will be provided to you with an average turnaround time of 7 to 10 business days depending on the country.