According to our home study agency:
As of September 2008, it is required that every prospective adoptive parent and any adult family member/co-habitant, obtain an FBI clearance, in addition to the Department of Justice (DOJ) / Child Abuse Clearance. To obtain FBI clearances you must have a Live Scan done.
The Live Scan involves going to a government approved Live Scan location and having high tech pictures of your fingerprints taken. The prints are immediately sent to the FBI.
The Request for Live Scan is a form in triplicate. One copy stays with the person who takes the Live Scan. One copy goes to the Department of Social Services or equivalent agency, and one copy stays with you.
If you type “Live Scan” and your state into your favorite search engine, you should come up with a list of Live Scan locations near you. If you don’t, then contact your local Sheriff’s agency.
Back in 2005, the closest Live Scan location for us was the County Courthouse. This time around, there are three Live Scan locations within 6 miles of our house. We called one of them, made an appointment, and showed up at the appropriate time.
The woman rolled each of our fingers over a nifty scanner. She could see which prints were good and which weren’t, and was able to take the prints as many times as necessary to get a good, clear print. Our son came with us, and he was a little bummed that he didn’t get his prints taken, so she took his thumbprint. Jack was so excited! He said, “Now I get to adopt my baby sister too!”
I asked what happened in the case of missing digits. She said that, if clear prints weren’t able to be taken, she would note that on the submission form. However, the FBI would simply reject the prints. Then, the person would have to come back and have their prints done again, this time using a different form. That form would go to an actual person, as opposed to just being checked by a computer.
A bit of trivia: Apparently, nurses and concrete contractors have the worst prints.
I asked why we had to go through this process again. Apparently, each time a criminal background check is requested, one must do another Live Scan. Live Scan results are shared only with the requesting agency.
The most frequently asked question is, How long do the results take to come back? I wish I had an answer. It varies. Some people report they’ve had their results in less than one month, others say two months.
