Live scan

Livescan Background Check

The California Department of Justice provides an automated service for criminal history background checks (live scan) that may be required as a condition of employment, licensing, certification, foreign adoptions or VISA/Immigration clearances.

For more information and to obtain instructions related to criminal history background check, please click on the links on the right.

Applicants must get instructions and the forms required for fingerprinting services from the agency requiring their criminal history background check. Since different forms are used, individuals seeking a "clearance letter" from the department for visa, immigration or foreign adoptions purposes should refer to the Visas, Immigration, and Foreign Adoptions sections to the right.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has revised the processing fee for federal level criminal offender record information (CORI) search requests.

Effective March 19, 2012 the FBI processing fee for the employee applicant type will be $17.00. The volunteer applicant type will remain $15.00.

This new processing fee is only for federal level CORI search requests sent to the FBI by the Department of Justice (DOJ). The $32.00 DOJ processing fee, for a state level CORI search, remains unchanged.

Questions may be sent to appagencyquestions@doj.ca.gov.

*Live Scan (Digitally Scanned Fingerprints)

All applicant fingerprint submissions must be transmitted electronically. Live Scan digital submissions provide the quickest way to submit and process background checks.

Live Scan technology allows digitally scanned fingerprints and related information to be submitted electronically to the Department of Justice within a matter of minutes and allows criminal background checks to be processed usually within 72 hours.

In California, fingerprinting must be done by a certified fingerprint roller or qualified law enforcement personnel.