Every Appointment
$149
Individual
- Direct electronic submission
- Identity History Summary
- Federal fee handled for you
- Days, not weeks
- Quality verified at capture
- Apostille guidance included
North Palm Beach · FBI Background Check
Your FBI Identity History Summary, captured and submitted electronically from our office — not mailed and not queued. By appointment for North Palm Beach residents.
Overview
An FBI Identity History Summary — the document most people mean by “FBI background check” — is your national criminal history record, or confirmation that no record exists. Visa applications, foreign residency, teaching abroad, international adoption, immigration filings, and some professional licences all ask for it, and nearly all of them want it recent.
Because we submit electronically as an approved channeler, the request goes straight to the FBI from our office rather than travelling by post and joining a queue. The result is the same federal document with the same authority behind it; what changes is the waiting. Electronic submissions typically return in a handful of business days rather than the weeks a mailed request takes.
Who Needs It
Reviewing your own summary before an employer or consulate does is worth the small effort.
The Gulf states, Korea, Singapore, and much of Europe require a national criminal record check.
Residency and golden visa programmes in Portugal, Spain, and Panama ask for federal clearance.
Korea, Japan, China, Spain, and the UAE condition a teaching visa on an FBI check.
Foreign naturalisation files require a summary covering your years in the United States.
Foreign adoption authorities require federal checks on every adult in the household.
Local Service
If you live in North Palm Beach and someone has told you to get fingerprinted, this page is the short version of what that actually involves. North Palm Beach is a compact village where most errands are worth combining into one trip, and the requirement is nearly always the same underneath: fingerprints captured properly, submitted to the right agency, the first time.
We serve clients across North Palm Beach including the Village core, Old Port Cove, Prosperity Harbor, and the Anchorage, as well as nearby communities such as Lake Park, Palm Beach Gardens, and Juno Beach. Landmarks like the North Palm Beach Country Club, Anchorage Park, and the Earman River waterfront put us on familiar ground — this is home-turf service, not a mail-order queue.
A compact village with a country club, marine businesses, and easy access to the Palm Beach Gardens medical corridor. Most requests are healthcare employment and professional licensing, with a steady thread of club and marina staff screening alongside them.
Twenty minutes to our office makes combining the trip with other errands practical, which is what most residents do. For clubs and marinas hiring several people at once, an on-site session is usually the better arithmetic.
Our office is about 20 minutes from North Palm Beach. We book Monday to Saturday, usually same or next business day, and for companies we can bring the equipment to you. We also handle fbi background check for clients in nearby Palm Beach Gardens, Riviera Beach, Jupiter.
Requirements
These are two different documents and requesting the wrong one costs weeks. A Florida check reports state criminal history through FDLE. An FBI Identity History Summary reports national records held federally. If the wording says “police clearance from your state of residence,” the Florida route does the job. If it says “FBI background check,” “federal criminal record,” or names the Identity History Summary, only the federal document will be accepted.
The other thing to check before booking is whether your destination also wants the document apostilled. An FBI summary is federal, so it isn't apostilled by Florida — it goes through the U.S. Department of State. We handle both halves: the fingerprinting here, then the federal authentication through Federal Apostille USA, our sister service. Mention it when you call, because sequencing the two correctly saves a repeat.
Avoid This
The summary covers US federal records. Time lived overseas may need separate clearances.
A Florida check reports state records only. If the requirement says FBI, only the federal summary counts.
Consulates usually want a summary issued within the last three to six months.
Federal documents are authenticated in Washington, not Tallahassee, and that is a separate service. Sequence matters.
Turnaround
The capture itself is the quick part — roughly ten minutes at the scanner, a little longer when a photo or a printed card is involved. Electronic submissions leave our office the same day, so nothing sits waiting on a courier or a weekly batch run.
What happens after that is the agency's clock, not ours. State and federal processing typically returns a result within a few business days, and posting to a board or to the Clearinghouse follows from there. If you are working against a start date or a filing deadline, say so when you book from North Palm Beach and we will tell you honestly whether the timeline is realistic rather than finding out later that it wasn't.
How It Works
Visa, residency, adoption, or personal review — the purpose determines the route, so we confirm it first.
Rolled and flat impressions on a certified scanner, with image quality verified at capture.
Your request goes directly to the FBI from our office as an approved channeler.
Your Identity History Summary typically returns within a few business days.
Need fingerprinting at your office or facility? We bring the equipment to you anywhere in Palm Beach County, Clearinghouse photo included. Call for a quote.
FAQ
Electronic submission through an approved channeler. The postal route adds transit in both directions plus a queue on arrival, and a submission with poor impressions is rejected and starts the clock over. Electronic capture verifies image quality before anything is sent, which removes the most common cause of delay. Book an appointment and it is usually a few business days end to end.
Through an approved channeler, typically a few business days from your appointment. Submitting by post yourself generally takes several weeks. Neither we nor any provider controls FBI processing time itself — what we control is that the submission leaves the same day and is not rejected for image quality.
You can start the request online, but not the whole thing. Your fingerprints have to be captured in person somewhere, because the FBI matches against prints rather than entered details. What an approved channeler does is make everything after the capture electronic, which is where the time saving comes from.
You are entitled to request your own Identity History Summary, and it is worth doing before an employer or consulate reads it. The process is the same as any other request — fingerprints captured and submitted — and the summary comes back to you. If it shows something you dispute, the FBI has a formal challenge process.
Often, yes — most consulates and foreign authorities want the document authenticated before they will accept it. An FBI summary is a federal document, so it is apostilled by the U.S. Department of State rather than by Florida. Our sister service Federal Apostille USA handles that step. Tell us the destination country when you book so the two are sequenced correctly.
It depends which one you mean, and the two get confused constantly. An Identity History Summary — the document we help you obtain — is a report of your national criminal history, or confirmation that no record exists. That is different from the in-depth suitability investigation the FBI conducts on its own applicants and clearance holders, which involves interviews and financial review. If a consulate or employer asked for an "FBI background check," they almost certainly mean the first one.
A mailed request has to travel, be processed on arrival, and join a queue — and poor impressions mean starting over. Electronic submission from an approved channeler skips the postal leg entirely and verifies image quality before anything is sent.
Yes. The same FBI Identity History Summary from the same federal record. The channeling route changes how the request is transmitted, not what comes back or what it's worth to a consulate.
Resources
Related
Same or next-day slots, Monday to Saturday — call and we'll confirm a time and verify your ORI first. Companies in North Palm Beach can be handled on site by special request.
One flat fee, all-in — the state fee, the federal fee, and the AHCA retention fee are already inside it. Nothing is added at your appointment, and we don't charge a separate rolling fee on top.
FDLE-approved Live Scan fingerprinting for Palm Beach County. By appointment at our Downtown West Palm Beach office, just off Okeechobee Boulevard. On-site service for companies countywide.
© 2026 Palm Beach County Live Scan Fingerprinting. All rights reserved. · Florida-Commissioned Notary · Established 2011
Palm Beach County Live Scan Fingerprinting is a private fingerprinting and document handling business and is not affiliated with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Agency for Health Care Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or any government agency. We do not provide legal advice. State and federal processing fees are set by the requesting agency and are additional to our service fee.