Live Scan or FD-258 ink card: which fingerprints does the FBI want?

Both are accepted. The FBI will run an Identity History Summary from Live Scan prints submitted electronically through an FBI-approved Channeler or its own eDO portal, or from an original inked FD-258 card mailed in. Live Scan is faster. The FD-258 is what you use when you are mailing the FBI directly or no Live Scan vendor is within reach.

What the FBI actually cares about is not the capture technology. It is whether the impressions are legible, complete and taken for this request. There is no name-check shortcut: the FBI does not run Identity History Summary requests on name and date of birth alone, so fingerprints of some kind are mandatory.

Who issues the report, and who can apostille it?

The document people call an “FBI background check” is formally the Identity History Summary. Same paper, two names. It is a federal record signed by an FBI official.

That single fact determines the entire back half of the job. Because the signature is federal, only the US Department of State, Office of Authentications in Washington DC can attach the apostille. A state Secretary of State authenticates the signatures of officials of its own state — notaries, county clerks, state registrars. An FBI official is not one of those, so a state office will return your report unprocessed, and you will have lost the mailing time in both directions. This is the most expensive error on the subject and it happens weekly.

The FBI does not return fingerprint cards — not when it finds a record and not when it finds none. If there is any chance you will need to resubmit, or you need reports for more than one country, have multiple sets taken at the same sitting. Going back for a second appointment after the first submission is consumed costs more time than taking two cards costs money.

Which fingerprint route fits your situation?

Electronic submissions return results in days. A mailed card takes considerably longer, and the FBI’s published figures for mail processing have moved more than once — check the current timeframe on fbi.gov the week you submit rather than trusting a number you read somewhere. The filing fee charged by the FBI or the Channeler is a third-party charge; confirm the current published amount on their own pages.

How do you complete an FD-258 so it is not rejected?

The FD-258 rejects on clerical grounds as often as on print quality. Working from the form’s own instructions:

• Type or legibly print all data in blue or black ink only.
• Keep every entry inside the field boundaries. Text that spills over can be read wrong or not at all.
• Complete every required field. A blank required field can get the card rejected immediately, without the prints being examined.
• Supply rolled impressions of all ten fingers and the plain (flat) impressions. A card missing the flat block is incomplete.
• Submit an original card. Photocopies are not accepted, and a card that has already been processed by the FBI cannot be reused.
• Name, date of birth and place of birth must appear on the card and must match your passport exactly, including middle names and hyphenation.

Have the prints taken by someone who does this for a living — a police department, a sheriff’s office, a commercial fingerprinting vendor, or a consular section abroad where that service is offered. Dry skin, worn ridges and over-inking are the usual causes of an unreadable card, and a technician manages all three. If you are overseas and unsure who can roll a compliant card locally, see our notes on FBI fingerprinting options in Lisbon and on getting an FBI background check apostilled while you are living outside the US.

What happens if the prints come back rejected?

If the FBI cannot classify your impressions, the submission does not produce a usable summary and you start the capture again. Because the original card is never returned, you need a fresh one — which is exactly why you take two or three sets at the first appointment. Keep the spare cards flat, unfolded and in a rigid envelope; a creased card across the pattern area can fail on its own.

What is the right order of operations?

1. Decide the destination first. The country of use dictates how recent the report must be, whether a translation is needed, and whether that country will take a Channeler-delivered copy. Settle this before you spend anything.
2. Choose the submission route. Channeler or eDO Live Scan for speed; original FD-258 by mail where Live Scan is not practical or where the receiving authority wants an FBI-issued copy.
3. Have fingerprints taken — more than one set. Check the card against the FD-258 instructions before you leave the appointment.
4. Submit to the FBI and pay the current published fee. Request the delivery format your destination accepts; if in doubt, ask for the posted paper copy as well as the electronic one.
5. Send the summary for apostille with Form DS-4194. It goes to the US Department of State, Office of Authentications, with the country of use named on the form. Do not notarise it — the Department authenticates the FBI official’s signature, and a notary stamp on a federal document only confuses the file.
6. Arrange translation and consular filing after the apostille, not before. A translation produced before the apostille will be missing the apostille page.

Reverse step one and step three and you get the classic failure: a perfect apostilled report that is a month too old by the time the appointment comes around, or one that carries the wrong country on the apostille. If you are working to a fixed date, read our guidance on timing an apostille around a residency appointment.

Will the Department of State accept a printed PDF?

The Office of Authentications works from paper you mail it. A complete printout of the FBI’s electronically delivered summary — every page, including the one carrying the FBI official’s signature, unaltered and uncropped — is the format people routinely use. What does not work: a screenshot, a single page lifted out of the set, a scan of a scan, a photograph, or a summary retyped or reformatted by a third-party service.

Format guidance on federal documents does shift, and the Department does not publish an exhaustive list of accepted presentations. Confirm the current position on travel.state.gov before you mail, or let us check the document before it goes. If your report came from a Channeler as a secure download rather than from the FBI directly, see apostilling an FBI report obtained through DTIS.

How recent does the report have to be?

This is where readers get caught. The age limit does not come from the United States. The FBI puts no expiry on an Identity History Summary, and the Department of State will apostille one whatever its issue date; the apostille certificate itself does not lapse either.

The clock belongs to the receiving authority abroad — the immigration office, consulate, licensing board or university that asked for the document. Most count from the FBI issue date, not the apostille date, which means every day spent on fingerprint resubmissions, mailing and translation eats into the window. Get the exact limit from that authority in writing, then work backwards. Country-specific notes are on our pages covering FBI apostille requirements for South Korea and FBI apostille requirements for Colombia.

Do you need a translation as well?

Usually, if the destination’s official language is not English — but the rules vary sharply. Some countries accept a certified translation prepared in the US; others require a sworn or court-registered translator, and several will only accept a translation produced in-country by a translator on their own register. The Department of State apostilles the English document; it neither supplies nor certifies translations. Ask the receiving authority which of the three models applies before paying a translator, and have the apostille in hand first so it can be translated along with the report.

Common reasons an FBI apostille request is rejected

• Sent to a state Secretary of State. No state office can authenticate a federal signature. Returned, unprocessed.
• No country named on Form DS-4194. The Department needs to know where the document is going to decide between an apostille and an authentication certificate.
• Payment problems. Mailed requests take a check or money order; cash and credit card details must not be mailed, checks must carry a preprinted name and address, and the check number must be above 100. Our flat price covers the Department’s filing fee, so clients who order through us never deal with this.
• An incomplete or altered document. A partial printout, a missing signature page, or anything written on, stapled through or stamped by a notary.
• FD-258 defects. Blank required fields, wrong ink colour, data outside the boxes, a photocopy, a previously processed card, or missing flat impressions.
• A Channeler copy the destination refuses. Some consulates accept only a report issued directly by the FBI. The apostille is valid either way; the refusal happens abroad, and the only fix is to re-request through eDO or by mail.
• Name mismatch. The name on the report must match your passport. Maiden names, dropped middle names and transliteration differences all cause problems at the consular counter — declare former names at fingerprinting.
• One copy, two countries. An apostille names one country of use. Two destinations means two apostilled copies, and the Department’s fee applies per document — covered by our flat price in both cases.

What we handle, and what stays with the destination

We are a private service, not affiliated with the FBI, any Channeler or the Department of State. What we control is the US-side filing: that the document is in a form the Office of Authentications will work from, that Form DS-4194 is completed correctly with the right country of use, and that it reaches and returns from Washington DC without a round trip caused by paperwork. Our price is $120 per apostille, all-inclusive — the government filing fee is covered, with no per-page add-ons.

Whether the foreign authority then accepts the document is its decision, and requirements abroad change without notice. Confirm the age limit, the translation rule and the acceptable issuing route with the office that asked for the report, then take your fingerprints — two sets — and start the apostille once the FBI summary is in your hands. If you already have the report and want it checked before it is mailed, send us the file and we will tell you whether it will pass.