Most guides explain half the journey. This one covers both: getting the FBI background check, then getting it apostilled. Fingerprints & Apostilles does both halves in-house, so every timeline, cost, and rejection trap below comes from doing this work daily, not from summarizing someone else's page.
To apostille an FBI background check you first obtain the FBI Identity History Summary by getting fingerprinted and submitting through an FBI-approved channeler, then you send that report to the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., which is the only authority that can apostille a federal document. The check itself can come back the same day. The apostille takes 7 to 10 business days when the document is hand-delivered, or 5 to 12 weeks by mail.
Everything below is the detail behind those two sentences: what each phase actually costs, how long it really takes, and the specific mistakes that send files back weeks later.
You cannot apostille a document that does not exist yet. This phase is where most of the avoidable delay happens, and it is the half that pure apostille companies cannot help you with.
Every FBI background check starts with fingerprints. They can be captured digitally, which is faster and far less prone to rejection, or rolled in ink on an FD-258 card.
An FBI-approved channeler transmits your prints electronically and returns results in hours. Mailing an FD-258 card directly to the FBI instead can take several weeks.
The FBI issues your Identity History Summary. Keep it exactly as delivered. That untouched file is what gets apostilled.
| Route to your FBI check | Typical time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| In person at a Virginia location Digital capture, submitted electronically |
As little as 30 minutes | Fastest. Trained technicians, so rejected prints are rare |
| Any FBI-approved channeler near you Nationwide option |
Same day to a few days | Works from anywhere. Upload the PDF to us afterward |
| Mail an FD-258 card to the FBI Direct, no channeler |
Several weeks | Slowest route, and ink cards get rejected for smudging |
Fingerprinting is inherently local, so this is the one part of the journey tied to geography. Fingerprints & Apostilles operates FBI fingerprinting locations across Virginia with trained technicians. If you are not near one, use any FBI-approved channeler in your area and we handle everything from the moment you have the PDF.
One authority, one office, one narrow set of rules. This is where the expensive mistakes happen.
Upload the FBI PDF exactly as issued. Do not notarize it, do not scan a printout of it, and do not alter it in any way.
The Office of Authentications in Washington, D.C. attaches the apostille certificate. Hand-delivering returns it in 7 to 10 business days rather than 5 to 12 weeks.
If the destination country needs a translation, it happens after the apostille, because the apostille certificate itself has to be translated too.
Every one of these is recoverable only by starting over, which is why they are expensive when a consular appointment is already booked.
A Secretary of State can only apostille documents issued by that state. An FBI background check is federal, so only the U.S. Department of State can apostille it. Files sent to a state office come back unapostilled, weeks later.
A notary has no authority to certify a federal record. Adding a stamp does not help and can get the submission rejected outright.
The official file the FBI issued is the document. A printed-then-rescanned copy is not, and it is a common rejection reason.
Most consulates treat an FBI check as valid for six months from issuance, measured to your application date. The apostille step runs inside that window and does not reset it.
The apostille is a certificate page in its own right and usually has to be translated as well. Translate first and the apostille reaches the consulate untranslated.
FBI results often arrive password protected, and a locked file cannot be printed or submitted. Send it as-is with the password and it gets handled.
Both phases, priced in the open. Government fees are already included.
| Step | Time | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| FBI background check (fingerprinting + channeler submission) | As little as 30 minutes | $95 |
| Federal apostille, first document, hand-delivered | 7 to 10 business days | $150 |
| Each additional document in the same order | Same window | $95 |
| 2-day return shipping | 2 days | Included |
| Certified translation, if the destination requires one | Runs alongside | Priced per document at checkout |
| Both phases ordered together | About 2 weeks | $245 |
For comparison, the same journey done by mail, sending an FD-258 card to the FBI and then mailing the report to the Department of State, commonly runs two to four months. The documents are identical. The difference is entirely in how they move.
An apostilled FBI background check is almost always requested by a foreign government as part of a residency, work, study, or citizenship process. The most common destinations we process are Spain, Portugal, Colombia, Brazil, Italy, Mexico, and South Korea. Each has its own document rules, and country-specific requirements are covered on those pages.
If your document is a birth certificate, marriage certificate, or another state-issued record rather than a federal one, that follows a different path through the issuing state. See state apostilles for that process.
Almost everyone arrives here with a deadline. Find your situation, because the right answer changes depending on how much runway is left.
You have room for any route. Even so, start the FBI check now rather than later. Reports expire on their own clock, but the risk of waiting is that a rejected set of ink prints or a slow channeler eats the buffer you thought you had.
This is the normal case and it is comfortable. Same-day FBI results plus a 7 to 10 business day apostille leaves real margin. Mailing it yourself at this range is where people get hurt, because the 5 to 12 week window can swallow the whole runway.
Tight but workable, and this is exactly what hand-delivery is for. Get fingerprinted immediately, order the apostille the same day the report lands, and choose overnight return shipping rather than the included 2-day.
Call before you order at (571) 384-4491. Do not silently place an order and hope. We will tell you honestly whether your date is reachable, and if it is not, we will say so rather than take the order.
Check the issuance date against your submission date, not your travel date. If it is close to the six-month line, most people are better off pulling a fresh report than risking a consulate rejecting a stale one.
Add roughly a few days, and remember the order matters: apostille first, translation second, because the apostille certificate itself usually has to be translated. Add it to the same order and the sequencing is handled for you.
Run through this and you will avoid nearly every delay we see.
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| The file is the original PDF the FBI issued | A printed-then-scanned copy is a different document and gets rejected |
| It has no notary stamp on it | A notary cannot certify a federal record; the stamp can void the submission |
| The issuance date is inside your consulate's validity window | Usually six months, measured to your application date |
| You know which country it is going to | Determines whether a translation is required and how it is prepared |
| You have the password if the PDF is locked | A locked file cannot be printed or submitted without it |
| Your name matches your passport exactly | Mismatches between documents are a common consular rejection |
If you are unsure about any line above, send the document before paying. We check every file against these points before it goes to the Department of State, and we would rather tell you something is wrong up front than have it come back weeks later.
Everything is collected up front in the online order form: your documents, your details, and where it is going. No consultations, no back and forth. If you still need the background check itself, we do that too.