Customer Help Center

Industry-wide, the average background check takes 3-5 days. Checkr’s ETA tool provides an estimate of when the Candidate’s report should be complete. While these estimates are highly accurate, they are not a guarantee. In a small number of cases, delays of 3+ weeks may occur. In these situations, unfortunately, Checkr is not able to expedite the process.

The most common reasons for a delay:

• At least one county on the County Criminal Record Check requires a clerk to search for physical records.
• There are delays at county courts due to court staffing and backlog challenges, such as seasonal hiring spikes or COVID-19. 
• Additional research is required to ensure potential records are a match to the candidate. Additional research is often required when: 
  • The candidate has a common name; and/or
  • Public access to the identified potential record(s), such as the full date of birth (DOB), is limited by the relevant courts.
• An Exception has occurred and the candidate has not responded to our request for additional information. 

Next steps:

• When delays occur at the county court level or when additional research is required, no additional action is required by the customer. Checkr is not able to expedite the process. The report will complete after all necessary information has been properly evaluated.
• When Exceptions occur, candidates are prompted to submit additional information. In addition to the email sent to the Candidates requesting this information, Checkr also provides the following ways to help resolve exceptions:
  • Encourage your candidates to visit the Candidate Portal frequently to check on the progress of their report. Any active exception, and a link to resolve it, will appear when they first log in;
  • Send your candidates the link provided in the exception in the Checkr dashboard, and instruct them to follow the instructions provided to resolve the issue; and
  • Click the link on the report, and enter the requested information on your candidate's behalf.

Additional resources:

• County Criminal Records Check 
• Exceptions: Addressing data discrepancies in reports
• How long do most background checks take?
• Can Checkr expedite the process?
• Where can I check the status of county court operations?

Question

We have a candidate who had their background check suspended due to not providing additional information. Unfortunately, they did not see the email from Checkr requesting additional information. How can we restart/reactivate the report? Can a new link be sent to the candidate?

Answer

Suspended reports can be updated and processed if the required document is provided within 30 days of the report's creation. If the exception cannot be resolved within these 30 days the report status changes to Complete and the screenings cancel. A new report must be ordered. Checkr cannot accept required documents from candidates via email.

Follow these steps to resolve the exception:

• Ask the candidate to check their email for the secure link to upload their document, or to visit the Candidate Portal to upload it at any time.
• If they cannot locate the email, log into the Checkr Dashboard and go to that candidate's report. Look for the verification link found beneath the exception on their report. This link can be shared with the candidate.
• Click the link on the report, and enter the requested information on your candidate's behalf.

Once sufficient information is provided, it will be reviewed and the report will be updated.

Also see these Help Center articles:

• Exceptions: Addressing data discrepancies in reports
• MVR Exceptions: What to do if an MVR report results in a Suspended status
• Report suspended: Candidate not receiving emails

The Candidates tab of the Dashboard has the status options below for candidates who have already begun the background check process.

Report status	Description
Invitation sent	The candidate received the invitation link but hasn't responded yet, and the report hasn't begun.
Pending	The report is processing. Most reports take 2-3 days to finalize, but some can take longer, often for a reason below:  Checkr is waiting for the candidate to submit information: Checkr required a form of documentation from the candidate to continue the report. Checkr contacts candidates for exceptions like these so that your background check process works smoothly. Research is in progress: Some screenings take significantly longer than others, usually because the county manually processes search requests.
Complete	The report finished processing and is ready for you to review.
Clear	The report completed with no records found.
Consider	The complete report has information for you to consider. This information might include the examples below for your adjudicators to review: Criminal records MVR violations that don't meet your MVR rules Employment or education verifications that weren't an exact match
Dispute	The candidate contacted Checkr to dispute information in the complete report. Adjudication can't continue while a report has the Dispute status. If you started an adverse adjudication before the dispute, you must restart it if the candidate still doesn't qualify after the reinvestigation. The compliance contact on your Checkr account receives an email after the investigation, which can take up to 30 days.
Suspended	The report stopped processing because of missing information or incomplete searches. Checkr contacted the candidate to submit additional documents, after which the report will continue. After a period of time, the report status automatically changes to Complete or Canceled. If you want the report to complete in its current state, you can use the Complete Now feature.  Some screenings have Suspended status indefinitely. Note Some incomplete reports show a Consider status if they contain information that merits the Consider status. For example, if the MVR has the Suspended status but the county check has Consider, the overall report status is Consider.
Canceled	After some time, the report automatically changes to Complete status and screenings cancel. If you want the report to complete in its current state, you can use the Complete Now feature.
Invitation Expired	The candidate received the invitation link but didn't complete it in the allotted time. To continue with the candidate, you must send a new invitation. By default, invitation links expire after 7 days. Work with your Checkr Customer Success Manager to change the number of days your candidates have to respond to an invitation.

Assess

The Assess feature has the options below: 

Clear 

The report returned no records.

Eligible 

The report returned no records that would make the candidate ineligible for the position.

Review 

The report returned at least one record that needs evaluation based on your rules.

Escalated 

The report returned at least one record flagged based on your rues.

Related articles: 

• Assess
• Checkr Assess: Increase adjudicator efficiency and reduce cost-to-hire