My background check

Common reasons your background check is pending include:

• Checkr is waiting on information or documentation from you to continue with your report. Please check your email inbox and spam/junk file for any messages from Checkr requesting information or documentation.
• Checkr is waiting for information to be returned from county courts. A surprising number of courts in the US do not keep electronic records and still maintain paper records. Obtaining these records can add time to the process because it requires specially trained researchers to go to the county courthouse and physically pull records.
• Court backlogs. Due to staff shortages and the demand for records, many courts suffer from record request backlogs.
• Courts in California and Massachusetts are known for being slower than the norm.
• If your report includes a special screening, such as education or employment, that may cause your report to take longer to complete.

Most background checks take 3-7 business days to complete, depending mostly on the locations where records may be searched. If your background check is taking longer than that, please check your emails or log into the Candidate Portal to see if any information or documentation is required from you to move it along.

Usually, a report will be suspended because Checkr, or the company you applied to, has requested information or documentation from you to proceed and has not yet received it. The best way to see if Checkr needs any information or documentation from you would be to log into the Candidate Portal.

If there is an outstanding request for information or documentation, there will be an upload link in the Candidate Portal for you to use. Please note that some companies may require you to upload documentation directly with them, so you will want to contact the company you applied to.

To log into the Candidate Portal: 

1.  Enter the following information as you provided it during your application process: 
   • Phone number
   • Email
   • Social security number (SSN)
   • Date of birth (DOB)
2. Click Get Status.

If you're having trouble logging in with the information above or did not share your SSN, click Didn't share your SSN? Try logging in with your email. This will take you to a candidate authentication login window. To log into the Candidate Portal from this page:

1. Enter your DOB and email.
2. Click Continue.

Upon clicking Continue, Checkr will email you a unique link to access your background check report. 

Non-US candidates

Non-US candidates can use one of the following Candidate Portals:

• International Candidate Portal - used when a candidate's work location is based in a country other than the US, Philippines, or Singapore
• International Candidate Portal (Philippines and Singapore) - used when the candidate’s work location is based in the Philippines or Singapore

Troubleshooting Tips

If you are experiencing issues when attempting to log in, it could be because of the following:

• An error in your credentials. Please contact the company you applied with to confirm the information on file.
• The background check has not begun. Occasionally there can be a brief delay between when you applied to a company and the company’s system ordering the background check. You cannot log into the Candidate Portal until the company has requested the background check.
• Your background check is more than 12 months old. For security and privacy purposes, reports completed more than 12 months ago are not available on the Candidate Portal. If you need a copy of an old report or have a question about an old report, please submit a request to our support team.

A CONSIDER status means that your report is complete and contains information that the company you applied with might want to review. This information may contain criminal records, Motor Vehicle Report violations that do not meet the hiring company's Motor Vehicle Report criteria, Employment and/or Education verifications that were not an exact match, or other records for review.

A CONSIDER status does not mean you have been disqualified from employment or engagement.  Our support team cannot answer any questions about whether this status or the information reflected in your report will affect your chances of being hired or engaged by the company you applied to. Please contact the company you applied with for any information about hiring or engagement decisions.

The “Report Expired” error indicates that the link sent to you by the company you applied with has expired. To resolve this issue, contact the company you applied with and request a new link.

To request a new background check, contact the company you applied with. Checkr cannot initiate a new report for you. 

Related articles:

• Something on my background check report is wrong. What should I do?
• How do I update my personal information on a report?

A suspended sentence can indicate that a court has delayed or “suspended” all or part of a person’s sentence while they are subject to obligations imposed by the court. If you have specific questions about what the disposition on your report means, you should contact the court directly.

Three common reasons your background check may be taking longer to complete include:

• We are waiting for a piece of information from you. If this is the case, you should have received a communication from us. Be sure to check your Spam folder for an email from Checkr.
• The county court(s) being searched is/are taking longer than usual to return data. It’s possible, for example, that there is a record request backlog in one of the counties or courts being searched.  For more information on the county search process, please see County Criminal Record Search in the Checkr Help Center.
• Your background check includes a screening, like employment or education verification, that depends on verifying information with third parties. These verifications often require contacting an individual or an organization, which may cause a delay in results.

If Checkr has not requested additional information from you, you're likely in the final stage of the background check.

Most background checks take 3 to 7 business days to complete, but some may take longer. Every background check is as unique as the individual applying, so the completion time varies with each report.

Checkr ETA, available in the Candidate Portal, provides an estimate of when your report should be complete. Actual delivery time is not guaranteed. 

Having trouble logging into the Candidate Portal? Refer to How do I log into the Candidate Portal?

The SSN Trace identifies potential addresses that are associated with your SSN, not necessarily ones that you’ve lived in. For example, it can include counties where you’ve applied for loans or received mail. The address history is used to determine which counties and other databases should be searched for potential public records. 

Please note that we get address histories from a variety of sources. The SSN Trace identifies information compiled from credit and banking history, which is obtained from credit bureaus. 

Related article: 

• Why do I need to provide my Social Security number (SSN)?

You may be asked to provide additional information after completing your background check invitation for the following potential reasons: 

• Additional information is required to continue your background check,
• The documentation provided in the application was not clear or was filled out incorrectly,
• There may be a need for special or hand-signed consent forms, in which case the forms must be printed, signed by hand, and returned as a scanned attachment, or
• Previous employers and education institutions may have specific verification processes that require action from the candidate.

Related articles:

• How do I submit a document to Checkr?
• Why am I being asked for additional information from one customer but not the other?

In many cases, different companies have different requirements and are reviewing different information contained within your report. This may be due to each company’s hiring requirements, applicable regulations, or the industry in which you are applying.

Please reach out directly to the company you applied to for details regarding their requirements.

The process for updating information on your report will look different depending on which information needs to be updated. 

Education, employment, and/or address history information submitted upon initiation of the background check cannot be edited, and we cannot process requests for new background checks directly from candidates. If you would like to request a new background check, please contact the company you applied with and ask them to order a new report.

Related articles:

• How do I update my personal information on a report?
• How do I request a new background check?

Checkr is not involved in the hiring process; each company has its own engagement criteria and conducts its own evaluation of the information contained in a background check report. 

If you have questions about how the information on your report was used to determine your engagement eligibility please contact the company you applied with for information. 

Related article: 

• What is the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)?

At Checkr, we know that background check records alone do not provide the complete picture of a candidate. Everyone can make mistakes, and our potential extends beyond what may have happened in the past. Every individual has a unique story that is worth hearing.

We’re proud to provide employers the opportunity to utilize Candidate Stories. This feature allows your story to be told directly to the company you applied with, as shown below:

If the company you applied with does not use this feature, you will need to provide additional information directly to them. You can determine if the company you applied with has this feature available by logging in to the Candidate Portal and scrolling to the bottom of the page to see if there is a “Share your story” option:

Clicking on “Share your story” will allow you to

• Provide general information about yourself,
• Provide information about a specific record or records on your report, and
• Upload any documentation to support the information you choose to provide.

If you would like to provide general information about yourself, there are example prompts to help you think about what additional information you can provide:

If you would like to provide information about a specific record or records on your report, there are also example prompts to help you think about how you can provide additional context about your record:

Candidate Stories give decision-makers a chance to better understand the person behind the background check. As more candidates tell their stories, the meaning of trust and safety will grow, normalizing hiring people with records and giving everyone a fair chance at employment. Check the Candidate Portal to see if this option is available for you.

Tips for an effective and impactful Candidate Story:

• When providing information about a specific record, try to avoid general information about yourself and focus on rehabilitative efforts.
• If you have solid evidence of the rehabilitative efforts, such as a court document, certificate, or receipt of completed classes, please provide them.
• If you have yet to take rehabilitative courses, what have you done to improve your life?
  Have you taken any schooling? How have you changed your thinking to improve going forward?
• This is your time to shine and genuinely provide insight into why you are perfect for the job you are applying for or what you have done to better yourself.

What is considered evidence of rehabilitation:

• Proof of enrollment or completion of school (High School, GED, Associate or Bachelor's Degree, etc.)
• Letter of recommendation from previous teachers or professors
• Proof of completion of a rehabilitation program after the conviction
• Letter from probation or parole officers attesting that you satisfied all terms of probation or parole
• Letters from recovery programs or counselors attesting to your current state of rehabilitation
• Letters of recommendation from counselors, instructors, or employers
• Proof of community service, education, or other self-­improvement efforts after you completed your sentence, probation, or parole
• Evaluations by a psychologist or other mental health professional
• Letters of support from other people not mentioned above attesting to your rehabilitative status
• Personal statement describing your rehabilitative efforts or any changes you have made to improve your life

If you have uploaded documents to the Candidate Portal, please allow up to 3 business days for review. If it has been more than 3 business days and you have not received confirmation that your documents were received, you can submit a ticket to Checkr Candidate Support. 

For security and privacy purposes, reports completed more than 12 months ago are not available on the Candidate Portal. If you need a copy of an old report or have a question about an old report, please submit a request to our support team.

Question

Two of my reports completed on the same day; why did one report come back “Consider” if it is showing the same information as the other report, which is “Clear”?

Answer

A “Consider” status means that your report is complete and contains reportable records or information. Companies may choose to display information differently to facilitate their review or reportable records or information. If you have a question about the engagement criteria of the company you applied with, we recommend you contact that company directly.

Under the FCRA, pending cases and non-convictions are generally reportable for seven years.

In some states, like California, Kentucky, New Mexico, and New York, the reporting of non-convictions is limited.  In Kentucky, the reporting of pending cases is limited.

A "non-conviction" could include dismissed cases, not-guilty verdicts, alternative or deferred adjudications (programs that result in dismissed charges if the defendant completes certain conditions), and nolle prosequi dispositions (formal abandonment of prosecution).

For more information about lookback periods, refer to How far back are records searched during a background check?

Paying a fine or ticket does not always remove the associated violation from your motor vehicle record (MVR).  In some cases, you may be able to have a record or restriction amended or removed from your MVR by contacting your state’s department of motor vehicles (DMV) or its equivalent. If you contact the DMV and there are changes made to your record, you can let us know by logging into the Candidate Portal and clicking on the Report error button on the page. For more information about filing a dispute, refer to Something on my background check report is wrong. What should I do? 

Question

If I paid my fines, why does an amount still show on my report? 

Answer

The fines on your report reflect the amounts ordered by the court when the case was adjudicated. If your report includes “outstanding balance or balance due,” that means the court records showed that an amount was still owed at the time your report was completed.

If your report indicates it has been canceled and you are unsure why, please reach out to the company you applied with. Our support team is not informed about hiring decisions or timelines and will not know how long the company you applied with will take to get back to you.

Please remember: Checkr is a consumer reporting agency. We provide background check reports for companies that request them. We do not review reports, make employment or engagement decisions, or determine company requirements regarding employment or engagement. The company you applied with will make its own determination based on its own requirements and review of your report.

Tenant screenings reports expire one month following the date of creation. If you are applying for new housing and your personal report is expired, you will need to obtain a new personal report from the housing rental site where you applied. Please follow their application process to order a new report.

Once you obtain a new personal report, you may download it to your device from Checkr’s Candidate Portal. Unfortunately, Checkr is unable to send personal reports to any landlords. You will be responsible for providing the new personal report to any potential or future landlords.

Your reports may look different or include different records depending on when the report was ordered and which company ordered the report. The company you applied with determines the scope of the report. If you have any questions about how your report will be considered by the company you applied with, please contact that company directly -- Checkr is not involved in engagement decisions.

Note: To check the most up-to-date status of your report, log into the Candidate Portal. Unfortunately, our Candidate Experience Support team has no information beyond what is available in the Candidate Portal.

California and Massachusetts

There are two common reasons why your background check may be delayed in California and Massachusetts:

1. The wait times can be longer in California and Massachusetts because the courts generally take longer than average to respond to our record requests. If your report is in PENDING status and we haven’t asked for any additional documents from you, then you’re likely in the final stages of the background check.
2. As of September 2021, changes have been made that limit the public availability of record information in the state of California (including, but not limited to, Los Angeles County). Checkr, as well as other background check providers, are affected by this change. With less information publicly available, the background check process requires more time to complete, sometimes resulting in long delays.

Related blog article: 

• Update on DOB Redactions: Getting Candidates to Work in California
  

Michigan

Michigan recently enacted an expanded clean slate law, which creates a process for automatically expunging certain convictions. In order to become compliant with these new requirements and address existing records in the backlog, most of the courts across the state have either ceased furnishing background checks at this time, paused processing, or have significantly slowed down.

Until the Michigan courts resume processing, we're experiencing a delay in completing your background check due to these temporary closures and court slowdowns. We will continue working hard to complete your background check as soon as possible.

Yes, Checkr does send SMS text messages to communicate urgent and time-sensitive updates regarding your background check application. Checkr will only send you messages from a 243257 number.

Related articles: 

• How do I opt out of receiving SMS text messages from Checkr?
• How do I opt back into receiving SMS text messages from Checkr?

You always have the option to opt-out of SMS text messages from Checkr. To do this, send a text message to 243257 with any of the following commands: 

• N
• No
• Stop
• Stopall
• Unsubscribe
• Cancel
• End
• Quit

You will receive the following message confirming that you successfully unsubscribed your phone number: "You have successfully been unsubscribed. You will not receive any more messages from this number. Reply START to resubscribe."

Related article:

• How do I opt back into receiving SMS text messages from Checkr?