How long do digital fingerprint checks take?: U.S. Adoptive Families Adoption Group Discussion Topic

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How long do digital fingerprint checks take?

Posted by Lara to U.S. Adoptive Families on Apr 14, 2012 at 3:05pm | 8 Comments | Post a reply

Seven years ago when we adopted our daughter, fingerprints were taken on paper and we had to wait 2-3 months for them to be cleared by the FBI & state. Recently I had my fingerprints taken digitally and someone told me they can take just a matter of days for the clearance. But that was over 3 weeks ago and I’m still not cleared. I wouldn’t care so much except that this is the LAST thing my family is waiting on so we can foster a sibling group we know. These 2 precious children are having to wait, too!

So, I’m curious what the TRUE typical wait is for digital print checks.

Replies

Ask your social worker. He or she should have good recent info about the lead times currently. My last experience was in 2009 and so that has no bearing on today’s wait.

Posted by JustLaugh on Apr 14, 2012 at 3:36pm

I did. She’s new to her position - and told me it could take “weeks, months or over a year.” The “year” part honestly ticked me off because that’s plain ridiculous. I had to bite my tongue…

Posted by Lara on Apr 14, 2012 at 4:24pm

Ours were digital and we did them in Feb 2010 and again in Nov 2010 (we were afraid they were starting to take months and we didn’t want ours to be over a year old so we redid them early). Both times they were surprisingly fast…weeks.

Posted by Tressi on Apr 14, 2012 at 4:32pm

We just had ours done in jan 2012 and they came back within 3-4 weeks. It’s hard to give you a specific time frame because we had them done in early Jan and met with our social worker 3 weeks later and they had already cleared.

Posted by CMOC on Apr 14, 2012 at 5:19pm

I work at an agency and ours in Indiana take about a week to get back.

Posted by over40mom on Apr 14, 2012 at 7:38pm

My husband and I are going for our digital fingerprints next week. Our kid’s case manager said that it takes a few weeks for the “results” to come back. When I asked him he said that it could be a month or two but it just depends on so many factors in the government offices. Of course, it is much faster than the paper fingerprints! I wish you guys the best.

Posted by maybe-adoption on Apr 14, 2012 at 8:50pm

I think our only took 4-6 weeks but they told us some take 12 weeks….

Posted by Private And Foster Mom on Apr 14, 2012 at 10:40pm

Update: I just got the call, and my prints are back…I’m cleared! It took exactly 6 weeks and 1 day. Although, it may be worth mentioning that after 4 weeks, I was told my prints were in a batch that had been cleared by the FBI, but somehow mixed up at the ABI level (state of Alabama). So 2 weeks ago, they’d been resubmitted to the state.

Posted by Lara on May 04, 2012 at 5:59pm