Archives: FAQ

There is no further action to be taken by you or the Department. Unfortunately, this is an FBI process, and it can take up to 8 weeks.

If it is determined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that your prints were not legible, the Department will send you a letter asking you to return to the same service provider who did your initial prints and schedule a re-roll of your prints.

You will be required to bring the Department’s notification letter with you as information such as the TCN (Transaction Control Number) and TCR (Transaction Control Reference) must be identified and used at the time of the resubmission. After your first rejection, you have 180 days to get them redone without being charged the FBI fee. After this time, you will be responsible for any costs associated with the re-roll of your fingerprints.

There are several reasons you might receive a deficiency letter. Some of the common reasons and associated actions you should take include:

• Your fingerprints were not received prior to the letter being mailed. In this case you will need to contact your Livescan service provider to determine if they have submitted the prints to FDLE for processing. You can check the status of this transaction with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement by entering your TCN here: cchinet.fdle.state.fl.us/search/app/tcnlookup?3
• You did not get fingerprinted by a FDLE approved and Clearinghouse compliant Livescan service provider or vendor. Check the list on this website under the Locate a Provider tab to see if your service provider is on it. If not, you will need to choose another provider from this list.
• Your fingerprints were not accepted by the Clearinghouse because of missing information, such as the required social security number or individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) or other important information. If this is the case, you will need to contact the Agency for Health Care Administration at BGScreen@ahca.myflorida.com or the Florida Department of Law Enforcement at ApplicantChecks@fdle.state.fl.us to determine the exact cause for the delay and how you should proceed.*

This is often resolved by submitting your TCN, a copy of your Social Security Card, and a photo ID to AHCA at BGScreen@ahca.myflorida.com. They will add the missing information to your screening and make it viewable to DOH.

All criminal history checks for screened professions must be initiated through the Florida’s Care Provider Background Screening Clearinghouse where they will be retained for a period of 5 years. To meet the requirements of the Clearinghouse, AHCA has verified if an applicant is unable to legally obtain a social security number, they must provide an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN). Please visit the website for the Social Security Administration or the Internal Revenue Service to apply for one of these required government issued numbers.

Exception: If you are applying by exam for the Board of Nursing or for a temporary Medical license from the Board of Medicine, then you may complete a screening without providing a Social Security Number. This screening will not be entered into the Clearinghouse but will be accessible to us as long as you use a Department of Health ORI number. If you must complete the screening without a SSN, please email us at mqa.backgroundscreen@flhealth.gov with your TCN number so we can manually request and upload your results to your application file.

Note: You will still need a social security number to be licensed by our agency. A social security number is a statutory requirement for licensure, and having your results retained in the Clearinghouse is a statutory requirement for licensure. You will not be granted a license until you are able to provide the Department with a valid social security number. Remember to send a copy of your Social Security Card to our team and to your board office once you have obtained one. We will verify that your fingerprint results have been added to the Clearinghouse and the board office will make sure our licensure system is updated.

Yes. Applicants outside of Florida have two options for completing the Livescan fingerprinting:

Livescan

The most straightforward way to complete this process out of state is to locate a provider with LiveScan locations near you who have their equipment registered with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). You can locate this type of provider by viewing our out of state list and referring to the far right column. If that column states ‘Livescan’ then they have machines that can submit your fingerprints directly to Florida.

Hard Card Scanning

If you are unable to find an actual Livescan location near you, you can follow the outline below to complete this requirement using fingerprint hard cards.

1. Obtain fingerprint hard cards. You can check to see if the local police or fingerprinting facility have FD-258 hard cards available, or you can work with one of the Livescan providers from the list to have them send you the cards.
2. Take the hard cards to a local fingerprinting facility or police station to have your fingerprints captured on them.
3. Mail the completed hard cards to one of the providers on our Out of State list: /out-of-state-providers.
   1. Please be sure to contact a few of the providers to inquire about their process, availability, and fees.
   2. The provider will need the correct ORI number for your profession. This can be found on our background screening website under “Screened Professions.”
4. The provider will convert the hard card to an electronic format and submit it to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for you.

Please refer to the list of FDLE approved and Clearinghouse compliant Livescan service providers located on this site under the Livescan Service Provider tab. You can search for your local sheriff’s office on that list. If you choose to use your local sheriff’s office, please be aware that payment must be processed through the Civilian Applicant Payment System (CAPS) by credit card within 30 days of being printed. Applicants will not have the option of paying at the sheriff’s office. CAPS payment can be completed at caps.fdle.state.fl.us/caps/app/start.

It is statutorily required for you to have a photograph taken at the time of fingerprinting to be entered into the Clearinghouse. Without it, your screening can NOT be shared among state agencies. For a screening to be Clearinghouse-compliant and thus shareable, you must have:

• Retained fingerprints
• Photograph
• Signed privacy policy

Note: If you must complete the screening without a photograph (sometimes necessary with the hard card process) then your results may be entered in the Clearinghouse; however, they will not be shareable. For example, if you use an AHCA ORI number and do not have a photograph taken, the Department of Health cannot view or use the results of that screening for your application/license.

Livescan is a term relating to the scanners used to directly capture fingerprints through a scanning function. Persons being screened place their hands directly on the scanner for reading. Their fingerprints are rolled, individually, across a glass plate. Fingerprint scanning using a Livescan device provides faster results, and generally costs less than hard card scanning as there is less handling involved. Livescan capture also produces a higher quality print, so there is a lower rejection rate of illegible prints (no ink smudging, etc.) and will reduce the overall application processing time.

Hard card scanning is a method of submitting a traditional fingerprint card where fingerprints are “rolled,” in ink onto an FBI fingerprint card. Cards are then converted to “electronic,” by using a machine that scans the cards. There is typically a fee associated with “rolling the prints,” as a high degree of skill is required to achieve the necessary quality and another fee for the conversion of the prints to an electronic format.

The total fee charged by each service provider varies. Please contact them to obtain this information. You can view the service provider options and contact information on the Locate a Provider tab by clicking on the county you are interested in.