How to Review Your FBI Identity History Summary (For Foreign Citizenship or Residency)
- Parviz Malakouti-Fitzgerald, Esq.
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
By Parviz Malakouti-Fitzgerald, Esq.
This article is part of our series on FBI background checks for second citizenship and residency applicants.
If you are an American pursuing second citizenship, citizenship by descent, or residency abroad, your FBI Identity History Summary (“IdHS”) is likely one of the most important documents in your application package.
Foreign adjudicators rely on it. Errors on it can derail an otherwise strong application. Knowing how to read it, and what to do when something is wrong, can make a real difference in your case.
In this brief article, I'm going to tell you the most important items to check on your FBI IdHS and how to do it. I will not make reference to specific types of foreign residency and citizenship applications because the best practice of what to check on your FBI IdHS is functionally the same in the majority of cases.
Article Outline:
Getting Your FBI IdHS
First off, if you are in the United States, the fastest and most convenient way to get your FBI IdHS is by submitting your fingerprints at an approved USPS location. Step-by-step guides on how to order the report can be found on our website at malakoutilaw.com.
Once you have the document, what you are looking at depends on your criminal history.
If you have had no contact with the roughly 20,000 criminal justice agencies that report to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (“CJIS”) Division, your FBI IdHS will be a single page.
It will list your name, your Social Security number, and a brief statement confirming that no matching records were found. That is the best-case scenario. You are done, and you can move on to preparing to submit your second residency or citizenship application.
But, if you have had contact with law enforcement, whether through an arrest, a charge, a conviction, or in some cases a detention, your IdHS will be longer. Two pages at minimum, potentially more.
In this video, I go over what exactly shows (and doesn't show) on your FBI identity history summary.
If you've had contact with law enforcement, is where careful review of your FBI IdHS becomes necessary.
Part One: Biographical Information
The first thing to check is your biographical information: date of birth, place of birth, and citizenship. These fields contain errors more often than people expect. I have handled cases in which all three were incorrect. Not in the same case, but individually, each one was wrong enough to matter.
Check your height and weight too if you want to be thorough, though discrepancies there are less common and typically less important. Hopefully, you’ve memorized your biographical information. If not, pull out your passport or birth certificate, compare the data field by field, and confirm everything matches. If there's a mistake in your biographical information, you'll have to challenge the FBI IdHS.
Here's how challenges involving biographical information (other than criminal history) are done.
Part one is a review that hopefully everyone can do on their own, without the help of a lawyer.
Part Two: Statute Citation and Caption
If your FBI IdHS lists an arrest, charge, or conviction, there are two specific things to verify: the statute citation and the caption that accompanies it.
The Statute Citation
The statute citation is the legal reference to the specific law under which you were charged or convicted. To verify it, you need your primary source documents from the underlying case. For a conviction, the primary source is typically the court record showing the final disposition, sometimes called" minutes of hearing", "final disposition" or a similar name depending on the state.
Cross-reference the statute appearing on your FBI IdHS against what the court record actually reflects. As a concrete example, if you were convicted of California DUI under Vehicle Code (VC) section 23152, that is what should appear on your IdHS. If your FBI IdHS shows something else, that is likely an error that will have to be addressed through a challenge process.
The Statute Caption
The caption is the brief description that appears alongside the statute citation. This is where things can get surprising.
I have seen cases in which the correct statute was cited but the caption next to it described a completely different and far more serious offense. That kind of error is not hypothetical. It happens, and it matters significantly when a foreign government is evaluating your background.
Checking the caption requires more than cross-referencing your court records. You may need to open the actual text of the statute to confirm what that provision says and whether the caption on your IdHS accurately reflects it.
Some people are comfortable doing this kind of research on their own. Others are not, and that is a reasonable place to get professional help. At Malakouti Law, we review FBI IdHS documents and cross-reference them against the relevant statutes and court records.
Book a consultation here.
Part Three: Screening for Legal "Entitlements" (Ways to Improve the FBI IdHS Language)
This is the most complex part of the review, and realistically, it is where you need an attorney.
Some people who have items on their criminal record may have legal entitlements to either have those items removed from their FBI IdHS entirely, or to have the language updated to reflect more favorable information (such as dismissal, sealing or expungement). Whether either of those outcomes is available depends on whether the underlying conviction received some form of post-conviction relief under state law, such as an expungement, expunction, vacatur, or post-conviction dismissal, and on how that state’s law treats the item after the relief is granted.
In practice, the FBI CJIS that generates the FBI report essentially defers to state law on this question. The FBI CJIS refers to the state-level criminal data repository to determine whether and to what extent the FBI IdHS can be updated after post-conviction relief is obtained. A fuller explanation of how this process works can be found in this article The Basics of an FBI Background Check (Identity History Summary).
So a conviction dismissal in one state may entitle an applicant to have the item removed from the FBI IdHS entirely. In another state, it may only entitle the applicant to an annotation such as “arrest relief granted” or “conviction vacated and dismissed” appearing below the entry. In a third state, it may not entitle the applicant to any change at all. This is a highly state law specific inquiry.
That annotation, what I refer to as “softening language,” can carry real weight when a foreign adjudicator is evaluating your application. Most citizenship and residency adjudicators are not lawyers. Clear, favorable language on the FBI IdHS helps them understand what happened and reduces the risk of a reflexive denial.
It is worth noting: after doing that research, the answer is sometimes that nothing can be done to improve the FBI identity history summary. In these cases, the record reflects what it reflects, and no legal mechanism is available to change how it appears. In those situations, knowing that clearly and moving forward is still better than spending time and money on a challenge that has no viable path.
Video Explainer (9 Minutes)
Request a Consultation with Malakouti Law
At Malakouti Law, we review FBI Identity History Summaries and screen them for all three of the categories above. We used to offer this only as part of our broader second citizenship and residency representations. We now offer it as a standalone service, which means if you are already working with a foreign law firm or another professional, we can assist solely with the FBI background check piece.
The time to identify and address a problem on your FBI IdHS is before you submit your application, not after a foreign adjudicator has already seen it. If you have any criminal history and you are planning to apply for citizenship or residency abroad, get your IdHS reviewed first.
To get started, book a consultation with Malakouti Law here.
The Law Office of Parviz Malakouti does not guarantee the accuracy of information presented nor assume responsibility for actions taken in reliance of this information. The information in this page could become outdated. Each immigration and citizenship case is particular and you should consult with a qualified, licensed immigration lawyer about your case before taking any steps. Attorney marketing.