What is meant by Federal Background Check?
Federal Background Check is also called as Federal Criminal Background Check which is used by the employers to know the criminal history of the candidates whom they want to hire for a federal position, a banking career or a very sensitive job.
The United States Congress has created Federal Laws to safeguard the citizens from criminal acts and the Federal Background Criminal Background Screening reveals the federal offenses of the employees who are to be hired for higher level positions.
What are the aspects a Federal Background Check reveals about the candidate?
Federal Background Screening reveals misdemeanor convictions and crimes at the district federal courts. Federal Criminal violations such as Fraud, Bank Robberies, Drug Trafficking, Substance Abuse, Embezzlement, Kidnapping and Counterfeiting are checked and verified by this check. These type of verification is required for jobs like Teaching, Educational Administration, Financial positions, Accounting, Health care jobs, Law enforcing Positions and Childcare professions.
Is there any difference between Federal Background Checks and FBI Background Checks?
A Federal Background Screening searches federal criminal records of the applicants throughout 94 Federal United States District Courts with the help of Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) database. They are indeed different from FBI Background Checks because Federal Background Screening is carried out for searching convictions and pending cases in Federal Criminal Courts to be utilized for hiring employees for executive level positions and sensitive jobs.
However FBI Background Checks are more deep and intense and are for jobs in the federal government. This check verifies whether the candidate is involved in any violation of Law Enforcement, Criminal Convictions, Traffic Violations or Parking Tickets. FBI Background Checks are carried out based on the finger prints of the aspiring job applicant.
What are the requirements for carrying out a Federal Background Check?
Employers who want to carry out Federal Checks on their aspiring applicant should comply with Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and follow the federal laws and regulations. This act ensures that the applicant’s rights are protected during the verification process.
The first step of Federal Criminal Background Check is to notify the applicant that a background check is to be carried out which is known as Background Check Disclosure. Only after availing the consent of the applicant the background check can be conducted and this procedure should be documented correctly.
The next step is to intimate the concerned applicant that any information brought out of Federal Background Screening could be used for verifying the eligibility of the employee and for hiring which also should be documented properly. On the other hand if the Background check findings make the employer take a decision against hiring the employee, then the FCRA’s adverse action steps to be strictly followed.
What is the best way to do Federal Background Check?
Any employer can carry out the Federal Background checks for verifying whether their job applicant is involved in criminal offences. But contacting different federal courts and collecting the data will certainly involves a lot of time and it is very tedious also. Whereas if the task of background checking is assigned to the private agencies who follow the regulations of FCRA, all reliable data are sought within few days and the process of screening is completed legally with documentation.
