National Criminal Database Background Check for Employment

Background checks

New! Continuous MVR monitoring

Ongoing monitoring of driving records can help employers avoid risk and improve driver safety. Learn about the benefits of adding Verified Credentials' newest solution to your screening strategy.

Read the blog ›

Get help

FAQ for businesses

Candidate Help Center

Forms and documents

Resources

Featured resource

Industry-Trends-Report-01

Learn the latest trends in employment background checks. This report uses real-life usage data to uncover how employers are screening across industries.

Download the full report ›

Verified Credentials is a leading background screening company. Since 1984, we’ve helped validate and secure relationships through the use of our comprehensive screening solutions. We offer a wide variety of background checks, verifications, and innovative screening tools.

Get to know us ›

About us

Accredited background screening solutions

Our accreditation confirms that our policies, processes, and employee training meet rigorous industry compliance standards.

Learn about our solutions ›

This search locates potential criminal records with its nationwide scope. A National Criminal Database Search draws from over 850 million records from thousands of jurisdictions, including counties, department of corrections (DOC), administrative office of courts (AOC), and offender registries from all 50 states, plus Washington DC, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

When a record is returned, we automatically confirm its accuracy with the originating source at the county or state courthouse.

The national criminal database search is only available in conjunction with additional county and state-wide searches.

The national criminal database search includes:

Criminal records from state record repositories and some county and township courts
Departments of correction and probation
Sex offender registries from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Guam
Information from state-level agencies, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the FBI
Local, state and federal fugitive lists

Get potential records from beyond where a candidate lives.

Adding a national criminal database search to your background checks can help:

Identify jurisdictions on a broader scale where a person may have a criminal record
Search beyond states and counties where a candidate has worked, lived or attended school

Confident HR manager

Courthouse gavel

The difference between "national" and "federal" in background checks

You don’t want to wrongly identify what service will get you the background information needed. We have seen some employers have difficulty deciphering labels for a few searches in particular, best summed up with a central question.

Keep reading the blog post ›

While they may sound the same, these two types of searches are distinct.

Federal criminal searches report information from federal district courts and contain only specific high-level, white-collar crimes and crimes that cross state lines.
The National Criminal Database compiles information from thousands of sources at the county, state and federal levels.

More about the federal criminal history search ›

The turnaround time for our national criminal database search is a few minutes when no records are found. However, verification of records at the originating courthouse, agency, or registry may take 2 to 3 business days.