Security Forms - Background Investigations: Fill & Download for Free

When you go to work for the FBI, as well as a lot of other law enforcement and national security positions, you are subjected to a thorough background investigation. I've done this a couple of times. The first time, it took me three weeks to assemble all of the information required for the form (which ran about 35 pages). You have to list every place you have ever lived, ever worked, ever attended school, all of your relatives short of first cousins (and even them if they have criminal records, have lived outside the country, or have some other "issue" that makes them interesting to the background investigator), and other details most people have forgotten about. One of the advantages of having an international investigative network is that the outfit doing the investigating doesn't have to rely on an outsider for information. If you live in San Francisco and someone on your background form lives in Miami, the investigator in SF makes a call to the Miami office and asks an agent there to go pay your associate a visit to discuss what they know about you. When you're going through one of these, you get calls from people you haven't heard from in years. "Hey, the FBI was here today, asking about you!"If a family member runs afoul of the law, your obligation to notify your law enforcement employer depends on the employer and your assignment. Most of the time, it's a non-issue, but it's usually better for the officer to come forward than for the employer to learn about a problem from another source.Depending on the employer and the assignment, the background investigation may be updated every few years, and may include a polygraph examination.

I have used background investigation services for years. You may be surprised to learn that there isn’t much “technology” behind the process. I would defer to someone who can share more specific technical info, but I understand the process to be fairly simple.Of course it depends on what kind of background checks you are referring to. For example:Credit check - this is very simple. You log into one of the three nationwide credit reporting companies — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — and enter the appropriate PII (personally identifiable information) and purchase the credit report. Note: you can get your own free credit report once per year here.Education verification - this used to be very simple. You would call the university and they verify degree status for someone. With greater privacy sensitivity, now PII and sometimes a fee is required to verify degree status. This service is one way to check at a modest price.Employment verification - there is no “master database” to search to determine whether someone worked for a given company or not. You have to use this high tech device called a “telephone” and call the company, speak to an HR representative, and ask if the candidate worked there, what time frame, what role/job, etc. Due to liability reasons, most HR reps will only verify basic information - rarely details like performance, salary, etc.Criminal check - most criminal records are public record. If you know where someone has lived, you can check various state or county records one at a time just through the web. This can be a pain and you never know whether you have searched enough sites. So you can pay a modest fee to a company that does national criminal background checks like this one.Security clearance investigation - for government security clearances, a more in-depth background investigation is performed. The candidate fills out a very detailed form called an SF-86. Government representatives investigate the individual’s background - to a large extent, the old fashioned way. They physically visit coworkers, neighbors, friends, and others who know the individual to ask about their personal character, financial situation, and anything else that may cast doubt on their eligibility to hold a security clearance. What kind of “technology” they use to support their background investigation - I do not know. And I doubt anyone else would share that information.In short, in today’s high tech world, there isn’t much technology behind background investigations.Note: I am not promoting or endorsing any of the sites or services mentioned above - just providing examples.

Per Standard Form 86, you are supposed to fill information that goes back to approximately 10 years… So, the background investigation will go back 10 years.