The Immigration and Naturalization Service, or INS (I-N-S), requires applicants seeking certain immigration benefits to be fingerprinted for the purpose of conducting criminal background checks. If you file an application with the INS for an immigration benefit that requires fingerprints, you’ll be sent a notice after you file indicating the INS fingerprinting center you should go to and the time period in which you have to appear. Authorized fingerprint sites include INS offices, Application Support Centers, or ASC (A-C-S), designated law enforcement agencies, and U.S. consular offices and military installations abroad. Mobile units will also provide service to areas where permanent sites don’t exist and to areas where the special needs of the elderly, the disabled, and community groups necessitate it. Wherever you’re required to go, you must bring your fingerprinting notice with you to the center. You’ll be charged a $25 (twenty-five dollars) fingerprinting fee unless you’re applying for asylum, granted a fee waiver, or you’re residing outside the U.S. In the event that you can’t appear during your scheduled fingerprinting time, you can reschedule or bring the notice to the specified center for walk-in services on any Wednesday, for up to 84 days after you were first scheduled. Once you complete the fingerprint process, the INS will submit your fingerprint card to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI (F-B-I), for a criminal background check. Whether or not your immigration benefit application will be denied is dependent upon the seriousness of an existing criminal record. An application can also be denied if you falsely state that you’ve never been arrested, even if the criminal charges didn’t result in a conviction.
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