Background checks are stressful enough, but when these reports take longer than expected to process, you might find yourself a nervous wreck.
However, delays in background check reporting are fairly commonplace, and you generally don’t have anything to be worried about in most cases. Our article helps give you insight into common background check delays and what it might mean if your background check is taking longer than usual to process.
What Is a Background Check and Why Is It Important?
Background checks are reports that contain a person’s personal information such as current and previous addresses, places of employment, and places of education. In addition, they have vital public records information such as criminal convictions or charges.
Background checks are an important part of the hiring process in many different career fields. They are also used to verify a person’s identity and experience in situations outside of employment.
Background checks are important to help employers and other individuals determine if a person is who they claim to be and if are qualified to complete the job they are applying for. Background checks also show whether or not someone is safe to be around certain types of machinery or vulnerable populations.
Without background checks, hiring choices and other interactions with certain individuals might be risky or result in serious consequences.
What Is the Average Turnaround Time of a Background Check?
It’s no secret that background checks typically require a waiting period, and the time it takes for your report to be processed is often anxiety-inducing.
On average, a background check will take between two and five business days to complete. If it’s a more intensive background check that requires international information, or an in-depth check for a government position, it may take up to two weeks to complete.
Is It Bad if My Background Check Takes a Long Time?
In general, it’s not a bad thing if your background check takes a long time. Gathering data from different cities, states, and even countries, when applicable, takes time, and compiling that data into a report is typically a slow process.
When creating a background check report, this information will also need to be verified and proven that it belongs to the person being searched to avoid issues with incorrect information. Double-checking information that is gathered adds time to this process.
The more information that is needed on your background check report, the longer it will take to receive your report.
Common Background Check Delays
The following background check delays are common issues that might slow down the processing of your background check report. Even though these issues might cause delays, they are usually not a cause for concern or stress. You may not even know which issue directly caused the slow processing of your background check.
Third-Party Companies
When submitting a background check through an employer or another organization, they will typically utilize a third-party company to process background checks for them. These companies may have different average processing times, and if the company has a backlog of reports to get through, your background check might take longer.
Alternatively, some third-party background check services aren’t equipped to handle more complex background check procedures. This is something that adds processing time to your background check while the company completes these items.
Incorrect Information
Incorrect information on your background check report or not enough public data may slow down the processing of your background check, as this information needs to be verified.
If you have a very common name, you may find that a background check takes longer to process as the information found is double-checked to ensure it belongs to you.
Court Delays
Sometimes, background check information comes directly from courts across the United States. In cases like these, you may find that you end up waiting extended periods for your background check report, as courts move at their own speed.
There is nothing you can do to speed up your background check report, especially when waiting on courts in various jurisdictions to process and verify information.
Jurisdiction Delays
Collecting information from different states, cities, counties, and even different countries takes time. This is especially so when different jurisdictions have a variety of processes to identify and verify information that is included in a background check report.
Your background check might take longer to process if you have a history of living or working in a wide range of locations, and information will need to be collected from each jurisdiction.
How Can I Speed Up the Background Check Process?
The following tips can help you ensure your background check is completed as smoothly and quickly as possible, in addition to helping prevent problems with your background check report.
- Always provide correct and detailed information when submitting a background check report. Inaccuracies or incorrect information may leave you at risk of having your background check report returned as incomplete or dealing with longer processing time as your correct information is searched for.
- Double-check your own background check report to ensure that all information on it is correct and belongs to you. This helps to prevent issues with your background check report that may slow down the overall hiring process.
- Make adjustments to your background check report as necessary to correct items such as incorrect addresses or incorrect name information. Contact the public records office in your jurisdiction or the company conducting your background check report for more detailed instructions on how to do this.
Remember, one of the best things you can do to make the background check report process smooth is to stop worrying about this report. If you are informed of what is listed on your background check report and you’ve submitted all your information correctly, you likely have nothing to worry about as this report is processed.
Staying Informed of Your Background Information
Background checks often inspire a sense of anxiety and stress in individuals, and submitting one of these reports usually isn’t a fun process.
Background check reports have an average process time of two to five business days, but you generally shouldn’t worry if your report is taking longer than this. Plenty of commonplace things cause delays in background check reports. We recommend staying informed of your background information for extra peace of mind when completing this process.
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