Georgia's criminal history record lives at the Georgia Crime Information Center, GCIC, inside the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The center itself does not run name based checks for employment, licensing or any other non criminal justice purpose; it sends the public to local law enforcement for those, runs fingerprint based checks for agencies through the Georgia Applicant Processing Service, GAPS, and keeps the record restriction and record inspection processes in its own hands.
What a requester sees depends on consent. With the subject's signed consent on GCIC's form, a private person or business may obtain the full Georgia record; without consent, state law opens felony conviction records to anyone who supplies the person's full name, race, sex and date of birth, through a law enforcement agency or the Georgia Felon Search site.
- Your own record: available from most sheriff's offices and police departments; GCIC says to contact the local agency for its requirements.
- Someone else: under O.C.G.A. 35-3-34 with their signed consent, through local law enforcement; felony convictions only, without consent, through a law enforcement agency or the Georgia Felon Search, which charges a credit card transaction fee.
- Employers and licensing: the GAPS fingerprint service, with the Georgia record available to the agency within 24 to 48 hours of fingerprinting; $30 for a Georgia check and $42 with the FBI, plus the GAPS fee, under the schedule in force since January 1, 2025.
- Errors and old arrests: a fingerprint based record inspection at GCIC for $10 or $25, and record restriction under O.C.G.A. 35-3-37, with a $25 GCIC fee for arrests before July 1, 2013.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Georgia's own systems: the GBI Obtaining Criminal History Record Information frequently asked questions, the GCIC fee schedule effective January 1, 2025, the GBI Georgia Criminal History Record Restrictions page, the GCIC Request to Restrict Arrest Record instructions and form, the GBI GCIC Criminal History Information page, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
What a Georgia criminal history record contains
GCIC describes the record as four parts: the person's identification data, meaning name, date of birth, Social Security number, sex, race, height and weight; arrest data, with the arresting agency, the date of arrest and the charges; the final judicial disposition submitted by a court, prosecutor or other criminal justice agency; and custodial information where the person was held in a Georgia correctional facility. The GBI's frequently asked questions are the center's own account of who may see it and how.
For employment or licensing, the record released is the complete Georgia criminal history minus juvenile, restricted and sealed records. A juvenile arrest record is one where the offender was 16 or younger, charged with a felony and not treated as an adult. Restricted records are arrests restricted under O.C.G.A. 35-3-37, kept from employment and licensing requesters but still available to criminal justice agencies for their own employment. Sealed records include successfully completed First Offender Act sentences, since O.C.G.A. 42-8-60 exonerates and discharges a first offender who completes probation, is released early by the court or is released from confinement and parole; O.C.G.A. 42-8-63.1 lists the circumstances in which an exonerated first offender's record may still be disclosed for employment. A contractor, vendor, visitor or volunteer seeking access to a secure facility such as a jail or a military base is checked against the complete Georgia record minus juvenile records only.
Your own record, and another person's with consent
A copy of your own Georgia criminal history record comes from most sheriff's offices or police departments, each with its own requirements. For another person, O.C.G.A. 35-3-34 lets private persons and businesses obtain the Georgia record by providing the subject's signed consent on the form GCIC prescribes, which carries the full name, address, Social Security number and date of birth; here too GCIC sends the requester to local law enforcement for the procedure.
Subsection (d.2) of the same statute opens felony conviction records to the public without consent. The requester supplies the full name, race, sex and date of birth; law enforcement agencies may provide the records, and the Georgia Felon Search website, maintained by the Georgia Technology Authority, returns in state felony conviction records for a transaction fee payable by credit card. GCIC states flatly that it does not conduct name based criminal history record checks itself.
GAPS: the fingerprint check for employers and licensing boards
O.C.G.A. 35-3-35 authorizes GCIC to release records to public agencies, political subdivisions, authorities and instrumentalities, including state and federal licensing and regulatory agencies, when the agency supplies the person's fingerprints in the manner GCIC prescribes, including electronic imaging, or the signed consent form. Any Georgia or out of state agency or business that wants a check on Georgia applicants for employment, licensing or another non criminal justice purpose must use the online Georgia Applicant Processing Service and must hold a GAPS account number, obtained through the For Agencies tab of the GAPS site.
Fixed GAPS fingerprinting sites operate across the state. Results, including the Georgia criminal history record, should be available for the agency to retrieve from the GAPS site within 24 to 48 hours after the applicant is fingerprinted and the transaction reaches GCIC. GAPS collects the fees, so agencies no longer handle them, and the applicant must show a valid photo ID at the print site. A Georgia resident who needs a fingerprint based check for a visa, immigration, out of state employment or another personal reason also uses GAPS, entering a service code, with help from GCIC at (404) 244-2639, option 2.
The fee schedule since January 1, 2025
The GCIC fee sheet lists a Georgia only check at $30.00 and a Georgia and FBI check at $42.00 for employment, licensing, adoptions, immigration and other non criminal justice purposes, or $39.99 and $51.99 when fingerprinted through GAPS, whose own fee is added. Volunteers pay $28.00 for the Georgia check and $38.00 with the FBI, or $37.99 and $47.99 through GAPS. Other services: a record restriction $25.00, an attorney request for a current criminal case $15.00, a record inspection to challenge a record $10.00 with your own fingerprint cards or $25.00 when the prints are taken at GBI headquarters, and fingerprinting by GCIC staff at headquarters $15.00. Questions on employment, licensing, adoption and immigration checks go to gaapplicant@gbi.ga.gov, and on restrictions, attorney requests and inspections to gacriminalhistory@gbi.ga.gov; both teams answer the help desk at 404-244-2639, Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. except holidays.
Record inspections: correcting and contesting the record
GCIC cannot correct or update a record without documentation or authorization from the agency that submitted the entry. Since December 1, 2008, law enforcement agencies have updated their own arrest and identification data through the web based Computerized Criminal History user interface, and courts, prosecutors and probation and parole offices are encouraged to send updates the same way. A written request to GCIC must come on official agency letterhead with the subject's full name, date of birth, Social Security number, race, sex and date of arrest, or the state identification number or offender tracking number with the arrest date, and the changes requested.
A person who contests the accuracy of their record, or whose identity was used in someone else's record, submits fingerprints to GCIC for comparison, paying the fee by certified check or money order. The GCIC lobby handles record inspections and fingerprint services by appointment only, never the same day, booked at 404-244-2639, option 1. Someone who cannot come in sends a signed written request explaining the challenge and the specific data disputed with a complete return address, plus two completed applicant fingerprint cards with a current set of ten rolled prints and eight flat impressions taken by a local law enforcement agency. Completed restriction applications and criminal history updates are mailed to the Georgia Crime Information Center, CCH/Identification, P.O. Box 370808, Decatur, Georgia 30037.
Record restriction: removing an arrest from non criminal justice checks
O.C.G.A. 35-3-37 provides for restricting certain criminal history records for non criminal justice purposes when the prosecuting attorney approves. The GBI restrictions page splits the process at July 1, 2013. For arrests on or after that date there is no application; the prosecutor may approve the restriction at sentencing or note it in the sentencing documents sent to the court, and the person contacts the prosecutor. For arrests before that date the person applies at the arresting agency, which may charge a processing fee of up to $50.00, on the three section Request to Restrict Arrest Record, one date of arrest per form: the applicant completes section one, the arresting agency section two, and the prosecutor approves or denies in section three. A prosecutor with access to the CCH interface enters the restriction directly; otherwise the approved form goes to GCIC Record Restrictions, P.O. Box 370808, Decatur, Georgia 30037-0808, with the $25.00 fee by money order or certified check payable to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and GCIC writes to the applicant when the restriction is applied. A denied application is never forwarded.
GCIC adds a caution about what restriction does. Once applied, access to that arrest cycle is restricted for employment and licensing purposes, but the information may still be available through other sources, and GCIC has no control over what local agencies or private vendors hold.
Reading a Georgia check
The Georgia record is a fingerprint supported record, which is why GCIC runs its own inspections and challenges on prints and why GAPS exists for agencies. A felon search without consent shows felony convictions only, nothing about misdemeanors, pending cases or restricted arrests; a consent check shows the full record minus juvenile, restricted and sealed entries; and a local police or sheriff printout of your own record is the document most Georgians use. The $42 Georgia and FBI check is the only one that reaches beyond Georgia, and it runs through an agency with a GAPS account, not through an individual.
Questions about background checks in Georgia
Related Georgia records
GCIC's record is one of the Georgia records this site covers: the Georgia court records guide explains the clerks' case files behind a conviction, the arrest records guide covers what a booking makes public, the inmate search guide finds people in Department of Corrections custody, and the Georgia county pages list each sheriff and clerk of superior court.