Ohio's background check is a fingerprint comparison. The Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation, BCI, is the repository for the state's criminal history, fed by criminal justice agencies across Ohio, and it completes a check by comparing the prints it receives against a database of criminal fingerprints; it says it regularly processes about a million checks a year. State law makes schools, day care centers, health care facilities and others require them in hiring, many private employers ask for them, and some professional licenses depend on them.
All fingerprints must reach BCI electronically, through a WebCheck location or a card scan, unless one of six exemption reasons applies. The result goes to the employer, agency or address the applicant designates; there is no public name search of the repository, and a person who wants to see their own record files a free Challenge and Review.
- Where: any WebCheck vendor on the community listing; the vendor captures the prints and sends them to BCI, and may charge its own fee.
- BCI fee: $22.00, paid through the e payment site with the transaction number written on the card, or by money order, certified check, business check or personal check payable to Treasurer, State of Ohio; cash and starter checks are refused.
- FBI checks: only for specific types of Ohio employment; for personal use, the FBI itself at 304-625-5590, and never for immigration through BCI.
- Your own record: the free Challenge and Review: a written request with the reason, fingerprints taken by a law enforcement agency with Challenge and Review as the reason printed, mailed to Ohio BCI, Attn: Challenge and Review, P.O. Box 365, London, Ohio 43140.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Ohio's own systems: the Ohio Attorney General's Background Check page, the Ohio Attorney General's Background Check FAQs, the BCI Civilian Background Check Procedures, the Request for Challenge and Review of Criminal History Records, the Request for Copy of Ohio Background Check procedures, the Request for Exemption from Electronic Fingerprint Submission Requirement, the VECHS program memo, the Webcheck Community Listing, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Getting a check in Ohio: WebCheck and the $22 fee
The Attorney General's FAQ answers the first question in one line: to complete a background check in Ohio, choose a vendor from the WebCheck list and contact it. The vendor enters the applicant's information and captures the prints; BCI warns that it cannot change anything once submitted, that an entry error means a new check, and that no credit is issued for submission errors. The civilian procedures, revised February 13, 2025, set the BCI fee at $22.00, paid on the e payment website with the transaction number written in the Reason Fingerprinted box or a copy of the receipt mailed with the card, or billed to an agency code; anyone unable to pay electronically encloses a money order, certified check, business or personal check payable to Treasurer, State of Ohio, never cash or a starter check. A paper BCI civilian card carries agency code 1AB002 and the address for the result, full identifying data validated against a photo ID, ink prints rolled nail to nail, and the Reason Fingerprinted box with the Ohio Revised Code section that requires the check; an incomplete card is returned unprocessed. The Civilian Identification office answers at 877-224-0043, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., fax 866-750-0214.
FBI checks, immigration and out of state applicants
BCI can process FBI background checks only for specific types of Ohio employment. For personal use, the FBI is contacted directly at 304-625-5590 with fingerprints submitted to its office; a BCI check may be submitted for immigration purposes through an Ohio vendor, but an FBI check cannot go through BCI for immigration. Someone outside Ohio uses the pilot program with FastFingerprints, a national background check company that submits electronic out of state prints to BCI, at 614-457-8900, option 2; where electronic prints will not work, the applicant prints the fingerprint card from the Attorney General's forms page, has any local agency roll the prints, and mails the card with payment enclosed or paid online. A rejection letter names the check it concerns, BCI or FBI, and the applicant submits a new set of prints for that one; a person rejected twice can ask for a BCI or FBI name search by form, with the FBI processing one only if a reject was processed within the last 90 days.
Exemptions from electronic submission
Since June 1, 2008 BCI accepts paper cards only for six reasons, each on the Request for Exemption mailed with the card: a home address 75 miles or more from the nearest WebCheck location, an out of state applicant, prints too poor to capture at a named WebCheck location, a BCI or FBI reject of an electronic submission with the reject letter attached, a public housing organization check, or a military base check paid by the federal government. Waivers are decided submission by submission, never agency wide, denied requests go back to the submitting agency, and a card without a waiver is returned.
Your own record: the free Challenge and Review
The Challenge and Review procedure is how an Ohioan sees and disputes their record. A written request with a brief reason, the person's name and complete mailing address goes with a fingerprint card taken by a law enforcement or criminal justice agency, every field completed and Challenge and Review entered as the reason fingerprinted, to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, Attn: Challenge and Review, Post Office Box 365, London, Ohio 43140. There is no fee. The card runs through AFIS, and when it matches an existing record a printout of the criminal history comes back with the card and the letter. BCI holds what Ohio criminal justice agencies send it, so a person who finds an error contacts the agency that submitted that portion of the record; the contributing agency must notify BCI in writing for the record to change. An FBI record is challenged the same way for an Ohio arrest, and through the submitting agency for another state's or a federal charge, since the FBI's CJIS Division is not the source of the data.
Copies of a prior check
A copy of a previous Ohio BCI background check can be requested only when the original was processed for an Ohio Revised Code reason that permits updates and the new need is one that permits updates; FBI results can never go anywhere but the address on the original, so a new FBI check is required. The copy request, revised October 21, 2025, is free within 30 days of the original and faxed to 866-750-0214, costs $8 through the e payment site after that, must be received within 11 months of the original fingerprinting before the check expires, and names the Revised Code section, which the employer supplies; it goes to BCI, Civilian Unit, P.O. Box 365, London, Ohio 43140, by email to Civilianident@OhioAGO.gov or by fax.
Rap Back and VECHS
Ohio offers Rap Back accounts alongside WebCheck, and its Volunteer and Employee Criminal History System implements the National Child Protection Act, which lets qualifying public, private, profit or nonprofit organizations that provide care or care placement services to children, the elderly or people with disabilities obtain state and national criminal history on applicants, employees and volunteers through BCI and the FBI. An organization applies to Ohio BCI, VECHS, at P.O. Box 365 or VECHS@OhioAGO.gov, signs a user's agreement and waiver, obtains a signed consent from each subject, submits every request fingerprint based through WebCheck, and receives the responses, a no record letter or the rap sheet, itself rather than through the vendor. Governmental organizations already required to check employees under the Revised Code stay on their own statutes. Questions go to the Identification Quality Assurance civilian unit at 740-845-2605.
Reading an Ohio result
An Ohio check is a fingerprint identification against BCI's database, delivered to the agency or address designated when the prints were taken; a disqualifying offense, in the Attorney General's words, is one that may bar employment with that organization. The public has no name search of the repository, so the open record of an Ohio criminal case is the court's file, and a person learns what BCI holds through the free Challenge and Review. The FBI layer attaches only to the Ohio jobs a statute names.
Questions about background checks in Ohio
Related Ohio records
The BCI record is one of the Ohio records this site covers: the Ohio court records guide explains the clerks' case files that hold the public record of a case, the arrest records guide covers what a booking makes public, the sex offender registry guide covers the Attorney General's eSORN site, and the Ohio county pages list each sheriff and clerk of courts.