The Georgia Bureau of Investigation's criminal history questions page answers the first question most people ask with a referral: a copy of your Georgia criminal history record comes from most sheriff's offices or police departments, and the requirements are theirs to set. Asked how to get a name based check from the Georgia Crime Information Center for employment, licensing or any other non criminal justice purpose, the center answers that it does not conduct name based checks at all. The record it holds contains the person's identification data, the arrest data with agency, date and charges, the final disposition sent by a court or prosecutor, and custodial information if the person served time in a Georgia facility, and it releases that for employment or licensing minus juvenile arrests, restricted records and sealed first offender sentences.
Another person's record is available under O.C.G.A. 35-3-34 to private persons and businesses who present the subject's signed consent on the center's form, with full name, address, Social Security number and date of birth, again through the local agency. The exception is felony convictions: subsection (d.2) gives the public access to those without consent, on the person's full name, race, sex and date of birth, through law enforcement or the Georgia Felon Search site run by the Georgia Technology Authority. Each of the state's 159 sheriffs sets the fee and hours for a local record copy, and the Georgia county pages give the office for each.
- No name checks: the Georgia Crime Information Center refers every name based request to the local sheriff or police department.
- $15 every time: a Georgia Felon Search costs $15 even when it returns no record, and $15 again for each possible match opened.
- $30 and $42: a fingerprint based Georgia check and a Georgia plus FBI check through GAPS, which adds its own fee for $39.99 and $51.99 totals.
- Two, four and seven years: an arrest never referred for prosecution is restricted after two years for a misdemeanor, four for most felonies and seven for a serious violent or sexual felony, but still goes to the FBI.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Georgia's own systems: the Georgia Bureau of Investigation questions on obtaining criminal history record information, the GCIC fee schedule effective January 1, 2025, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation page on criminal history record restrictions, the GBI notice on Georgia law regarding time expired restrictions, the GBI request to restrict an arrest record, instructions and form, the Georgia Felon Search page on Georgia.gov, the Georgia Department of Corrections find an offender page, the Georgia Judicial Gateway, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The $15 felony search
The Georgia Felon Search submits a request through the Georgia Crime Information Center to verify whether someone has been convicted of felony offenses in Georgia, in about five minutes, with instant results, by credit card. It requires the first and last names, date of birth and sex of the person searched, and it returns a list of possible matches that the requester must judge, since it is a name based search and only a fingerprint comparison confirms an exact match.
The charge is $15 when search is clicked, even if the result is no record found, and $15 more for each record opened when several possibilities come back. Sealed and expunged information, juvenile felony history and misdemeanors are not returned. Users must agree to a service agreement filed with the Georgia Technology Authority, and a high volume requester can open a billing account for a $100 fee with a signed agreement and a W-9.
Fingerprint checks through GAPS
Public agencies, licensing boards and any Georgia or out of state business that needs a check on a Georgia applicant for employment or licensing must use the online Georgia Applicant Processing Service, GAPS, which issues an account number and runs fingerprint based checks at fixed sites around the state; results reach the agency on the GAPS site within 24 to 48 hours of the applicant being printed, and the site collects the fees.
The GCIC fee schedule in force since January 1, 2025 lists a Georgia only check at $30 and a Georgia and FBI check at $42 for employment, licensing, adoption and immigration, or $39.99 and $51.99 when the GAPS fee is added, with volunteers at $28 and $38, or $37.99 and $47.99 through GAPS. A Georgia resident who needs a fingerprint check for a visa, out of state employment or another personal reason registers on the same GAPS site with a service code.
Applicant questions go to the center's Applicant Services team at gaapplicant at gbi.ga.gov, and the Georgia background check guide covers the employer side in full.
Inspecting and challenging your own record
The GCIC office in Decatur handles record inspections and fingerprinting by appointment, scheduled through the help desk at 404-244-2639, which the fee schedule says answers Monday to Friday from 9 am to 4 pm; mailed restriction applications and record updates go to the center at PO Box 370808, Decatur, Georgia 30037. A person who contests the accuracy of the record, or whose identity was used in someone else's record, must submit fingerprints for comparison and pay by certified check or money order; the fee schedule prices a record inspection at $10 when the applicant brings fingerprint cards and $25 when the center takes the prints, and fingerprinting by GCIC staff at $15.
By mail the request needs a signed explanation of the data challenged, a return address and two completed applicant fingerprint cards with ten rolled and eight flat impressions taken by a local agency. The center cannot correct or update a record on its own; since December 1, 2008 a law enforcement agency must change its own arrest data through the Computerized Criminal History interface, and a written request from a court or prosecutor must be on letterhead with the subject's name, date of birth, Social Security number, race, sex and date of arrest, or the state identification number and offender tracking number.
Restriction: before and after July 1, 2013
Georgia calls its version of expungement record restriction, under O.C.G.A. 35-3-37, and the restriction page splits every case by the arrest date. For arrests after July 1, 2013 there is no application; the prosecuting attorney approves the restriction, at sentencing or on completion, and enters it directly, so the person contacts the prosecutor. For arrests before July 1, 2013 the person applies at the arresting agency on the three section request to restrict form, one date of arrest per form, and the agency may charge a processing fee of up to $50.
The arresting agency completes the second section, confirms whether the arrest appears on the Georgia or FBI record, and sends the form to the prosecutor, who completes the third. If the prosecutor approves and has access to the CCH interface the restriction is entered at once; otherwise the applicant mails the approved form with a $25 money order or certified check payable to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to the Record Restrictions unit, which writes back when it is applied. A denied request is not forwarded.
A restricted arrest is withheld from employment and licensing checks but remains available to criminal justice agencies, and the center warns that it has no control over the same information held by local agencies or private vendors. The fee schedule lists restrictions, formerly known as expungements, at $25, and attorney requests on current criminal cases at $15.
Time expired restrictions, and the catch with the FBI
Under 35-3-37(h)(1)(A)(ii) the center restricts an arrest on its own when the arresting agency never tells it that the offense was referred to a prosecutor or transferred to another agency, once two years have passed for a misdemeanor, four years for a felony other than a serious violent felony or a felony sexual offense against a victim under 16, and seven years for those. The GBI's notice on time expired restrictions explains the limit of that relief.
For Georgia employment and licensing checks, by fingerprint or by name, the arrest does not appear. But Georgia belongs to the National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact, and the Attorney General concluded on August 20, 2013 that a time expired restriction is not a sealed record under federal law, so the center still supplies those arrests to the FBI and to other states for their employment and licensing checks. People with such arrests are told to seek a formal restriction under subsections (h)(1)(A)(i), (h)(2) or (j), because records restricted that way are not sent out of state.
Prisons, parole and the courts
The Department of Corrections' find an offender page searches people currently in a state facility, shows photographs automatically where available, and links to a parole and pardon status check. Its disclaimer asks every user to verify anything found by writing to Inmate Records and Information at PO Box 1529, Forsyth, GA 31029, and to hold the department harmless. County jails keep their own rosters, which the Georgia inmate search guide covers county by county.
Georgia has no single statewide case search; the Georgia Judicial Gateway of the Judicial Council and Administrative Office of the Courts links to records and directories, ticket payment and court services, with some functions requiring authentication, and the clerk of the superior court in each county is the custodian of the criminal file.
The sheriff's file and the registry
Because the center sends the public to local law enforcement for everything but felony convictions, the sheriff's office is where most Georgia arrest research starts and ends: it sells the state record with consent, keeps the booking report and photograph, and answers requests for incident reports under the Open Records Act described in the Georgia public records law guide. A restriction entered by a prosecutor reaches the center's file but, as the GBI notes, not necessarily a copy already sold or a private database.
Registered sex offenders, whose status is not part of a felony search, are listed by every sheriff and statewide through the registry in the Georgia sex offender registry guide.
Questions about Georgia arrest records
Related Georgia records
Georgia readers can continue with the Georgia background check guide for GAPS and the agencies that can order fingerprint checks, the Georgia inmate search guide for state prisons and county jails, the Georgia sex offender registry guide, the Georgia public records law guide for incident reports under the Open Records Act, and the Georgia county pages for every sheriff and clerk of superior court.