Fingerprints

For any number of immigration-related events, you may find yourself in need of fingerprints to get a police clearance from a past country. The primary recommendation has been to go to one of the KiwiBank locations for a fingerprint card, but starting on 31 March, 2022, they will no longer offer manual fingerprinting services. Perhaps this is because they’ve got a 50% success rate and people are fed up? Who knows.

When I needed my fingerprints, I went another direction. Based on a recommendation I saw on the ever-popular Moving to New Zealand Facebook group, I heard about another option in Auckland - Forensic Insight based on the North Shore. I was a little apprehensive about trying them out because a) they seemed a little sketchy at first, with no vaccine requirement to visit their business and b) they only accept cash and bank transfer - no EFTPOS - which made me wonder if I had any recourse if things went terribly sideways. However, the couple that run the business were extremely helpful and knowledgable on the phone when I made my first inquiry. I decided to give it a try, and they had same day appointments available.

I arrived with my $50 bill and passport, and they took care of the rest. Though they don’t require a vaccine pass, they did take covid precautions and we all wore masks and hand sanitised. They had both types of FBI fingerprint cards on hand and we were all able to commiserate on how confusing the FBI website is. (Apparently they’ve even contacted the US Embassy to try to sort out which form is needed, and even the embassy doesn’t know…) The fingerprinting itself was quick and professional. Tom was a Senior Fingerprint Expert and Specialist Crime Scene Examiner with New Zealand police for 13 years and knows how to take fingerprints and check them to make sure they’ll be accepted. He said he has a 100% success rate with the FBI.

I left with a folder with my prints, his certification, and even the appropriate sized envelope to mail everything off in. All I needed was to add my FBI application paperwork. I headed to the DHL office, and $141 later, my info was off to the US.

A week later I received a confirmation email at 11:28 am that my prints had been received and would be processed in the order in which they were received. Now I don’t know if it was a particularly slow day at the FBI or if my file was particularly easy to process, but at 12:50 pm I received an email that my report was ready. It was not the usual 2-4 weeks stated on the website. With a sigh of relief, I could confirm that no one had stolen my identity and gone on a crime spree while I’ve been in New Zealand.