4 Quick Tips About International Criminal Record Checks

The BPO market is growing at accelerated rates. Is your organization satisfied with the quality of international records checks you’re receiving from your background check provider?

Do you wonder why your screening company is not getting any “hits” on criminal checks performed overseas after hundreds of checks a year?

What is the value of an overseas criminal check if all of them come back as a narrative result that says “No Record Found”?

Consider the following 4 key points:

1. “Seemingly Cheap” international criminal searches offered by less reputable companies claiming to run “court checks” from every country on the planet from my experience are often bogus. The fact is criminal data is not available or even remotely accessible from every country due to local privacy and other legal provisions regulating access.

2. When records can be accessed, many local authorities require very specific application forms to be completed by a candidate (data subject) in order to legitimately request and provision data from local repositories.

3. Some international providers may bribe officials, misrepresent themselves or even fabricate results in order to gain access to criminal data outside the Public Domain. This exposes the organization to possible prosecution and enforcement action from abroad and in the USA under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

4. Similar to US consumer reporting guidelines, many countries have enacted national provisions on the erasure of past convictions from criminal records of a convicted individual as a means of allowing an individuals’ rehabilitation. As such reporting information that was obtained outside the legitimate process or reporting details that may be considered "spent" may be a violation of the candidate's personal privacy and subject to unnecessary risk to employers for employment discrimination.

I’d like to hear about your experience. Do you only receive a narrative "No Record Found" or do you receive an actual official document issued by overseas authorities?