***** FBI PCC Update ********
If your FBI PCC request was received before
Sept 18, please consider calling them up at (304) 625-5590.
(Yes, they removed the number from their website :-\) Sometimes they reject applications because they misplace things that you included with the application. You never know.
(I'm grateful to terkukaiku for convincing me to call them up.)
I did call the FBI at the above mentioned number, and managed to talk to a nice lady. I hope the following things I learnt from her would help others in this forum.
(Please take this with a grain of salt, because this woman is not the spokesperson of the FBI. She is just answering the phones. Her understanding may not be accurate, but it is still the understanding of someone working in their office.)
- Basically, the FBI processing is divided into three parts: First, they open your application, take your money, and enter your details (e.g. Name, DOB) into their system. Next, they scan your finger-prints into their system. Finally, they mail the results.
- The first step i.e. entry into the system has only been done for applications received on or before Sept 18. (As of today, Oct 9)
- Also today, they are processing applications which were received on August 5.
- I then asked her about the new IT system that they got on Sept 7. It seems that the first entry system for the entry of details has not been updated. It is just the second system that scans the finger prints into an electronic version to search the FBI databases has been updated. It is this second system which was and is the cause of their bottle-neck.
- I then tried to find out how much work they got done with the new finger-print IT system. Basically NOTHING! Though the new system was installed on Sept 7, they did not get any work done until 2-3 days ago. Only 2-3 days ago they have started getting results from the new system, and are now processing applications received on Aug 5.
- Finally, she was optimistic that once the system has now started, things would be quick. For my case of receipt on Sept 9, she thinks it would be done by the first week of Nov.
Other Thoughts:
- If you are doing the fingerprints yourself, or from outside the US, please consider sending multiple finger-print cards. That way, if one card is not clear, they can use the other card.
- If you call up the FBI, and you are in their system, it is a good idea to get their file/record number. (Something like UCI for us applying to Canada.) It seems to be a 7 digit number, with no alphabets.
