The Woods

We've now sent our fingerprints to the FBI, for PCCs, twice. Both times the prints were taken by the Thames Valley Police (TVP) Fingerprint Bureau technicians, onto TVPs' own fingerprinting cardstock. Mine and our eldest childs (17 y/o) have been returned okay, but OH's have been returned twice now as 'illegible'.

So we're back to TVP next Thursday to try again, but it will delay our app by at least another month. Has anyone out there got any advice on how to get fingerprints through the FBI's automated system? I'm starting to feel that we won't ever get to Oz simply because of aggravating technical issues.

Help? :curse:

Pollyana

You need to ensure that TVP know the problem, and ask (nicely) for their very best fingerprint taker to do the job.
There are many reason why prints can be illegible, sometimes its lack of experience by the taker, but often it is because some people are just poor donors. People who work in manual trades, for example bricklayers, can damage their prints in normal work, because of the materials they handle. If the ridges in the prints are damagd, its very hard to get a good clear print. Nurses are another one, I used to hate fingerprinting nurses and builders because of the natural wear and tear on the fingers.

If TVP are willing to do it, ask them for a letter detailing the problems with taking the prints, that may help. For your OHs part, try and relax when the prints are being done, being tense can make prints harder to take.

I don't know if TVP has the "Livescan" system where you are fingerprints onto a glass late on a computer terminal, but if they have, that may be a solution - print this out and take it with you if you like, so they can say what you're taling about! I used to work for a UK Fingerprint Bureau, and we often got better prints on Livescan than with ink.

JenniGee

FINGERPRINTS??? FBI???

Has somebody not told me something

Pollyana

I should add that you are not alone.....

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1009196
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1103897
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1045991

The trials and tribulations of Mrs Wol and her poor set of prints!

Pollyana

If you have to get a police check from the FBI (because of living in the US) then they ask for a set of fingerprints too.

Sheff_Sparky

give her a heart-attack why not!

jen, you DO know we need DNA check as well?

The Woods

Sorry, I should have added the caveat that we lived in the USA for 3 years out of the last 10.

The final clearance cert from the FBI is the last thing we need to send to complete our app, so very frustrating - and my job is supposed to start in June....

JenniGee

That's okay.... I'll just make sure I'm hooked up to a heart monitor when I read these boards in future

Sheff_Sparky

aww, bless ya!

Wol

We had exactly this problem in 2004: Mrs Wol's dabs were rejected by the FBI comfuser three times. One set were on Sussex police cards and two on our local sherrif's in Ft Myers. The whole "rejection" scenario took about four months. Yet each set was, to me, very clear - and the FBI would have been ecstatic to have found such good ones on a murder weapon! They just didn't want to take the trouble to process them properly.

In the end the case officer just asked her to sign an affadavit that she hadn't committed any serious crimes in the States - and that was that! Shows what a farce the whole thing is - like the US immigration box to be ticked if you are entering the USA to commit acts of terrorism! (BTW, the correct answer is "no")

The Woods

Wol, thanks for that. It has taken a month each for the first two sets to come back 'illegible'. I'm no forensics expert but I'm pretty sure I would be able to match either set of the 'illegible' prints against a similar print. I think the problem is in 2 parts: Mrs Wood's cracked fingers from years of cleaning-up after 6 children, and the FBI tech scanning the sheet; computer says 'no', send them back without really trying to get a good scan.

How did you get to the point where the CO accepted an affadavit? Did you phone and talk to him? Keep sending the rejected prints? I think that might be our last hope too.

mary1967

Phewwwwwwwwwwwww

Sheff_Sparky

Wol

Have PM'd you.

(Remember: pull, and the houses get smaller - push, and.........)

Red_V_Roger

Land of the free...! Horse has already bolted and all that!