Tomorrow I will to drive to Olympia, 30 miles south, to get my fingerprints taken by the USPS at their Jefferson Street address. That’s the closest authorized place that procures them for the FBI.   So I will be there as soon as it opens for fingerprint hours. No appointment necessary. I already have the confirmation paperwork to show them. It will cost $50.  I’ve already sent $18 to the Secretary of State for a postiled birth certificate. It may cost another $20 to have them apostiled. I’ll find that out tomorrow.

I’ve been fingerprinted several times before

But this is the first time, that I know of, that I’ve had a FBI background check. I probably underwent one when I was temping for Rocketdyne in the 1990’s, though.I know I was kept out of their frosty tool calibration room until whatever background check they did on me came back squeaky clean, which took (if I recall correctly) around two weeks.

I was fingerprinted before I worked in the nursery at a church, and when I applied for TSA Pre-Check  clearance last year before Lisa and I flew to New Zealand.  I think those are the only three times I’ve been fingerprinted, but I may have missed one. I seem to remember another one, but can’t remember why I was required to do it.  It was long decades ago.

My FBI File will be mighty skimpy, I suppose 

My FBI file is probably not very long. No arrests, complaints, activities, etc.  unless you count my progressive activism (human rights, animal welfare, women’s rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, Pride Festival attendances, etc.) none of which resulted in me committing any crimes or even misdemeanors. I’m about as squeaky clean as it’s possible to be at age 73!

I am curious, though, to see if the FBI ever considered me a threat.  I know J. Edgar Hoover was the Director of the FBI for a very long time, and he was paranoid about a lot of things that were pretty pedestrian (Martin Luther King, Jr.’s marital infidelity and “commmunist” tendencies, John and Robert Kennedy’s purported extramarital activities, and more).  I might even be disappointed if my report comes back  as squeaky clean as I believe it will!  I would definitely like to be officially remembered for some of the “good trouble” (John L. Lewis’s phrase) I agreed with and supported in ways I could afford to do so (donations, articles, etc.).

We’ll find out soon enough, won’t we?!

12/12/2024  DONE AND SQUEAKY CLEAN! 

Now I have to find out if the offical doc is considered apostiled or if I have to send it somewhere else to have it apostiled.  What a PITA. Conflicting instructions online. I have asked my immigration attorney.