If you have a green card application, a citizenship application, or another case pending with USCIS, you may have received a one-page letter titled “FBI Privacy Requirements for Biometrics Collection by USCIS.” It carries no receipt number. It says USCIS is explaining your rights “related to enrollment in the FBI’s continuous vetting process.” And in bold type it says: “You do not need to take any further action at this time.”
The short answer: the letter is genuine, and you do not need to reply to it. But it tells you something that matters. Your fingerprint check has become an ongoing check. Your prints can stay on file with the FBI after your case is decided, and new criminal history information about you can reach USCIS without you filing anything. This article explains what the letter is, why it arrived now, what changed in 2026, and the five things worth doing about it.
What is the USCIS “FBI Privacy Requirements” letter, and do I need to do anything?
You do not need to respond. The letter says so itself, and adds: “You will receive a separate notice if USCIS needs any additional information.” It opens by explaining that “Since 2017, USCIS has been transitioning from performing point-in-time screening and vetting checks, to an event-based process known as Continuous Immigration Vetting (CIV).” It then tells you it is explaining your rights “related to enrollment in the FBI’s continuous vetting process, which checks criminal history records as required by the FBI.”
The rights it lists come from a notice that the FBI requires of every agency that sends fingerprints to it for a background check that is not part of a criminal case. That kind of check covers jobs, licenses, security clearances and immigration benefits. A Justice Department regulation, 28 CFR 50.12(b), requires the agency to tell the person fingerprinted that the prints “will be used to check the criminal history records of the FBI.” It also requires the agency to give the person a chance to complete or challenge that record before it acts on it.
The FBI’s own one-page summary, Noncriminal Justice Applicant’s Privacy Rights, names “an immigration or naturalization matter” as one of the purposes it covers. The USCIS letter restates those rights under four headings: notification, access and review, correction, and use and sharing. Put in plain terms, you have these rights:
- to be told in writing why your fingerprints are collected, and whether they will be searched, shared or kept;
- to see your own FBI record, either from the agency, if its policy allows, or by requesting it from the FBI yourself;
- to challenge anything in that record that is wrong or incomplete, and to have a reasonable time to fix it before a decision is made against you on the strength of it;
- to have the record used only for authorized purposes.
The letter is not a request for evidence. It is not an interview notice, and it is not an accusation. It does not mean anything was found. Keep it with your immigration papers and move on to the part that matters, below.
Why did I get this letter now, months after my fingerprint appointment?
The letter gives the reason in its first paragraph: enrollment in the FBI’s continuous vetting process. Beyond the letter itself, USCIS has not published an explanation of the September 2026 mailing as of September 29, 2026. The public record fills in the rest.
Firms across the country report the same wave. In late September 2026, immigration practices, including Capitol Immigration Law Group (September 28, 2026), reported that these letters were arriving in bulk for people with pending cases. Our own office received a copy dated September 25, 2026.
USCIS said in March 2026 that it was building an automatic link. In its alert on strengthened screening and vetting (released March 30, 2026, last updated June 12, 2026), USCIS listed among its new measures “Developing system connectivity for automatic notifications of biometric matches and new criminal information.”
The FBI requires this kind of notice before an agency keeps prints on standing watch. The FBI runs a service called Rap Back, under which an agency’s fingerprints stay in the FBI’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) system and are searched continuously instead of once. The FBI’s privacy impact assessment for Rap Back (June 2025) says individuals “must receive a notice that contains the requirements of 28 CFR 50.12.” It also says the agency must plan how that notice reaches “legacy populations for whom fingerprints have already been retained” in NGI. A mass mailing to people fingerprinted months ago is what that requirement would look like in practice.
Our reading, which USCIS has not confirmed as of September 29, 2026: the “FBI’s continuous vetting process” the letter refers to is Rap Back, and the September mailing is the notice the FBI requires for people whose fingerprints were already on file. The advice below does not depend on the program’s name. It holds either way.
Why did my lawyer get a copy?
If an attorney filed your case with a Form G-28, USCIS sends the attorney a copy of notices it sends you. That is why a law firm may receive a copy addressed “in care of” the lawyer, sometimes with no receipt number on the page. A copy to your lawyer does not mean your case was singled out.
Is my background check no longer a one-time event?
Increasingly, no. Until recently, most people could think of the fingerprint check as a snapshot. You gave prints at an application support center, the FBI ran them against its records, USCIS got a result, and the check was done. If the case took long enough for the result to go stale, USCIS ran it again. Either way, it was one check at a time.
Two programs have been replacing that snapshot with a standing watch. They are different programs run by different agencies. The September letter mentions both in its first paragraph, and much of what has been written about it treats them as one.
The FBI side: your prints can stay on file and keep being searched. The FBI’s standard Privacy Act Statement for civil fingerprints, which is printed on the back of USCIS biometrics appointment notices (Form I-797C), says: “The FBI may retain your fingerprints and associated information/biometrics in NGI after the completion of this application and, while retained, your fingerprints may continue to be compared against other fingerprints submitted to or retained by NGI.” Under Rap Back, the FBI’s assessment says, “Authorized agencies will receive electronic notification of any arrest of the individual.” It lists “immigration benefits” among the purposes for which people give fingerprints that can be enrolled.
The DHS side: continuous immigration vetting, since 2017. USCIS has run its own program, called Continuous Immigration Vetting, since 2017. It screens case information through DHS systems for new national security concerns, rather than checking once at filing. The program’s privacy impact assessment (DHS/USCIS/PIA-076, February 2019) says USCIS was “incrementally expanding” the program to cover applications and petitions “throughout the duration of the benefit or status, until the individual becomes a naturalized U.S. Citizen.” As described in 2019, that program was limited to national security screening. The FBI’s criminal-record watch is the piece now being connected.
The practical meaning of the two together: for someone who is not yet a U.S. citizen, the record check no longer ends when the case is approved.
Why might records I thought were gone show up now?
Because, according to law firms reporting on internal USCIS guidance, USCIS began receiving a fuller FBI record in 2026 than it used to.
On February 6, 2026, Executive Order 14385 directed the Attorney General to “provide DHS with access, for purposes related to DHS’s screening and vetting missions and to the maximum extent permitted by law, to CHRI available to or maintained by the Department of Justice.” CHRI means criminal history record information.
USCIS has not published its implementing guidance as of September 29, 2026. Law firms reporting on internal guidance say that, effective April 27, 2026, USCIS began receiving “enhanced criminal history record information” for fingerprint checks run through the FBI’s NGI system. Officers were reportedly told not to approve certain pending cases until the enhanced checks were done, and to re-run checks where the FBI result predated April 27 (Fredrikson, June 8, 2026). One firm warned that the enhanced checks may lead to requests for evidence about arrests that never led to a conviction and about juvenile records (Gunster, June 11, 2026).
You may read online that USCIS now sees sealed and expunged records. As of September 29, 2026, we have found no government source that says so, and the executive order is silent on the point. Do not plan around it either way, because for immigration purposes it rarely changes the answer. An expunged conviction is still a conviction in immigration law, with narrow exceptions. The immigration forms ask about arrests, not only convictions. So the question to ask is not “can they see it?” The question is “does the form ask about it?” The answer is usually yes.
How long does the continuous check last?
Until you become a U.S. citizen. That is the endpoint USCIS itself gave in 2019. Its privacy impact assessment describes vetting that runs from the first filing “until the individual becomes a naturalized U.S. citizen and is issued a naturalization certificate.” In the same document USCIS acknowledged the impact on people “who may hold lawful permanent resident status in the United States for an indefinite period of time without filing for naturalization.” For a green card holder, the watch has no fixed end date short of citizenship.
A proposed rule would go further and write this into the regulations. The biometrics rule proposed on November 3, 2025 (90 FR 49062) says any noncitizen present in the United States after an approved benefit “may be required to submit biometrics or undergo biometric-based screening and vetting unless and until they are granted U.S. citizenship.” It would also require biometrics from U.S. citizen petitioners as a general rule. As of September 29, 2026, that rule is not final. The government’s Fall 2025 regulatory agenda lists a final rule for December 2026. Until a final rule is published, USCIS works under its existing authority, which is already broad.
What should I do now that my fingerprints are on continuous watch?
The letter says no action is required, and that is true of the letter. These five steps are about the record behind it.
1. Get your own FBI record before you file or go to an interview
The simplest way to avoid a surprise is to see what the officer will see. The FBI will send you your own record, called an Identity History Summary, under 28 CFR 16.32. As of September 29, 2026, the FBI’s Identity History Summary page lists the fee as $18. The fastest route is an online request through edo.cjis.gov, with electronic fingerprints at a participating post office, which may charge its own fee. Bring the result to your lawyer before anything is filed. A clean summary is reassuring. A summary with entries you did not expect is exactly what you want to learn about first. A clean FBI summary is not the whole picture, though: it never contained a case nobody took fingerprints for. Our guide to the three criminal records and how to pull each one covers the state name search and the court files as well.
2. Fix arrests that show no final outcome
A common problem on an FBI record is an arrest with no disposition, meaning the record shows the arrest but not that the charge was dismissed, reduced or resolved. An officer who sees an arrest with no outcome has to ask what happened, and that question can stop a case. The fix is paperwork. Get a certified copy of the court’s final disposition. Then have the record corrected under 28 CFR 16.34, either through the agency that sent the arrest to the FBI or through the FBI’s online challenge process. File the certified disposition with your immigration case either way.
3. Disclose everything the forms ask about, including cases that were dismissed or sealed
Immigration forms ask whether you have ever been arrested, cited, charged or detained, not only whether you were convicted. A record USCIS can see and you did not list turns a small problem into a credibility problem, and credibility problems are much harder to fix than old arrests. Our article on answering “no” when the honest answer is “yes” walks through how these questions are read. Our plan for a pending green card under the 2026 discretion memo also has readers inventory dismissed and sealed arrests before filing.
4. Assume an arrest after approval will be known
This is the change most green card holders have not absorbed. Under a snapshot system, an arrest two years after approval might not come to USCIS’s attention until the next filing, often the citizenship application. Under a standing watch, it can arrive as it happens. If you are a permanent resident and you are arrested for anything beyond a minor traffic matter, talk to an immigration lawyer before you plead to anything. Talk to one before you travel abroad, too. Our article on green card holders with pending criminal charges explains why a trip abroad with a pending charge carries its own risk.
5. Treat the citizenship application as the moment the whole file is read
Naturalization is where everything in the record meets a decision. If you are a permanent resident planning to apply, the steps above belong before you file, not after. Our article Naturalization Is an Audit explains what USCIS re-opens when you file Form N-400 and how to read your own file first.
My case is on hold. Is this why, and what can I do?
Possibly, but the letter itself is not the hold. As of September 29, 2026, the holds most people are experiencing trace to two separate things.
The April 27 re-check. Firms reported in May and June 2026 that USCIS paused decisions on some cases where fingerprints were taken before April 27, 2026, until the enhanced FBI check was completed. One firm reported that new fingerprint appointments were generally not expected, because USCIS could re-run the prints it already had (Pryor Cashman, May 14, 2026). If you are asked to appear again, go. A missed biometrics appointment is generally treated as abandonment (see below).
The country-based hold memos. These were separate from the fingerprint check. A federal court in Rhode Island vacated the USCIS policies that held cases filed by nationals of travel-ban countries (USCIS alert, June 12, 2026). On appeal, the First Circuit let USCIS resume only its re-review of certain already-approved benefits while the case continues (August 14, 2026, as reported by Fragomen). That litigation is ongoing as of September 29, 2026 (First Circuit No. 26-1703).
If your citizenship interview is behind you, the law gives you a clock. If USCIS has not decided the N-400 within 120 days after the interview, you can ask a federal district court to decide it or to order USCIS to act. Our page on the 120-day right to federal court explains when that tool fits and when it does not. For other case types stuck well beyond normal processing, a federal lawsuit asking the court to compel a decision is sometimes the right tool. It is a judgment call that depends on the case, and it should be made with a lawyer who has read the file.
I am a U.S. citizen sponsoring a relative. Why did USCIS ask for my fingerprints?
USCIS can require fingerprints from anyone connected to a case, including the citizen who files a family petition. The regulation, 8 CFR 103.2(b)(9), says USCIS “may require any applicant, petitioner, sponsor, beneficiary, or individual filing a benefit request” to appear for biometrics. The proposed rule described above would make petitioner fingerprints routine, but as of September 29, 2026, it has not taken effect. So when a citizen petitioner is printed today, it is usually for a specific reason.
The most common reason, in our experience, is the Adam Walsh Act check. Federal law bars a U.S. citizen “convicted of a specified offense against a minor” from sponsoring a family member unless DHS finds the citizen poses no risk to that relative (INA § 204(a)(1)(A)(viii)). USCIS runs that check when it decides the petition. In the cases we have seen, a fingerprint request to a petitioner has most often followed a possible name match: someone with a similar name and birth date has a record. Fingerprints settle the question, usually in the petitioner’s favor. The request is not an accusation. It is often a sign the file has reached an officer.
The appointment notice will carry a code number. The code tells you what will be collected, such as fingerprints only or a photo and signature as well. It does not tell you why USCIS asked.
Do not miss the appointment
This is the part that costs people their cases. Under 8 CFR 103.2(b)(13)(ii), if someone USCIS requires to appear for biometrics does not appear, the case “shall be considered abandoned and denied.” The exception is when, by the appointment time, USCIS has received a change of address or a rescheduling request that it accepts. The USCIS Policy Manual sets out how to ask for a new date. The appointment notice itself says the same thing: the request must be made “before the date and time of the original appointment,” and you must show good cause, such as illness, a medical appointment, or a notice that arrived too late. Make the request through your USCIS online account or the USCIS Contact Center. If you have a lawyer on the case, the lawyer can make the request for you. If a serious ongoing medical condition keeps you at home or in the hospital, the notice explains how to ask for a mobile biometrics appointment, which is available inside the United States.
If you live abroad, say so right away. The Form I-130 instructions say: “If you are currently overseas, your notice will instruct you to contact a U.S. Embassy, U.S. Consulate, or USCIS office outside the United States to schedule an appointment.” A citizen who moved abroad without updating the mailing address on the petition may instead receive an appointment at a U.S. office near the old address. The fix starts with a timely rescheduling request and the new address. U.S. citizens have no duty to report address changes the way noncitizens do, but a stale address sends the appointment to the wrong place.
Why it matters even if the petitioner cannot easily travel: a spousal petition that is pending or approved when the citizen dies is converted by regulation into a widow or widower petition (8 CFR 204.2(i)(1)(iv)), as long as the surviving spouse meets the widow’s requirements on the date of death. A petition denied as abandoned converts into nothing. Our page on what happens when a citizen spouse dies during the case explains that protection. It is one more reason to keep the petition alive, even when fingerprinting is a nuisance.
Common questions about the letter
Is the FBI privacy letter a scam?
The genuine letter comes from USCIS, describes your FBI record rights, and asks for nothing. It does not ask for payment, personal information or a phone call. Any message that uses this letter as a reason to ask you for money or documents is not from USCIS. Check anything unexpected against your USCIS online account or with your lawyer.
Does the letter mean I am under investigation?
No. It is a notice that goes to people whose fingerprints USCIS sent to the FBI. It does not say anything was found, and by law firms’ accounts the September 2026 mailing went to large numbers of applicants at once.
Can I opt out of continuous vetting?
Not in any practical sense. The FBI’s Rap Back assessment says a person who wants out of recurring checks “must work through the original submitting agency to request removal.” For an immigration applicant, that agency is USCIS, which is the agency that decides the case. Declining to give fingerprints at all is not an option either. Refusing required biometrics generally leads to the abandonment denial described above.
Does this apply to green card holders, or only to pending cases?
The September 2026 letters reported so far went to people with pending cases. But the 2019 USCIS assessment describes vetting that continues through lawful permanent residence until naturalization. So a green card holder should assume the record is still being watched, and should read the steps above as applying to them.
The mistake to avoid
The letter’s instruction, that no action is needed, is accurate and easy to misread. It means you need not respond to the letter. It does not mean nothing changed. What changed is that the record USCIS reads is fuller than before and no longer frozen at your fingerprint appointment. The people this will hurt are the ones who assume an old arrest is invisible, a dismissed case does not need listing, or an arrest after approval will never come up. The people it will not hurt have read their own FBI record, fixed what can be fixed, and answered every question on the forms as the law reads it.
If this letter arrived for a case we are handling, you do not need to call us about the letter itself. If you have a pending case with anything in your history you are unsure about, or you are a green card holder planning to apply for citizenship, contact our office and we will read the record with you before USCIS does.
