First, the two kinds of fingerprint rejection
Knowing which you got tells you how to fix it. A quality rejection means the ridge detail was too faint, smudged, or distorted for the FBI’s automated system to read. A data rejection means the prints were fine, but something on the submission, a name, date of birth, the reason for printing, or the receiving agency’s code, was missing or didn’t match. The fixes are completely different, so always read the notice to see which it was.
How often do prints actually get rejected?
This is where the capture method matters enormously. According to the FBI’s published civil-fingerprint guidance, rejections for Live Scan fingerprinting are uncommon, because quality is checked at capture. Ink cards are rejected noticeably more often, because there’s no quality check until the card is processed. In plain terms: electronic capture rarely bounces; mailed ink cards bounce several times more often.
Why prints come back for quality
From what we see in the office, quality rejections almost always come down to the skin and the roll:
- Dry or cracked skin, the single most common cause; dry ridges don’t make clean contact.
- Worn ridges, common with manual trades (construction, healthcare, cosmetology), frequent paper or chemical handling, and naturally with age. Some medications, and chemotherapy in particular, can temporarily flatten ridge detail.
- Too much pressure or movement during the roll, which smears the impression.
- Lotion, residue, or moisture on the fingertips at capture.
We see this firsthand: a client coming straight from a shift handling drywall or cleaning chemicals will often have temporarily worn ridges that read poorly. The same person, prepped properly a day later, captures cleanly. That’s why preparation matters as much as the equipment.
How to pass on the first try, printable checklist
What if my fingerprints get rejected anyway?
A rejection isn’t the end of the road, and you don’t have to figure it out alone:
Rejected Somewhere Else? We Can Help.
We’re fingerprinting specialists, and we regularly work with people whose prints were rejected by another provider. Bring us your rejection notice and we re-capture your prints using proven techniques for difficult cases, to give them the best chance of going through the first time. A rejection somewhere else doesn’t mean you’re stuck.
And if a print we capture is ever rejected for quality, we simply re-roll and resubmit it.
A small number of people have naturally faint ridges that no method can fully fix. There’s still a path: agencies generally allow a second attempt, and the FBI’s guidance notes that if prints are rejected twice for quality, many agencies will accept a name-based check instead. We document each attempt and walk you through it. If you’ve been rejected before, tell us when you book your appointment and we’ll take extra steps to get a clean capture.
My licensing board rejected my fingerprints. What should I bring to my new appointment?
Bring everything the board sent you, so we can fix the actual cause instead of simply repeating the capture:
- The rejection letter or notice, which usually says whether it was a quality or a data rejection.
- Your original fingerprinting instructions, including the ORI number and reason-fingerprinted code.
- New blank fingerprint cards, if the agency supplied them.
- A valid, unexpired government-issued photo ID.
- Any payment receipt or transaction number from the original submission.
Before you book, ask the board whether it needs a new fingerprint card or an electronic resubmission, and whether any state or FBI fee must be paid again. Not sure what the notice means? Send it to us and we’ll help you work out the correct next step before your appointment.