Arizona Fingerprint Clearance Card: Types, Application, and Renewal

The Arizona Fingerprint Clearance Card is a credential issued by the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) that confirms your criminal history doesn’t include offenses barring you from working with vulnerable populations or in positions of public trust.¹ The card is valid for six years. Getting one means applying online, paying a $67 fee ($65 for volunteers), submitting fingerprints, and passing a state and federal background check.

Who Needs a Fingerprint Clearance Card

The list of qualifying roles is broad, but the common thread is contact with children, students, or vulnerable adults. Your employer or licensing agency will tell you whether the card is required, and which type. The most common categories:

Teachers, school bus drivers, noncertificated school staff at public and charter schools, student teachers, and contracted tutors.²
Daycare providers, child nutrition program workers, Child Protective Services staff, children’s behavioral health personnel, and foster home applicants.³
Employees and owners of residential care institutions, nursing care institutions, and home health agencies who provide direct care, medical, nursing, behavioral health, or supportive services.³
Applicants to certain licensing boards, including real estate.

If you’re starting a healthcare or vulnerable-adult position, you must either already hold a valid card or apply within twenty working days of your start date. Children’s behavioral health workers have a tighter deadline of seven working days.³

Regular, Level I, and IVP Cards

Arizona issues two card types. A Regular Fingerprint Clearance Card uses the list of disqualifying offenses in ARS 41-1758.03. A Level I Fingerprint Clearance Card applies the stricter list in ARS 41-1758.07.¹ Some offenses that would block a Level I card won’t block a Regular card. Your employer or licensing board tells you which one to apply for.

Either card can also carry an Identity Verified Prints (IVP) designation. Teachers and anyone working in a classroom are required to hold an IVP card under ARS 15-106.² With IVP, the fingerprint technician confirms your identity and transmits the prints directly to DPS. The practical payoff comes at renewal: IVP holders don’t have to submit new fingerprints when their card expires.

How to Apply

Start by creating an account on the DPS Public Services Portal and completing the online application. You’ll enter personal identifiers, including current and previous addresses. After you pay the fee, you receive a reference number that links your fingerprints to your file.¹

The DPS fee is $67 for paid applicants and $65 for volunteers. It’s nonrefundable and covers both the state and federal background check, whether you apply electronically or on paper.¹ Your fingerprinting vendor will charge a separate service fee that varies by location.

Getting Fingerprinted

DPS does not offer fingerprinting. You’ll go to an authorized third-party vendor or a local law enforcement office.¹

Electronic (Live Scan) is the faster method. An authorized vendor captures your fingerprints digitally and transmits them to DPS using your reference number. Your status should appear in the DPS system within roughly 24 to 48 hours after fingerprinting.¹

Paper fingerprint cards work too, but you have to include the correct fingerprint affidavit and the envelope must be sealed by the technician. Packets that arrive without the affidavit or with a broken seal are rejected. Paper processing runs longer because DPS has to receive the mail and enter the data manually.¹

For an IVP card, the technician verifies your identity and mails the prints directly to DPS in a postage-paid envelope from DPS. You request that envelope through the Public Services Portal message center with your IVP number and mailing address.²

If You Live Out of State

You still complete the online application on the Public Services Portal. After you get your reference number, you can ask DPS to mail you a paper IVP packet. For non-IVP applications, you’ll need a paper fingerprint card and the correct affidavit, then mail everything to DPS with the reference number written in the Miscellaneous Number box.¹

Checking Your Application Status

Track your application on the DPS online status tool using your application number or clearance card number.⁴ DPS does not give status updates by email or fax. Electronic applications typically show a status within one to two business days after fingerprinting. Paper timelines depend on mail delivery and DPS workload.¹

What Can Block Your Card

DPS compares your state and federal criminal history against statutory lists of disqualifying offenses. What happens next depends on the offense and the card type.

Some offenses are absolute bars with no appeal. For a Regular card, those are in ARS 41-1758.03(B); for a Level I card, ARS 41-1758.07(B). They include first- and second-degree murder, sexual assault, incest, sexual exploitation of a minor, and sexual exploitation of a vulnerable adult. Anyone required to register as a sex offender in any state is also permanently barred.⁵

A second category, in subsection C of each statute, also blocks issuance but lets you petition the Board of Fingerprinting for a good cause exception. Examples include manslaughter, endangerment, assault, theft, shoplifting, and drug crimes.⁵ The Level I list is broader.

You don’t need a conviction to be blocked. If you’re awaiting trial on any precluding offense, DPS will suspend or deny your card. The statute also covers attempts, solicitation, facilitation, and conspiracy, and reaches offenses committed in other states that match or resemble Arizona’s listed crimes.⁵

Requesting a Good Cause Exception

If your denial letter says you’re eligible for a good cause exception, you can petition the Board of Fingerprinting, which is a separate agency from DPS with its own review process.⁶ Apply through the Board’s online portal or by mailing a paper form. You need at least two personal reference forms, and you can submit more.⁷

The review runs in stages: an expedited review within 20 days of the Board receiving your complete package and your criminal history from DPS, a hearing between 20 and 45 days after the expedited review if it doesn’t resolve in your favor, and a final decision within 80 days of the hearing.⁶

At a hearing, the Board considers the extent of your record, how long ago the offense occurred, the nature of the crime, mitigating circumstances, and evidence of rehabilitation such as completed probation or parole, restitution, treatment or counseling, and personal references. The Board can also require disclosure of substantiated allegations of child or vulnerable adult abuse or neglect beyond your formal criminal record.⁸

Expiration, Renewal, and Replacement

Your card is valid for six years from the date of issuance unless DPS suspends or revokes it earlier.¹ Start renewal well before it expires. A lapsed card means you’re no longer eligible to work in the position that required it.

Renewal is a full new application with new fingerprints and another $67 or $65 fee. The exception: IVP holders whose identity-verified prints are already on file with DPS can renew without submitting new prints.²

Lost, stolen, or name-changed cards can be replaced through the Public Services Portal or by mailing a paper replacement form with a $5 fee. A replacement reissues the same card for the remaining validity period and does not extend the expiration date.¹

A Note for Employers

A photocopy of an employee’s clearance card is not proof that the card is still valid. Cards can be suspended or revoked at any time, so employers must verify status online through the DPS portal or by contacting DPS directly. DPS won’t send verification by email or fax, and you’ll need the employee’s application or card number to run the check.¹

1
Department of Public Safety. Fingerprint Clearance Card
2
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 15 – Education 15-106 – Identity Verified Fingerprints
3
Arizona Legislature. Chapter 24 House Bill 2042 – Health Care Personnel Fingerprinting Requirements
4
Arizona Department of Public Safety. Fingerprint Clearance Card / Application Status
5
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 41-1758.03 – Fingerprint Clearance Cards Issuance Immunity
6
Board of Fingerprinting. Applying for a Good Cause Exception
7
Board of Fingerprinting. Forms
8
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 41-619.55 – Good Cause Exceptions Expedited Review Hearing Revocation