NBI clearance from the United States
An NBI clearance is the Philippine criminal record check — the document employers, immigration authorities and licensing bodies ask for. Around a thousand people a month look for it from the United States, which makes it one of the biggest Philippine document searches in the country.
And here is the thing almost nobody knows before they start: the consulate does not issue it. The National Bureau of Investigation in the Philippines does. What a Philippine post in America does is one small but essential step — it notarises your fingerprint card. Everything else happens by mail, between you and Manila.
How the process actually works from abroad
The NBI runs a specific route for applicants outside the Philippines, usually described as the mailed clearance procedure. In outline:
- You obtain the NBI fingerprint card and have your fingerprints taken.
- The card is notarised — this is the part a Philippine consular officer can do for you.
- You mail the notarised card, the application and the fee to the NBI in the Philippines, following the instructions on their own site.
- The clearance is issued in Manila and returned to you, or released to a representative there.
The authoritative instructions live at nbi.gov.ph, and they are the ones to follow. Requirements and fees for this route are set by the NBI and change from time to time; a consulate cannot vary them.
Do not book an appointment expecting to walk out with a clearance, and do not mail your application to a Philippine consulate. The post’s role begins and ends with notarising the card in front of you. Because that is a consular notarisation, it needs an appointment, personal appearance and the standard notarial fee.
Where to get your fingerprints taken
Rolling fingerprints properly is a skill, and a smudged card is a rejected application. In the United States the usual options are a local police department, a sheriff's office, or a commercial fingerprinting service — many of the same places that handle Live Scan for state licensing will also ink a card.
Take the NBI's own card if you can. Cards designed for other purposes sometimes lack the fields the NBI needs, and a card that arrives in Manila missing information comes back unprocessed after weeks in the post.
What the consular notarisation involves
The same rules as any other consular notarial act apply:
- Personal appearance is required. You sign in front of the consular officer; nobody can do it on your behalf.
- Bring valid photo identification — a passport or government-issued ID — with a photocopy for each document.
- The name and signature must match your ID. A variation between documents needs an Affidavit of One and the Same Person.
- The fee is US$25 per document at the posts that publish it, with an extra US$10 for expedited release.
- The consulate will not fill in your form for you, and its staff cannot act as witnesses.
Plan the timeline backwards
This is a slow procedure and it has more moving parts than people budget for. Working backwards from the deadline you actually have:
- International post in both directions, which is the largest and least predictable block of time.
- NBI processing in Manila.
- Your consular appointment, which at some posts is only bookable in a weekly window — Los Angeles, for instance, opens slots on Monday evenings.
- Getting the fingerprints taken, which needs its own appointment in most places.
If someone has told you they need the clearance "in a couple of weeks", the honest answer is usually that it will not happen. Start as early as the requirement appears.
Does it need an apostille?
Sometimes, and it depends entirely on who is asking for it. An NBI clearance issued in the Philippines and destined for use abroad may need to be apostilled by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs — a step that happens in the Philippines, not in America.
What is not the answer is a consular authentication. Since 15 May 2019 Philippine posts no longer authenticate documents, and that change runs in both directions: American public documents need an American apostille, and Philippine ones need a Philippine apostille. Ask the body requesting the clearance which they need, in writing, before paying for anything.
A note on the alternative
If you are travelling to the Philippines anyway, the in-country route is much faster: an online appointment, a visit to an NBI branch or a renewal kiosk, and the clearance is typically issued the same day. Several posts point this out on their own pages. The mailed route exists because most people abroad cannot make that trip — but if you have one planned, it is worth waiting for.
Whichever route you take, find the post with jurisdiction over your state in the consulate directory before booking anything: the fingerprint card has to be notarised by the post that covers where you live.