Arizona Fingerprint Clearance Card: Eligibility, Application, and Renewal

An Arizona Fingerprint Clearance Card is a credential issued by the Department of Public Safety (DPS) confirming that your criminal history doesn’t include offenses that would legally bar you from a job or volunteer role involving vulnerable people or public trust. The card is valid for six years. To get one you submit an online application, pay a $67 fee ($65 for volunteers), get fingerprinted, and clear a state and federal background check.¹

Who Needs a Card

Your employer or licensing agency decides whether your position requires a card, but the requirement reaches across several fields:

Education roles, including teachers, school bus drivers, noncertificated school staff, student teachers, and contracted tutors in schools.²
Childcare and youth services, including daycare providers, child nutrition program workers, Child Protective Services staff, children’s behavioral health personnel, and foster home applicants.³
Vulnerable adult care, including 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
Certain licensed professionals, including real estate licensees under their board’s rules.

Healthcare and vulnerable-adult workers must already hold a valid card or apply within twenty working days of starting work or volunteering. Children’s behavioral health personnel have seven working days.³

Regular, Level I, and the IVP Designation

DPS issues two card types. A Regular card uses the disqualifying-offense list in ARS 41-1758.03. A Level I card applies a stricter list under ARS 41-1758.07. Some offenses that would block a Level I card won’t block a Regular card.¹ Your employer or licensing agency tells you which to apply for.

Either type can also carry the Identity Verified Prints (IVP) designation. IVP is required for teachers and anyone working in a classroom under ARS 15-106.² With an IVP card, the fingerprint technician verifies your identity and transmits the prints to DPS directly. The practical payoff comes at renewal: if your identity-verified prints are already on file, you don’t have to submit new ones.

How to Apply

Create an account on the DPS Public Services Portal and complete the online application. You’ll enter personal identifiers, including current and previous addresses. After you submit and pay, DPS issues a reference number that links your fingerprints to your file.¹

The DPS fee is $67 for paid employment and $65 for volunteers. It covers both the state and federal background check and is nonrefundable. The fingerprinting vendor charges a separate service fee that varies by location.¹

If you live out of state and can’t reach an approved Arizona vendor, you still apply through the Public Services Portal. After you get your reference number, you can request a paper IVP packet from DPS. For non-IVP applicants out of state, you’ll need a paper fingerprint card and the correct affidavit, with your reference number written in the Miscellaneous Number box.¹

Getting Fingerprinted

DPS doesn’t take prints itself. You go to an authorized third-party vendor or a local law enforcement office.¹

Electronic (Live Scan)

This is the faster route. The vendor captures your prints digitally and transmits them to DPS using your reference number. Your application status should appear in the DPS online system within about 24 to 48 hours.¹

Paper Fingerprint Card

If you use a paper card, include the correct fingerprint affidavit and make sure the technician seals the envelope. DPS rejects submissions that arrive without the affidavit or with a broken seal. Paper applications take longer to post in the system because DPS has to process mail and enter the data by hand.¹

IVP Submissions

For IVP cards, the technician verifies your identity and mails the prints directly to DPS in a postage-paid envelope supplied by DPS. You can request that envelope through the Public Services Portal message center by sending your IVP number and mailing address.²

Checking Your Status

Track your application through the DPS online status tool using either your application number or your card number.⁴ DPS doesn’t provide status updates by email or fax. Electronic applicants typically see status within one to two business days after fingerprinting; paper timelines depend on mail and workload.¹

Offenses That Can Block Your Card

Once DPS pulls your state and federal criminal history, it compares the record against statutory lists of disqualifying offenses. The consequence depends on where the offense falls.

Permanent Bars

Some offenses permanently preclude issuance with no appeal available. For Regular cards they’re in ARS 41-1758.03(B); for Level I cards, in ARS 41-1758.07(B). They include first- or 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

Offenses That Allow a Good Cause Exception

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

You don’t need a conviction to be blocked. If you’re awaiting trial on a precluding offense, DPS will deny the application or suspend an existing card. The statute also covers attempts, solicitation, facilitation, and conspiracy, and it reaches out-of-state offenses that match or resemble Arizona’s listed crimes.⁵

The 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 and runs its own review.⁶ Apply through the Board’s online portal or by mailing a paper form, with at least two personal reference forms.⁷

Review happens in stages. An expedited review must be completed within 20 days of the Board receiving your complete application and criminal history from DPS. If that doesn’t resolve matters in your favor, a hearing takes place between 20 and 45 days after the expedited review, and the Board issues its final decision within 80 days of the hearing.⁶

At a hearing the Board weighs the extent of your record, how long ago the offense occurred, the nature of the crime, mitigating circumstances, and evidence of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation evidence can include completion of probation or parole, restitution payments, drug treatment or counseling, and personal references. The Board can also require disclosure of substantiated allegations of child or vulnerable adult abuse or neglect, even outside your formal criminal record.⁸

Expiration, Renewal, and Replacement

Your card is valid for six years from the issue date unless DPS suspends or revokes it earlier.¹ Start renewal well before expiration. A lapse means you’re no longer eligible for the position that required the card.

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

If your card is lost, stolen, or your name has changed, request a replacement through the Public Services Portal or by mailing a paper replacement form with a $5 fee. A replacement reissues the card for the remaining validity period; it doesn’t extend the expiration date.¹

A Note for Employers

A photocopy of an employee’s card is not proof the card is still valid. Cards can be suspended or revoked at any time, so Arizona employers must verify status online through the DPS portal or by contacting DPS directly. DPS does not confirm status 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