How to Check Your PA Background Check Status

To check your PA background check status, go to epatch.pa.gov and click “Check the Status of a Record Check.” You’ll enter the control number assigned when you submitted the request, the submission date, and your name exactly as it appeared on the application. The system then shows whether your check is complete, still under review, or ready to view.¹

Most online checks never need a status lookup at all. About 85 percent come back with a “No Record” result within seconds of submission.² The status page matters when your request didn’t resolve instantly, when you mailed in a paper form, or when an employer or agency is waiting on the result.

How to Look Up Your Status on PATCH

Open epatch.pa.gov in any browser. On the homepage, find the link labeled “Check the Status of a Record Check.” That opens a short search form. Enter the three pieces of information requested, hit search, and the results page shows the current state of your request.

The lookup is free. You can run it as many times as you want without affecting your results or incurring any charges. The whole process takes under a minute when you have your details ready.

Information You Need Before You Search

The status form asks for three things:

Your control number, assigned during submission. It appears on the confirmation screen and the payment receipt.
The date you submitted the request.
Your name, entered exactly as it was on the original application.¹

Name matching is strict. A missing suffix like “Jr.,” a dropped middle initial, or a different spelling will keep the system from finding your record. Pull up your original confirmation and copy the fields exactly as they appear there. If you no longer have the confirmation, the control number alone won’t save you; the system needs all three fields to match.

What the Status Results Mean

After you search, PATCH returns one of three outcomes.

No Record. The check is complete and no criminal history was found. Click the blue control number link on the results page to view and print your certificate.¹

Request Under Review. Your submission matched information in the database and has been queued for manual review by the Pennsylvania State Police.² This does not mean you have a criminal record. Common names, slight data entry variations, and old arrests that may belong to someone else all trigger the flag. A person has to verify the match before anything is released. Most of these resolve to either “No Record” or “Record” within a couple of weeks.

Record. The check found criminal history entries that are available for public dissemination. Click the blue control number link to view and print the certificate showing what was found.¹

How Long Before the Status Changes

Timing depends on how you submitted and whether the request was flagged.

Online submissions paid by credit card resolve within seconds roughly 85 percent of the time. When the system flags a request for manual review, registered users with PATCH accounts (employers and agencies) usually see a final result within two weeks. Non-registered users, including individuals running their own checks, should expect two to four weeks for a flagged request to clear.²

Mail-in requests take longer because the State Police have to key in the application by hand. Paper submissions use Form SP 4-164 for standard checks or SP 4-164A for volunteer checks, with payment by certified check or money order.¹ Between mailing time and processing, plan on several weeks. Checking your PATCH status online is the quickest way to confirm the state has even received a mailed form.

When to Call the Helpline

If your request has sat in a non-final status for more than ten business days, call the PATCH helpline at 1-888-783-7972.³ Have your control number ready before you dial. Registered organizations with PATCH accounts should press option 4 at the prompt.² Staff can tell you why a particular request is delayed and whether any additional information is needed to finish the review.

Calling before the ten-business-day mark on a request flagged for manual review generally won’t speed things up. Reviewers work the queue in order, and the two-to-four-week window for non-registered users is the normal timeline when a record needs human verification.

If the Result Shows Something You Think Is Wrong

Once your status changes to “Record,” you can view the certificate and see what the State Police released. If anything on it looks inaccurate, Pennsylvania law gives you the right to review, challenge, correct, and appeal your criminal history record.⁴

The first step is an Individual Access and Review request using Form SP 4-170, which costs $20 and gives you a full view of your own history so you can pinpoint the error.¹ You then file a formal challenge identifying the incorrect entry and what the correct version should be, backed by certified court records or docket entries. The agency has 60 days to respond, and the burden of proving the record is accurate falls on the agency, not on you. If the challenge is denied, you have 30 days to appeal to the Pennsylvania Attorney General, who holds a fresh hearing. You have to go through the agency review first; skipping to the Attorney General isn’t an option.

One thing worth knowing before you dispute anything: the PATCH certificate you receive is already filtered. Arrests more than three years old with no disposition and no pending proceedings are stripped out, and records sealed under Clean Slate or petition-based limited access won’t appear.⁵ If a record you expected to see is missing, that filtering is usually the reason, not an error.

1
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Request a Criminal History Background Check
2
Pennsylvania State Police. Pennsylvania Access to Criminal History
3
Pennsylvania Access To Criminal History. Pennsylvania Access To Criminal History – Home
4
Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. Criminal History Record Information Act (CHRIA)
5
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 18 – 9121 General Regulations on Dissemination