Getting Fingerprinted in Magnolia: How the Appointment Works

If an employer, a licensing board, a school district or a volunteer program has told you to go get fingerprinted, the short version is this: book the appointment with Fieldprint first, pick The Shipping Place as your location, then come to the counter with your confirmation and a photo ID. The prints are taken on a digital scanner, not an ink pad, and the visit itself is short.

The part that trips people up is the order of operations. Fall is when a lot of this paperwork lands, with new hires starting, coaches and classroom volunteers getting cleared, and license renewals coming due, so this is the process from the top.

Step one: the appointment is booked with Fieldprint, not with us

We are an authorized Fieldprint enrollment location. Fieldprint is the company that runs the scheduling, collects the fee, and transmits the prints to whoever ordered the background check. We are the place on FM 1488 where the prints are physically captured.

That means you can’t call the store and book a fingerprinting slot. You go to Fieldprint’s website, schedule the appointment there, and choose our store from the list of collection sites. The agency or employer that sent you will usually have given you a service code or an authorization form; that is what tells Fieldprint which check to run and who receives it. Have it in front of you when you book.

Fieldprint’s own description of the process is three sentences long: schedule online, pay the designated fee, have your prints collected at a collection site. That’s genuinely all of it.

Step two: what to bring

Four things, per our own checklist:

1. Your appointment confirmation. The confirmation number or the email is fine.
2. A valid, unexpired government photo ID. Some enrollments require two forms of ID. Your confirmation will say so, so read it before you leave the house.
3. Any paperwork your agency sent. Service codes, authorization forms, anything with an agency name on it.
4. Nothing to pay us. The fingerprinting fee was paid to Fieldprint when you booked. We don’t take payment for it at the counter.

The ID is the one people forget, and it’s the one we can’t work around. An expired license is not a valid ID for this purpose, and neither is a photo of your license on your phone.

Step three: at the counter

Digital fingerprinting, often called Live Scan, means your fingers are rolled across a glass scanner and the image goes straight into the system. No ink, no card, nothing to mail. If your enrollment calls for a photograph, we capture that on site as part of the same appointment. This is an enrollment photo for the background-check record, nothing more.

Some employers also require an in-person I-9 document review, where an authorized agent looks at your original identity and work-authorization documents and confirms them. We handle that too when your employer’s process calls for it, so if your onboarding packet mentions both, one trip covers both.

The one thing we cannot do

Ink cards. If your agency mailed you a paper fingerprint card and told you to bring it somewhere to be inked, we’re not that somewhere. We take digital prints only. It’s worth calling the agency and asking whether they accept an electronic submission through Fieldprint instead, because many do, but if the answer is a hard “paper card only,” you’ll need a location that still does ink.

We would rather tell you that on this page than after you have driven over.

Where the results go

Wherever the agency that ordered the check said they go. Fieldprint transmits the prints; the requesting organization receives the result. That routing is set when the appointment is booked, not at our counter, so if you have a question about status or timing after the appointment, the answer is with Fieldprint or the agency.

While you are here

Background-check paperwork tends to travel with other paperwork. If the same packet has a form that needs a notary, we do that at the same counter during store hours; what to bring for the notary covers the ID rules for that. If the job or the license came with a business of your own, the address on your paperwork is worth ten minutes of your attention before the state record and the bank disagree.

The full service description is on our fingerprinting page, including the link to schedule.

The short checklist

• Book at Fieldprint. Choose The Shipping Place, 9311 FM 1488 Road, Suite 30, Magnolia.
• Bring the confirmation, a valid unexpired photo ID (two if your confirmation says so), and any agency paperwork.
• Digital prints only. No ink cards.
• Nothing to pay at the counter.
• Store hours are Monday through Friday 9 to 6 and Saturday 10 to 4. Questions about the appointment itself go to Fieldprint; questions about finding us go to 936-444-9711.