How Much Time Does Background Verification Take In India?

Background verification entails thorough screening which involves going over an individual’s academic records, personally identifiable information (PII), criminal antecedents, credit scores and the like. Traditionally, the time taken by accredited background verification companies to get individuals screened takes about 15-21 days depending on the nature of verification that is undertaken. Companies that make use of automated processes have a turnaround time of 7-9 working days as they have leading edge technologies in place.

In case a Police Clearance Certificate is required and the police are involved; it could take anywhere between 1 week to three months as a proper investigation takes place. Letters of approval take time and each state has a separate policy when it comes to police related probes. For checking a candidate’s criminal history, the police, the courts and the third-party background verification vendors work together. Legalities are time-consuming and so, the online procedure takes about 25-30 days while the field visits and the follow-ups take two to three months. In place of the PCC, companies ask for a court record database check which takes about 2-3 working days.

The residential addresses of people are verified through field visits by field verification agents who operate on a pan-India basis. They complete the process within two days. If the location happens to be remote, the time taken stretches to about 7-8 days.

For academic verification, formal education verification is obtained on the letterheads of the universities and colleges. Boards such as the University Grants Commission (UGC) are referred to so as to ascertain the accreditations of certain educational institutions. Mark sheets, academic pass certificates and the admit cards are screened. This can take 7- 15 days.

For verifying tenants, a week’s time is sufficient. Usually, the credit score , criminal histories, social profiles are checked in case of tenants. Their passports, driving license, PAN cards or Aadhar cards are also checked before they are zeroed in on. Their CIBIL scores provide insights into any financial discrepancy that might have occurred such as the non-payment of loans, delayed payments, applying for multiple credit cards.

Pre-employment background verification could take 2-3 days whereas the post-employment background verification take 5-6 days as a more detailed screening is carried out once the candidate gets onboard. All those potential job seekers who are wondering with regards to their offer letters need to know that the company they’ve applied to, is conducting a background check on them. This would explain the delay in confirmation. Calling up previous employers or exchanging emails is the normative way to go and doesn’t take up much time. Typically, it is the past employment verification that causes delays as HR departments of companies need to revert back by filling the verification form sent to them by the background verification third party agency. The database checks are quick and can be done in real time however, some aspects of background screening involve manual processes that could cause delays.

If any client wishes to opt for a complete background check, that would include getting in touch with the local police stations, courts, screening the financial details of the candidate, reviewing their social media profiles, physically verifying their addresses, going over their academic documents etc. This process will take a minimum of 15 days if no unforeseen circumstances crop up.

The time taken by these firms varies as experience gaps, mismatches in the education, discrepancies in the remuneration structure, hugely varying skill sets, fictitious degrees and certificates are especially on the rise since the past few years. Looking into each of these is tedious but the more technology-enabled a company tends to be, the smoother the process becomes. Everything related to fraud mitigation has become digitized now and so, the time taken to complete these findings has also gotten reduced.