Name check

[rebeccajo 14]

I posted a thread (either in OT or this forum - can't remember) a few weeks back about Goggling your name and seeing what you get. It got some funny replies, because as you might imagine, other people DO likely have your name. Some members even found that their spouse was dead!

When we googled Wes' name, we found that he ACTUALLY DOES have the same name (as least first nickname and same surname) as a relatively famous and published internet genius - LOL. Albeit this person is a USC.

Now I just wonder - in a case like this - is it gonna take LONGER to get the FBI security clearance?

Anybody care to hedge a guess?

edited to add -

I only wish it WERE him. Imagine the royalties. *sigh*

Edited April 21, 2006 by rebeccajo

[Mand 1]

I think if they get a match on a name in their system, it then has to go to an actual person, who looks closer at the person.

This link HERE has a good explanation of the entire process. Here's a snippet for ya....

FBI Name Check Process

It may be helpful to the Committee to follow along with Attachment B, a flow chart of the FBI visa name check work process. Consular officers worldwide determine whether a visa request falls into one of the special visa categories requiring additional scrutiny. Two of these categories are Visa Condor, relevant to certain individuals who are from designated countries and who satisfy additional criteria which may make them worthy of additional scrutiny, and Visa Mantis, relevant to certain individuals who will have access during their visit to American special technologies. The consular officer will submit their name check requests by cable, simultaneously to both the FBI and State Department headquarters.

In the next step of the process, the FBI communications center forwards the batches of names to be checked electronically to the name check program. The name is electronically checked against the FBI Universal Indices (UNI). The searches seek all instances of the individual's name and close date of birth, whether a main file name or reference. By way of explanation, a main file name is that of an individual who is, himself, the subject of an FBI investigation, whereas a reference is someone whose name appears in an FBI investigation. References may be associates, witnesses, conspirators, or a myriad of other reasons may exist to explain why an FBI Agent believed it important to index a particular name in an investigation for later recovery. The names are searched in a multitude of combinations, switching the order of first, last, middle names, as well as combinations with just the first and last, first and middle, and so on. It also searches different phonetic spelling variations of the names, especially important considering that many names in our indices have been transliterated from a language other than English.

If there is a match with a name in a FBI record, it is designated as a "Hit", meaning that the system has stopped on a possible match with the name being checked, but now a human being must review the file or indices entry to further refine the names "Hit" on. If the search comes up with a name and birth date match, it is designated an "Ident." An "Ident" is usually easier to resolve.

I hope Wes gets his Green Card soon and ye can forget about USCIS for awhile!

[rebeccajo 14]

Amanda...interesting link. I've got it up and reading it now. It appears to me (unless I read it wrong) that Visa Condor and Visa Mantis are checks performed on individuals from certain countries or individuals here on tech business.

Still reading along here....

Even though Northern Ireland is not on the list of nations presently under the eye of terrorism scrutiny, I've often wondered if my husband, (as well as others from this troubled country) would get a bit more scrutiny than others from the UK.