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Background Checks and High School Education


mommybee
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Can anyone explain why a diploma isn't proof enough that I graduated high school?

 

I just got a new job and in the background check they keep trying to get my transcripts as proof of education and no one will answer me as to why a diploma isn't good enough.

 

I am hoping someone here can explain it to me cause it's driving me nuts!

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Maybe but it was over 20 years ago. I found a sealed copy of my transcripts today and they said they were required to talk to the school directly.

 

Just seems like they aren't going to get much info from so long ago. I don't have a college degree but I am a certified pharmacy tech so I had tons of background just to get that license.

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Maybe but it was over 20 years ago. I found a sealed copy of my transcripts today and they said they were required to talk to the school directly.

 

Just seems like they aren't going to get much info from so long ago. I don't have a college degree but I am a certified pharmacy tech so I had tons of background just to get that license.

 

You're a certified pharmacy tech and they want grades from 20 years ago?  That's nuts I think.

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Is it your copy of the diploma. Anything not sent from the institution can be faked

 

Every place I've worked that wanted proof wanted an official transcript from the institution.

 

The only time a copy of my diploma was accepted as proof of graduation was when I registered to homeschool.

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Is it your copy of the diploma. Anything not sent from the institution can be faked

 

Every place I've worked that wanted proof wanted an official transcript from the institution.

 

The only time a copy of my diploma was accepted as proof of graduation was when I registered to homeschool.

 

Yes, but if she's got her certification (and assuming that it's "provable"), then I'm not sure why they should care what came before. 

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At least I know my thoughts on it being ridiculous are correct.

 

They are going to do it anyway but I found it so bizarre. 

 

At least I can understand why a diploma doesn't work but then I don't understand why I was given an official copy of one if it isn't useful for anything,

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At least I know my thoughts on it being ridiculous are correct.

 

They are going to do it anyway but I found it so bizarre. 

 

At least I can understand why a diploma doesn't work but then I don't understand why I was given an official copy of one if it isn't useful for anything,

 

Well they give you grade sheets in high school and college.  That's similar to a transcript, but they don't consider that official. 

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I, nor anyone I know, has ever been asked to provide high school transcripts for a job.

 

I have needed my high school transcript 18 years after graduating - to come legally to this country. Never mind that I had a PhD.

I know other people who had to provide high school transcripts to obtain visa to work in other countries.

 

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I have needed my high school transcript 18 years after graduating - to come legally to this country. Never mind that I had a PhD.

I know other people who had to provide high school transcripts to obtain visa to work in other countries.

 

 

Huh.  Was that related to some sort of work visa?  I guess I could see that, but yeah that's pretty dumb if you have a PhD.

 

See I envision these weird problems if my kids don't have high school diplomas. 

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Huh.  Was that related to some sort of work visa?  I guess I could see that, but yeah that's pretty dumb if you have a PhD.

 

Green Card.

Most citizens have no idea what procedures people are put through who want to become legal permanent residents. We have several feet of shelf space full of paperwork and paid a hefty amount of money. The high school transcript was one of the less invasive things - compared with the medical testing (because, you know, as a tourist you can spread any germ you want, but to live here, you have to be disease free, certified by a specially annointed immigration physician).

 

Edited by regentrude
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Green Card.

Most citizens have no idea what procedures people are put through who want to become legal permanent residents. We have several feet of shelf space full of paperwork and paid a hefty amount of money. The high school transcript was one of the less invasive things - compared with the medical testing (because, you know, as a tourist you can spread any germ you want, but to live here, you have to be disease free, certified by a specially annointed immigration physician).

 

Really?  That is weird.  I don't recall my husband having to do that.

 

Yeah some of that stuff is so stupid.  We had to have someone write a letter attesting to the fact we were a legitimate couple.  So we asked the landlady.  She wrote this very silly letter saying we made a lot of noise at night.  LOL  And we both had to also explain how we met in writing.  Then we went for the interview.  Sometimes they ask you stuff and sometimes they don't.  They didn't ask us a single question.

 

From the point of the K-1 visa to the green card there is this sort of gray area where you have to maintain your legal status (in particular for working) so that involves additional paperwork and money.  In our case that amounted to making sure he was 100% legal for a period of about 10 days.  

 

And a lot of the paperwork is the same questions asked over and over again several times.  DH had to have all sorts of vaccines because he couldn't get the old records.  Although some of them he never got.  Kind of stupid because he had been here to visit 20 times.  No clue why a person who becomes permanent somehow turns into a diseased ridden threat.  Although in the long run that probably saved money because he would have sometimes needed that here and it would have cost a lot more. 

 

What makes me very mad though is now they make you renew the green card every 10 years to the tune of around $500.  That's a lot of money for essentially nothing. 

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You're a certified pharmacy tech and they want grades from 20 years ago?  That's nuts I think.

 

My husband has a Master's in Mathematics and ran into the same thing.  Is it a government job? They seem to have boxes they need to check off.

Edited by vonfirmath
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From the point of the K-1 visa to the green card there is this sort of gray area where you have to maintain your legal status (in particular for working) so that involves additional paperwork and money.  In our case that amounted to making sure he was 100% legal for a period of about 10 days. 

It took us FOUR years from our application to the Green card, while we had H1B visa. We had to renew our travel authorization every year, for four people.

We spent 10k on the process.

 

DH had to have all sorts of vaccines because he couldn't get the old records.  Although some of them he never got.  Kind of stupid because he had been here to visit 20 times.  No clue why a person who becomes permanent somehow turns into a diseased ridden threat.  Although in the long run that probably saved money because he would have sometimes needed that here and it would have cost a lot more.

 

Yeah, for permanent resident, we had to do HIV testing, chest X-Ray to verify that we are tuberculosis free.. plus all the vaccines.

 

What makes me very mad though is now they make you renew the green card every 10 years to the tune of around $500.  That's a lot of money for essentially nothing. 

 

But he could easily apply for citizenship and not bother with the GC renewal. That's what we did.

Edited by regentrude
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But he could easily apply for citizenship and not bother with the GC renewal. That's what we did.

 

He doesn't want to.  I don't push the issue.  I think he'd be willing to if he could keep his German citizenship as well.  Which he could, but that would involve more paperwork and money.

We also sat down to figure out if it would actually be cheaper to do that than pay that amount every 10 years.  Interestingly, it's not really cheaper to get the citizenship instead.

 

He doesn't HAVE to renew the green card.  Currently there is no penalty for not doing it.  It doesn't result in revoking your green card.  But for the purposes of traveling he does it.

 

I think his biggest problem with it is the swearing in ceremony stuff.  Yeah he is THAT pig headed about that stuff. 

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It's not government it is for a health insurance company.

 

The job is being handled by a temp agency for them and I have gotten emails from so many different people. It seems there is a one size fits all background check and they won't veer off of that. They won't even answer the question directly.

 

I'm just so happy to get out of retail that I'll do anything. I just wish they would hurry the process up.

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I, nor anyone I know, has ever been asked to provide high school transcripts for a job. I find it especially dumb if they are from that long ago and since then you've been certified as a pharmacy tech.

 

I worked for a large stock brokerage firm, which contacted every school I ever attended from first grade on (five elementary schools, three junior highs, four highs), but even they did not request a transcript.

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I can't help but wonder if this is sometimes a sly approach to marginalize immigrant populations. For many people there is simply no way to get such records. 

 

I doubt that. Illegal immigrants would be detected with E-Verify; no hoops as in school transcripts etc required.

And legal immigrants would have been required to have such paperwork for their immigration.

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I wonder if the difference is that Sparkly's husband and I were married to US citizens whereas Regentrude and her husband were both non-citizens.  It took us about 18 months, a few hundred dollars and the medical exam wasn't all that onerous.  Nobody wanted to see my highschool transcript or anything else of that sort.  When I applied to university they too only wanted to see my diploma although in Germany it has the grades on it.  I sent them a copy and they were fine with it.  

 

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I wonder if the difference is that Sparkly's husband and I were married to US citizens whereas Regentrude and her husband were both non-citizens.  It took us about 18 months, a few hundred dollars and the medical exam wasn't all that onerous.  Nobody wanted to see my highschool transcript or anything else of that sort.  When I applied to university they too only wanted to see my diploma although in Germany it has the grades on it.  I sent them a copy and they were fine with it.  

 

Yeah some of that is a blur, but I really don't recall DH being asked for any sort of proof of high school anything.  I did have to provide proof that I made enough money to support him.  So I had to get a letter from my employer stating how much money I made.  If that wasn't enough then I would have been further required to find a second person to sponsor him. 

 

I notice they changed a lot of the fees for that stuff.  I thought they just raised all the fees, but actually for the K-1 stuff they lowered it.  So that's nice. 

 

That all feels like it happened a million years ago.

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I have a feeling they are asking for something they can't have. Ds did public school, then virtual school in FL, and he had one year left when we moved here. He had already turned 18, so they told me his transcript couldn't be released to anyone but him, and he had to send a written request to get it.

Edited by tbog
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My own country ask for grades all the way back from 6th grade to apply to be a teacher. We are used to it.

 

(ETA:

Our degree scroll isn't accepted either. All transcripts must be sent sealed direct from the tertiary institutions. Diplomas and degree scrolls are too easy to fake.)

 

It took us FOUR years from our application to the Green card, while we had H1B visa.

 

Yeah, for permanent resident, we had to do HIV testing, chest X-Ray to verify that we are tuberculosis free.. plus all the vaccines.

Ours was done in less than a year, handled and paid by hubby's then employer's immigration lawyers. We only did a blood test and TB skin prick test. No X-rays required. It was one crazy thick pile of paperwork.

 

Immunization was easy, my home country has a longer list of compulsory vaccinations than here so my oldest had more vaccinations than required already.

 

My country does have very few green card applicants every year so many got theirs within a year of applying. The people from China and India waited much longer.

Edited by Arcadia
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I don't mean that it's about dealing with people with undetermined or illegal immigration status. I mean organizations and groups and employers can potentially use such requirements to keep out people who are not the "right" people.

 

Don't want to hire ______ regardless of whether they're here legally or not? Put in documentation requirements which make it impossible for them to qualify. That refugee fleeing a war torn country doesn't have a transcript and their school was bombed years ago... Oh too bad. We need your primary school certificate, you see....

 

 

Btw, I worked for Cdn immigration and had a security clearance so I actually did have some spook looking way back through my files..and they're doozy files since I grew up in a communist country. I get why some orgs might need to look back at stuff.

 

But for a health insurance agency? This is a crazy requirement IMO...

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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A company my DH applied for wanted his high school transcript (he graduated 20 years ago and he has a college degree). Since we still live in the same town, I went up to the high school to seeing they had them. The woman laughed and said they only carry records 5 years back. She said he should put down a wonderful gpa on the application since there was no way to check it.

It's absurd to want a high school transcript that far back!

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A company my DH applied for wanted his high school transcript (he graduated 20 years ago and he has a college degree). Since we still live in the same town, I went up to the high school to seeing they had them. The woman laughed and said they only carry records 5 years back. She said he should put down a wonderful gpa on the application since there was no way to check it.

It's absurd to want a high school transcript that far back!

 

I have a vague memory of my own high school sending out a notice ten years after we graduated that they purge records at that point.  I wonder what a company that insists on high school transcripts does in that kind of situation. It can't be uncommon!

 

I also wonder what it means for our children who are homeschooled through high school.

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I have a feeling they are asking for something they can't have. Ds did public school, then virtual school in FL, and he had one year left when we moved here. He had already turned 18, so they told me his transcript couldn't be released to anyone but him, and he had to send a written request to get it.

 

I had to sign several release forms so they could get the information.

 

I know that when I got my tech license if you were from another country and couldn't get transcripts they gave you the option of taking the CHSPE or the GED. My two older boys have the CHSPE which is a diploma for the state of CA so hopefully they won't run into this problem cause I have no transcripts to provide for them.

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That's interesting. I always thought companies called the registrars office to confirm degree conferred, date and any honors designation. I didn't realize some require you to produce a high school diploma. I had to prove I had graduated from high school when I registered our homeschool and I sent my college diploma in for that.

 

I'm not sure I have my high school diploma anymore. I have my college diploma and an "unofficial issued to student" transcript from college.

 

I also have IOWA test scores from 9th grade (I think that's the year I have). I was such a weirdo, I thought the test as fun. Go figure.

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I have needed my high school transcript 18 years after graduating - to come legally to this country. Never mind that I had a PhD.

I know other people who had to provide high school transcripts to obtain visa to work in other countries.

 

 

 

Are you certain that wasn't the university?

 

My ex-husband came on a marriage visa but when obtaining citizenship, I prepared that file and no high school transcripts were required although he was getting it via the military on a specific grade. For that, his college transcripts were enough.

 

I have never in my life, working in France, Germany, and Ireland had to provide high school transcripts. These were management positions in international organizations. College diploma and transcripts, yes (transcripts for the French, others diploma only), high school no.

 

So this must be very profession-specific.

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Just an off question, but how does one send in a diploma? I have a pretty piece of paper in a leather folder I got when I graduated high school. Is that just copied on a copier? Also, what happens to the OP if she can't provide high school information because the high school doesn't have it anymore? I just don't understand this mentality.

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Just an off question, but how does one send in a diploma? I have a pretty piece of paper in a leather folder I got when I graduated high school. Is that just copied on a copier? Also, what happens to the OP if she can't provide high school information because the high school doesn't have it anymore? I just don't understand this mentality.

I just used my phone to scan the diploma so that part was easy. And I had forgotten my high school has changed its name from when I went there.

 

They haven't really explained too much other than they have to verify my education and they are having trouble. As of this morning though it sounds like they have finally accomplished that so the process is moving forward. It's just so crazy to me!

 

Now I have to go fill out an I9 at the office and maybe I will finally be able to start training. You know what's even weirder is this is supposedly a temporary position just until July. I can only hope with all this effort at checking me that they will offer me a full time spot.

 

Please send your good thoughts and prayers my way cause I need this to be permanent. I can't go back to retail tech making little money and I have to get divorced this year. I am so scared cause I haven't worked full time since I was 19 and I wasn't a mom yet let alone a single mom like now.

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