I was told that there is no way to conduct a federal criminal background check. Is that correct?

Technically, for most employers, that’s correct — there is no single federal database from which to get a complete background check on an individual. The majority of employers can’t run an FBI check for federal offenses on an applicant. Applicants can get their own FBI criminal record; also, certain businesses have some access (for firearms checks, for example) through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, and public employers may have access to such databases (to check backgrounds on police applicants, for example), but otherwise, most private employers can’t access FBI records.

That said, you can conduct a criminal background check that encompasses all the states in which an applicant lived, but the check would be limited to those states (and if the applicant withheld information about where he/she lived, you wouldn’t know to check that state). It would be cost-prohibitive to check all 50 states, because each state must be checked individually.

Currently, a federal search might include federal district courts (where an applicant lived, not all of them), which might reveal charges such as embezzlement, felonies, tax evasion, mail fraud, crimes on federal property or crimes committed across state lines. A federal search may also access the Department of Corrections, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Administration of Courts, Department of Criminal Justice, and even INTERPOL’s most wanted list, but many of these databases pull from state records, and not all states contribute data. It’s an imperfect system, but it’s the only one available.