The Conditional Offer Reference, One Row per Contingency Until It Clears

This is the lookup for anyone holding a conditional offer letter with checks and paperwork still to come. Each condition a real offer can contain gets one row: what it tests, how long it usually takes, what the employer must do before withdrawing over it, the written confirmation that closes it, and whether loose wording leaves it open with no end date. Match each clause in your letter to a row and you will know exactly what is still open.

What does a contingent job offer mean?

A contingent job offer is a real offer that only becomes firm once the conditions written into it clear. Until each condition has written clearance, the employer can still withdraw. For most checks, it has to follow a set legal process to do so.

These are the terms that matter when you read the letter:

• Contingency: a condition the letter says must be met before the offer is final, such as a background check or a signed agreement.
• Consumer reporting agency: the outside screening company that gathers background information about you for the employer. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) regulates what it produces.
• Consumer report: the report that screening company sends the employer. When a screener runs criminal, employment, education, license, credit or driving-record checks, the results arrive this way.
• Pre-adverse action notice: the warning an employer must send before acting on a consumer report. It includes a copy of the report and a written summary of your FCRA rights.
• Fair-chance assessment: a case-by-case review of criminal history that some states and cities require before an offer can be withdrawn.
• Clearance confirmation: a written statement from the employer that a named condition has been met. This is the only proof that a row is closed.

A condition without a clearance confirmation is still open, however confident the recruiter sounds on the phone. Each row below tells you which confirmation to ask for.

Keep that gap in mind as you read. Most of the rules here are US federal, state or city rules. My guess is that the large US workforce exists because the FCRA pushes screening out to consumer reporting agencies, and because federal investigation contractors employ many investigators. That is an inference, not a sourced finding. If your offer is outside the US, use the rows as a list of what to ask, not as a statement of your rights.

How long does a contingent offer take to clear?

Most single checks finish in 1 to 5 business days after you sign the authorization. The whole package clears only when its slowest piece does, and that is usually employment verification, not the criminal search, because former employers reply on their own schedule.

Two published sources, a screening company's guide and a law firm's guide, give typical turnaround by check type. They mostly agree:

Three things push those numbers out:

• County courts. The US has over 3,240 counties and county equivalents, and a full criminal history means searching separate county courts. Manual retrieval from county courts is one of the two most common delays. Note the "per county" in the second column: if you have lived in four counties, do not expect a three-day criminal search.
• Slow former employers. This is the other most common delay. In one documented package, the employment verification, not the criminal search, set the finish date.
• Disputes. If you dispute something in the report, the screener has up to 30 days to reinvestigate. That can stretch by 15 days if you send new information.

A check that has been pending more than 5 to 7 business days is usually stuck in the process, not flagged. Before you assume the worst, make sure you signed the disclosure and authorization. Nothing starts until you do, and often the longest delay is an email nobody opened.

The contingency rows: one per condition

Each row below covers the same five fields. Read only the row that matches the clause you are looking at.

Background check (criminal and employment history)

• Tests: criminal records, and usually employment and education history too, gathered by a screening company.
• Typical clearance: 1 to 3 business days per county for criminal records and 2 to 5 for employment verification. The package is done when the slower of the two is done.
• Before withdrawing: an FCRA pre-adverse notice with the report and summary of rights, a reasonable wait (about five business days under FTC guidance), then a final notice. California, New York State and New York City add a fair-chance assessment and a hard response window.
• Confirmation to ask for: "The background check is complete, including all county searches and employment verification, and the background-check contingency is satisfied."
• Open-ended risk: low when the letter names the check. High when it says "subject to the usual checks", because that does not say which checks.

Employment verification compares the dates and titles you gave the employer with what your former employers report. Mismatches lead to follow-up questions that stall the whole package. Refolk builds your resume from your own role history, so the dates you submit are easier to keep in line with your actual record.

Reference check

• Tests: what your named referees say about your work.
• Typical clearance: I have no source I trust for reference calls specifically. The closest comparison is employment verification, which takes 2 to 5 business days and is often slowed by former employers.
• Before withdrawing: this depends on who makes the calls. If a screening company runs them and returns the results in a consumer report, the FCRA notice steps apply to that report. If the hiring manager calls your referees directly, I found no source that sets a process.
• Confirmation to ask for: "All references have been contacted and the reference contingency is satisfied."
• Open-ended risk: medium. Part of it is in your hands: brief your referees and check they are available this week. Ask how many references the employer needs and who is calling them.

Credential or license verification

• Tests: that a degree, certification or professional license is real and current.
• Typical clearance: 1 to 3 business days for licenses (one source; the other does not say). Education verification takes 1 to 3 or 2 to 5 business days, depending on the source.
• Before withdrawing: if the verification is part of a screener's consumer report, the full FCRA notice process applies.
• Confirmation to ask for: "Your license and degree have been verified and the credential contingency is satisfied."
• Open-ended risk: low. If a credential was issued under a different name, tell the employer now rather than letting the verifier find a mismatch.

Credit check

• Tests: your credit history.
• Typical clearance: from seconds to 1 business day, or the same day.
• Legal limits: states that restrict employer credit checks include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. Cities with their own limits include New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Sources disagree on the number of states (8, 10 or 11), so read your own state's statute. Common exemptions cover managerial roles and roles that handle $10,000 or more in cash per day.
• Before withdrawing: the FCRA notice process, because the result comes in a consumer report.
• Confirmation to ask for: "The credit check is complete and the credit contingency is satisfied."
• Open-ended risk: low on timing. The real question is whether the check is lawful for your role and location at all.

Driving record

• Tests: your motor vehicle record.
• Typical clearance: minutes to 1 business day, or the same day.
• Before withdrawing: the FCRA notice process if a screener supplies the record.
• Confirmation to ask for: "Your driving record has been reviewed and the driving-record contingency is satisfied."
• Open-ended risk: low. A check this fast that is still pending after several days is almost always waiting on something administrative, most often your authorization.

Drug screen

• Tests: whether drugs are present in a sample you give at a collection site, as analysed by a lab.
• Typical clearance: 1 to 3 business days for the lab.
• Legal standing: the ADA does not treat drug tests as medical exams. But the results can still raise disability issues, for example when a lawful prescription shows up. Cannabis rules vary by state, city and role (see the list below).
• Before withdrawing: I found no single process that covers every drug screen. Where a prescription explains a result, ADA issues come into play, and state cannabis limits may stop the employer acting on a THC result at all.
• Confirmation to ask for: "Your drug screen result is negative and the drug-screen contingency is satisfied."
• Open-ended risk: low once the sample is collected.

If your letter includes a cannabis test after the offer, check these rules first:

• California: the law bars hiring discrimination based on lawful off-duty use, or on a test that detects non-psychoactive cannabis metabolites. Exceptions include building and construction trades, and roles that require federal background investigations or security clearances.
• Minnesota: a secondary source says pre-employment screens cannot test for THC except for safety-sensitive positions. I have not checked the statute text.
• Nevada: an employer cannot refuse to hire based on a screening test that detects marijuana, except for safety-related jobs.
• Washington: the protection covers pre-employment testing only. It gives existing employees no general right.
• New York City: pre-employment marijuana screening is banned, except for safety- and security-sensitive jobs and jobs tied to a federal or state contract or grant.
• Federal and DOT-regulated roles: these stay exempt from the state protections. DOT testing runs under 49 CFR Part 40.

These laws keep changing. One source counted sixteen jurisdictions, including D.C., that protect lawful off-duty cannabis use, and 25 states with no restriction. Before relying on any of this, read your state's current statute and check when it took effect.

Post-offer medical exam

• Tests: your health or fitness. It can include questions related to disability.
• Typical clearance: I found no reliable published turnaround. Ask the clinic when results go to the employer.
• Before withdrawing: after a conditional offer, the ADA lets an employer ask disability-related questions and run medical exams, even ones unrelated to the job, as long as every entering employee in the same job category gets them. The results must be kept in a confidential medical file, separate from your personnel file. The employer can reject you on the results only if the reason is "job-related and consistent with business necessity." The EEOC's guidance Q&A on pre-employment medical inquiries is the primary source.
• Confirmation to ask for: "Your medical exam results have been reviewed and the medical contingency is satisfied."
• Open-ended risk: medium. Also ask whether everyone entering this role takes the same exam.

Work authorization (Form I-9)

• Tests: your identity and your authorization to work in the US.
• Typical clearance: you cannot complete Section 1 before you accept the offer, and it is due no later than your first day of work. Section 2 is due within three business days. The USCIS example is a Monday start with Section 2 done by Thursday.
• Before withdrawing: my sources do not cover withdrawal on work-authorization grounds. Read the Form I-9 instructions and ask HR which documents to bring.
• Confirmation to ask for: "Section 2 of your Form I-9 is complete."
• Open-ended risk: low. The deadlines are fixed by rule.

Security clearance

• Tests: whether you pass a federal background investigation.
• Typical clearance: not established. Treat any timeline you are given as unverified until the sponsoring agency or employer confirms it in writing.
• Before withdrawing: my sources do not cover this. Note that roles requiring a clearance fall outside California's cannabis protections.
• Confirmation to ask for: a written statement of which investigation is required, whether it must finish before your start date, and what happens to the offer if it is still pending on that date.
• Open-ended risk: high.

Signed ancillary agreements

• Tests: whether you sign the separate agreements the offer letter refers to.
• Typical clearance: you control this one. It can be done the same day you have the full text.
• Before withdrawing: how offer letters word these clauses is not publicly established, and I found no process that governs them.
• Confirmation to ask for: the full text of every agreement before you accept, then "All required agreements have been received and this contingency is satisfied."
• Open-ended risk: high if the agreements are not attached. Accepting "subject to our standard agreements" means accepting terms you have not read.

Client approval

• Tests: whether an end client accepts you, which is common in staffing and consulting placements.
• Typical clearance: no source sets one.
• Before withdrawing: in New York City, a conditional offer can only be withdrawn because of a criminal check, an ADA-permitted medical exam, or information the employer could not reasonably have known before making the offer. Applying that rule to client approval is my inference. No source says so directly.
• Confirmation to ask for: the name of the client approver, a decision date, and written confirmation once approval is given.
• Open-ended risk: high.

Internal headcount approval

• Tests: whether budget or a requisition (the approved opening for the role) has been signed off inside the employer.
• Typical clearance: no source sets a deadline.
• Before withdrawing: New York City's Commission on Human Rights treats non-criminal information as knowable before the offer if it existed before the offer. Budget status almost always exists before an offer is made, but treating it as covered is my inference, not a stated rule.
• Confirmation to ask for: "Headcount for this role is approved." Ideally you get this before you accept.
• Open-ended risk: the highest of any row. This is the employer's own paperwork, and it should not be your risk to carry.

What must an employer do before rescinding a conditional offer?

For any condition decided on a consumer report, the employer must send a pre-adverse action notice with a copy of the report and a summary of your FCRA rights, wait a reasonable period, and then send a final notice. Some states and cities turn that wait into a hard minimum and require a case-by-case assessment of criminal history.

The FCRA itself (15 U.S.C. 1681b(b)(3)(A)) sets no fixed waiting period. The "five days" figure comes from FTC guidance and court decisions, not from the statute. The final notice must say that the company that supplied the report did not make the decision. It must also explain your right to dispute the report and to get a free copy within 60 days. Willful FCRA violations carry statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 per violation.

California's Fair Chance Act covers employers with five or more employees, and New York State's covers employers with four or more. The primary sources are the California Civil Rights Department FAQ and the NYC Commission on Human Rights page. The New York City window changed between the 2015 guidance and the current page, so check the live page rather than any figure quoted secondhand, including mine.

Outside the consumer-report rows, the rules are different. A medical exam can only justify withdrawal if the reason is job-related and consistent with business necessity. For signed agreements, client approval and headcount approval, I found no process the employer must follow anywhere except New York City.

How to clear every contingency in your offer letter

Work through the conditions in this order, from the offer arriving to your first week. Each step ends with something written you can file.

Sources disagree about the order. Generic guides put every check after the offer. New York City law puts non-criminal checks before the offer and the criminal check after it, which effectively makes employers run two background checks. If you are in New York City and a non-criminal check is listed as a condition after the offer, that is worth noticing (see the vague-wording section below).

When the checks are finished, close every row in one message. This puts every condition and its status in one written record:

Hi [Recruiter name],

Thanks again for the offer for [role]. Before I give notice to my current employer, could you confirm in writing the status of each condition in my offer letter dated [date]?

1. Background check (including all county searches and employment verification): satisfied / pending
2. Drug screen: satisfied / pending
3. [Condition as worded in the letter]: satisfied / pending

If anything is still pending, could you tell me what it is waiting on and the date you expect it to clear?

Once every item shows satisfied, I will confirm my resignation date and start date.

Thanks,
[Name]

How vague wording keeps an offer open

A clause like "subject to the usual checks" or "pending approval" names no specific condition and no end date, so the offer can be withdrawn with no clear point at which it becomes firm. No source I found sets a deadline for internal approvals, and outside New York City I found no authority that limits these clauses.

Vague wording causes two problems. You cannot match the clause to a row, so you cannot know which clearance closes it. And you have no end date, so the offer stays conditional for as long as the employer leaves it that way. Sort each clause by who controls it and how precisely it is worded:

Asking to tighten the wording is a normal request, not a sign that you distrust them. Send it before you accept:

Hi [Recruiter name],

I'm excited to accept and want to make sure I plan my notice correctly. My offer letter says the offer is "[exact clause, e.g. subject to the usual checks / pending approval]."

Could you tell me:
1. Which specific checks or approvals this covers
2. Who gives each approval
3. The date by which each is expected to be complete

If it is easy to reflect that in an updated letter, that would help me give notice with confidence.

Thanks,
[Name]

How contingency clearance goes wrong

Most offers that fall apart at this stage fail in one of seven predictable ways. Each one looks like progress or bad news when it is really something else. Knowing what each looks like when it lies is the most useful part of this reference.

1. A "clear" from a national database.
   • Looks like: the recruiter says your background came back clear within hours.
   • Reality: hits in national databases usually still need checking at county level, which can add time. A clear from the database alone is a false positive.
   • Check: ask whether the county searches are finished.
2. A short or missing waiting period.
   • Looks like: a final notice arrives with no pre-adverse notice before it, or a day after one.
   • Reality: rushing between the two notices is a common trigger for FCRA class actions.
   • Check: compare the dates on both notices and count the business days between them.
3. A prescription that shows up as a positive drug test.
   • Looks like: a non-negative result for a medication you take legally.
   • Reality: lawful medication can produce a non-negative result, which raises ADA issues.
   • Check: ask whether a medical review step happened before the employer acted. My sources do not establish how the Medical Review Officer process works, so ask the employer or lab to describe it.
4. A medical exam given only to some hires.
   • Looks like: you are asked to take an exam that colleagues hired into the same role say they never took.
   • Reality: this breaks the ADA rule that exams go to all entering employees in the job category.
   • Check: ask in writing whether every entering employee in the role takes the exam.
5. An outdated cannabis test method.
   • Looks like: a standard urine panel ordered for a California role.
   • Reality: in California, a test that detects non-psychoactive metabolites cannot be used for most roles.
   • Check: ask what the test detects and whether your role falls under an exception.
6. A pending check mistaken for a failure.
   • Looks like: silence for a week and a recruiter who will not commit to a date.
   • Reality: a check pending more than 5 to 7 business days is usually stuck in the process, often waiting on a county court or a former employer.
   • Check: ask which part is pending, and nudge your former employer's HR team if it is employment verification.
7. Open-ended "pending approval" wording.
   • Looks like: everything else has cleared, but the offer is still "pending approval."
   • Reality: no source sets a deadline for internal approvals, and outside New York City I found no authority that limits these clauses. That finding is itself unverified.
   • Check: get the approver and a date in writing before you resign.

An offer is firm when every row has written clearance, not when the recruiter sounds relieved.

Who runs the checks on the other end

The screener, the lab and the employer are separate parties, and knowing which one holds your file tells you where to send each question. Refolk's index gives a rough picture of how large each group of specialists is.

Two practical points come out of those numbers:

• US background screening is a large, specialist job category. There are about 453 US background-screening profiles for every UK one, and among the top employers are federal contractors such as Peraton and the US Army. In practice, the person checking your history is often a specialist at a company the employer hired. Disputes go to that screening company, which is why the final notice must say the screener did not make the decision.
• Medical Review Officers are much rarer. There are about 45 background-screening profiles for every Medical Review Officer, and the VA is among the top employers of Medical Review Officers. Expect a drug-result question to pass through fewer people. Since I could not verify the review process, ask the employer directly who reviews a non-negative result.

These counts have limits. Title matching picks up noise; the US sample included a flight attendant. Read the totals as relative sizes, not exact headcounts.

Before you resign: the clearance checklist and what to do next

Resign only when every row in your letter shows written clearance. Run this checklist against your offer letter and your saved emails, then set your dates from the day the last row closed.

Once the checklist is complete, set your resignation date from the clearance date, not the offer date. The Notice Date Calendar guide in this library covers that calculation. If a row is stuck, especially a dispute or an open-ended approval, keep your other applications alive until it closes. The Search Stand-Down Standard explains how to decide when to pause the search. Keeping other threads going costs less when Refolk tailors your resume to each posting and drafts the cover letter, so a slow contingency doesn't stall your whole search.

To keep this reference accurate for your own situation, re-check three things before relying on any row: your state's cannabis statute and when it took effect, your state's credit-check law, and the current New York City Fair Chance page if you work there. These are the parts of this reference that change, and each one has a primary source you can read in a few minutes.