A certified guard card is mandatory for a person who wants to start work as a security guard in California. This guard card is the proof that the guard is authorized to carry out his duties legally in the state. If during unfortunate circumstances, the police notices the guard without his guard card, then the guard is penalized for the same. The guard who possesses the guard card is recognized as the right person to do the job.

Steps  for getting a guard card in california

Visiting the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services if the first step for a candidate to apply for his guard card. Here, the candidate comes across the various formalities that needs to be met for becoming eligible for registering for the guard card and working for security guard companies in California. Only candidates who are over and above 18 years qualify for registering for a guard card. There is no flexibility allowed by the government in terms of age specifications. Applications of minors that is people under 18 years of age are disqualified in the first stage itself. The training programs for prospective guards are very exhaustive and contain rigorous physical and mental exercise, therefore, minors are not suitable for this job.

The Powers to Arrest training program follows next, which explains the fundamentals that an aspiring guard must know. This fundamental training program, which mandatory for guards to attend before applying for the security guard card, is 8 hours long and is offered by certified training academies. An objective test is the next step that follows the Powers to Arrest course.

The candidate must visit the BSIS for electronic submission of his fingerprints and for signing in a written agreement about accepting for the background checks process by the FBI. Honesty and transparency are the main qualities to be considered for security guard jobs, therefore the candidate must clear all the FBI checks and must be proved of not having a tainted past or not done any activity in the past which was against the laws of that particular state. The background checking process costs the candidate $79.

Once these processes are complete, application for guard cards can be done through the website of the BSIS. Though postal applications are accepted too, applying through the website is widely chosen purely because of the ease and simplicity of the process. All details requested in the form should be completely filled up and submitted back to the BSIS. Once applications are accepted and the criminal record investigation results have come out in favor of the guard, he gets his security guard within a month of applying for the same.

To save precious time at a future point of time, the guard can wisely look out for employment opportunities as soon as he submits his application for guard cards on sites such as https://bestsecurityguardcompanies.com/. The security guard cards usually take around a month since the time of application to reach the guards, therefore, the guards can make use of this time for applying for jobs, attending interviews and ending up in a good offer, thereby helping them to go for work on the same day or the day after getting the guard cards. The guards get huge savings on precious time this way as he can start work without any delay from the time of getting the cards. The lifespan of the guard card is 2 years, so the guards should renew their cards once every 2 years. Renewal also comes with a fee and a requirement to qualify for certain training programs.