Background check company is requesting information that I cannot provide

Question

I currently hold a work permit in US and am employed by a major Bank via an agency. Recently, I received an offer of employment directly from the bank. I have passed my background check, my education check and am now in the final, past employment check stage. Aside from references, the agency requested some documentations to prove my employment. For one of my past jobs, I know I will not be able to provide such documentations for a number of reasons, including the fact that I have not brought any of such documentations with me and I do not have anyone in my home country to take care of this. That is aside from the fact that there is a conflict going on there too. However, I can provide all the proof from my current employer and the rest of my past employers.

What should I do in this case? Considering I can still provide a contact reference for the company (who, unfortunately, is no longer with the company as well) but nothing else. How should I justify my answer?

P.S. they want this done in less than a week too.

Answer 1

If the bank you are talking about is one of the big banks (or big corporations) in the US, they have contracts with many background check and verification services. You can give them the name of the company you worked for, their address and a central phone number (I am sure you can find this information on the internet) where someone can reach the HR department. Provided your employment dates and your title matches what was on your resume, they should not have difficulty verifying your employment there.

If there is an explanation field or you are providing this reference information free-form, make sure you put your supervisor and or colleagues have moved on to other positions and people at that company may not be able to provide personal references. But again most big corp.s are only interested in knowing you are actually who you said on your resume that you are. Not personal references. Also indicate that since you were not expecting such a deep background check, you did not come prepared with supporting documentation and it is impossible for you to get it in such short time as one week or less.

If this company went out of business, provide the name your colleague as a reference for this employment period and explain the situation in detail.