When applying for a foreign visa, they will probably require police records from your country of origin/citizenship. If you send in a request for records from the FBI, do they just send back a "Does Not Compute" answer, and then you're out of luck for preparing your visa application?
IIRC, it's $18 + submitting your fingerprints to the FBI in the US. Might be interesting to see what you get back if FOIA requests for their records on you return a "Huh? What records?" response.
(assuming you're a US citizen)