You can petition to seal a criminal record in most states if the offense is eligible under state law, your sentence is entirely finished, a mandatory waiting period has passed, and you have no new charges or convictions. Sealing hides the record from standard background checks run by employers, landlords, and schools, though the file itself continues to exist and remains accessible to courts, law enforcement, and certain agencies. The rules and timelines are set by the state where the conviction happened, so the specifics of how to seal a criminal record depend on where your case was handled.
What Sealing Actually Does
A sealed record still exists. Law enforcement, courts, and certain government agencies keep access for specific purposes, and a court can reopen the file under limited circumstances, such as a new criminal charge. What changes is public access: most employers, landlords, and schools running a standard background check will not see it.
Expungement, where a state offers it, goes further. Depending on the jurisdiction, expungement can mean the record is physically destroyed or legally treated as though the arrest and conviction never happened. Some states use “sealing” and “expungement” interchangeably; others treat them as sharply different remedies. Before you file anything, read your state’s statute or ask the court clerk which remedy applies to your case, because the practical effect on your life is not the same.
Which Offenses Qualify
The offense itself is usually the biggest factor. Sealing laws exist to give people a second chance after less serious, non-violent offenses. Records that are commonly eligible include misdemeanors like disorderly conduct, petty theft, trespassing, and minor drug possession. Some states extend sealing to lower-level felonies, particularly theft and drug offenses, after a longer waiting period.
Juvenile offenses are often eligible, but the process varies. A widespread misconception is that juvenile records disappear on their own at 18. In most states they don’t. A petition or some affirmative step is usually required. Thirty-one states require sealing of juvenile records under specific guidelines, and several notify young people about the process, but automatic sealing at 18 is the exception.1Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Expunging Juvenile Records: Misconceptions, Collateral Consequences, and Emerging Practices
Some categories are almost universally excluded:
- Violent felonies, including murder, armed robbery, and aggravated assault.
- Sex offenses that require registration.
- Serious driving offenses, such as felony DUI and certain commercial driving violations.
A handful of states are more generous and allow sealing of some assault convictions or DUIs after an extended waiting period. If your offense sits in a gray area, the only reliable answer is your state’s statute.
The Waiting Period and Other Conditions
Even for an eligible offense, courts will not consider a petition until you meet a common set of conditions:
- Your entire sentence is finished, including jail time, probation, parole, and any court-ordered programs such as community service or substance abuse treatment.
- A mandatory waiting period has passed since the sentence ended. For misdemeanors this is commonly one to five years; for eligible felonies, five to ten years or more.
- All fines, court costs, and restitution to victims are paid in full.
- You have no pending charges and no new convictions since completing your sentence.
The waiting period trips up more petitions than any other requirement. It does not start on the arrest date or the conviction date. It starts on the day you finished everything the court ordered, which for most people is the last day of probation. A new arrest during the waiting period will typically disqualify you and restart the clock.
Automatic Sealing Under Clean Slate Laws
More than a dozen states and Washington, D.C. have passed Clean Slate laws that automatically seal certain records without a petition. These laws generally cover misdemeanors and low-level felonies after a set waiting period with no new convictions. Eligible records are identified through state databases and sealed without any action from you.
Automatic sealing isn’t foolproof. Database errors, incomplete court files, and processing backlogs can leave eligible records unsealed. If you live in a Clean Slate state and think your record should already be hidden, contact the court or your state’s criminal record repository and ask. More serious offenses in these states still go through the petition process, and the categories excluded from automatic sealing are generally the same ones excluded from sealing altogether.
Filing the Petition
If your record won’t seal automatically, you file a petition with the clerk of the court where the conviction occurred. Most courts have their own form, often called a “Petition to Seal” or “Petition for Limited Access,” available from the clerk’s office or the court website.
Before you file, gather the documents you’ll need to attach or reference:
- Case details: the case number, the court that handled the case, the arrest date, and the date of final disposition.
- Proof of sentence completion from the probation department, parole board, or the court itself.
- Payment records showing all fines, fees, and restitution paid in full.
It’s also worth pulling your own criminal history before filing. Errors in criminal records are common, and finding a mistake after you’ve already paid a filing fee creates delays. If your case involves records in multiple counties, you will likely need to file a separate petition and pay a separate fee in each one.
Filing fees vary widely, typically from under $100 to $400 or more. Ask the clerk about a fee waiver if you can’t afford the cost. After filing, you must serve the prosecuting attorney’s office with a copy of the petition, usually by mail or delivery to a designated location at the courthouse, and then file a proof of service with the court. Service gives the prosecutor a chance to object.
The court may schedule a hearing. Not all cases require one. A hearing is more likely if the prosecutor objects, the offense was more serious, or the judge wants to hear from you. At the hearing, the judge weighs the nature of the offense, your conduct since the conviction, the time that has passed, and any objections. If the petition is granted, the judge signs an order directing state agencies to seal the record. The actual sealing across various databases can take several weeks to several months.
What You Can Say After Sealing
Once a record is sealed, you can generally deny it exists when most private employers, landlords, schools, and licensing boards ask. On a job application that asks whether you have ever been convicted of a crime, you can legally answer “no” in most contexts.
Federal law backs this up. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, background check companies must have procedures to prevent reporting information that has been sealed or otherwise legally restricted from public access. A company that reports a sealed record can be liable for damages.2Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fair Credit Reporting – Background Screening If a sealed conviction turns up on a background check anyway, you can dispute it directly with the reporting company, which is then required to investigate and correct the information.
When Sealing Doesn’t Protect You
Sealing is not absolute, and the situations where you still have to disclose can carry consequences worse than the original conviction.
Immigration Applications
For immigration purposes, a sealed conviction is still a conviction. The USCIS Policy Manual states that an expunged record of conviction does not remove the underlying conviction, and that a state court order dismissing or sealing a guilty plea under a rehabilitative statute has no effect on removing the conviction for immigration purposes.3USCIS. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12 Part F Chapter 2 – Adjudicative Factors
If you are applying for a visa, a green card, or citizenship, disclose every arrest and conviction, including sealed ones. USCIS may require certified court dispositions, arrest records, and the sealing order itself. Failing to disclose can lead to denial, a finding of misrepresentation, or removal proceedings.3USCIS. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12 Part F Chapter 2 – Adjudicative Factors If you are not a U.S. citizen, talk to an immigration attorney before assuming sealing will help.
Federal Security Clearances
The Standard Form 86, used for federal security clearance investigations, requires you to report criminal history regardless of whether the record has been sealed, expunged, or stricken from the court record.4Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. Common SF-86 Errors and Mistakes This applies to military service, intelligence positions, defense contractor roles, and any position requiring a clearance. Investigators will see the sealed record either way, and non-disclosure is treated more seriously than the underlying offense.
Other Exceptions
Depending on the state, you may also need to disclose a sealed record when applying for law enforcement positions, jobs involving regular contact with children or vulnerable adults, firearm permits, certain professional licenses such as a law license, or any position requiring a fingerprint-based FBI background check. The specific list varies. When you aren’t sure, ask a lawyer rather than guess.
Federal Convictions
If your conviction is federal rather than state, sealing is generally not available. The federal system has no equivalent of the broad petition-based sealing offered by most states.
One narrow exception exists. The Federal First Offender Act applies to first-time simple drug possession. A person with no prior federal or state drug conviction can be placed on probation without a formal judgment of conviction, and if they complete probation successfully and were under 21 at the time of the offense, the court must enter an expungement order.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3607 – Special Probation and Expungement Procedures for Drug Possessors For everyone else with a federal conviction, the available remedies are a presidential pardon or, in the rare jurisdictions that offer one, a certificate of rehabilitation. A pardon can restore rights such as voting or firearm possession, but the conviction itself stays on the record.