Federal law does not set a single list of disqualifying offenses or a single lookback period for background checks. Instead, the Fair Credit Reporting Act caps most negative items at seven years but lets criminal convictions be reported for life, and specific regulated industries layer on their own disqualifying offenses and lookback windows that range from five years to a permanent bar. What blocks you from one job may be invisible on the report for another.
How Far Back a Background Check Can Go
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is the starting point. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681c, a consumer reporting agency cannot include the following items if they’re older than seven years: arrests that never led to a conviction, civil suits and civil judgments, paid tax liens, and accounts sent to collections. Bankruptcies get a ten-year window from the date of the court order.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
Criminal convictions sit outside all of that. The FCRA carves them out entirely, so a conviction can appear on a federal background report indefinitely, no matter how old.2Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fair Credit Reporting – Background Screening
The Salary Exception
Even the seven-year limits on non-conviction items disappear at higher pay levels. When the position pays $75,000 or more per year, the FCRA’s time restrictions on arrests, civil judgments, and other adverse items no longer apply. The same exemption covers credit transactions over $150,000 and life insurance policies with face amounts over $150,000.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports That salary threshold has not been adjusted for inflation, so it captures far more positions today than it did originally. Stricter state lookback rules can override this exception within their borders.
Industry-Specific Disqualifying Offenses and Their Lookbacks
Certain industries maintain federal lists of offenses that trigger automatic bars, operating independently of the FCRA’s reporting limits.
Banking and Financial Services
Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act bars anyone convicted of a crime involving dishonesty, breach of trust, or money laundering from working at an FDIC-insured bank without prior written consent from the FDIC. The same restriction reaches anyone who entered a pretrial diversion program for such an offense.3eCFR. 12 CFR Part 303 Subpart L – Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act There is no lookback period. A 30-year-old embezzlement conviction is treated the same as one from last year.
Healthcare
The Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services maintains the List of Excluded Individuals/Entities. Anyone on that list is barred from working for any organization that bills Medicare, Medicaid, or other federal healthcare programs. Mandatory exclusions cover convictions for healthcare fraud, patient abuse or neglect, and felony drug offenses.4Office of Inspector General. Exclusions Program
Commercial Driving
Federal motor carrier regulations set specific disqualification periods for commercial driver’s license holders. A first conviction for driving a commercial vehicle under the influence, leaving the scene of an accident, or using a commercial vehicle to commit a felony results in a one-year disqualification. A second conviction for any combination of those offenses triggers a lifetime ban.5eCFR. 49 CFR Part 383 Subpart D – Driver Disqualifications and Penalties
Aviation and Transportation Security
TSA rules for workers who need access to secure airport areas or hazardous materials endorsements divide disqualifying offenses into two tiers. Permanent disqualifications cover espionage, treason, federal crimes of terrorism, murder, crimes involving explosives, and crimes involving transportation security incidents. There is no path back from these.
Interim disqualifications cover felonies like arson, robbery, weapons offenses, drug trafficking, and fraud, but only if the conviction occurred within seven years of the application date or the applicant was released from incarceration within the preceding five years.6eCFR. 49 CFR 1572.103 – Disqualifying Criminal Offenses
Childcare
The Child Care and Development Block Grant Act requires background checks for anyone working in a childcare facility that receives federal funding. Disqualifying felony convictions include murder, child abuse or neglect, crimes against children including pornography, spousal abuse, sexual assault, kidnapping, arson, and physical assault or battery. Drug-related felonies are disqualifying only if committed within the preceding five years. Violent misdemeanors committed against a child, including abuse, endangerment, sexual assault, and any misdemeanor involving child pornography, are also disqualifying.7Office of Child Care. Comprehensive Background Check Clarification
State Limits That Override the Federal Default
About a dozen states impose their own seven-year cap on reporting criminal convictions, not just arrests. In those states, a reporting agency cannot include convictions older than seven years on an employment background check, which directly overrides the federal rule allowing indefinite reporting. Some of these states apply the restriction only to positions below a salary threshold, which in several cases sits as low as $20,000 per year. Others apply the limit across the board.
Separately, roughly 15 states and more than 20 cities and counties have adopted ban-the-box or fair chance hiring laws that prohibit private employers from asking about criminal history on the initial application. These laws don’t stop the background check itself; they delay the question, usually until after the first interview or a conditional offer. The federal government follows a similar approach under the Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act, which bars most federal agencies from asking about criminal history before extending a conditional offer. Exceptions apply to positions requiring security clearances, law enforcement roles, and jobs where a criminal history inquiry is required by statute.8Federal Register. Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs
The result is that the same applicant can get very different results depending on the location of the job. Employers operating across multiple states have to apply the most restrictive local rule to each position.
Professional Licensing Reaches Further
State licensing boards for professions like nursing, teaching, law, and real estate apply their own standards, and those standards routinely reach further than any private background check. Most boards evaluate applicants under a good moral character standard and look at the entire criminal history with no lookback limit. Offenses involving dishonesty, violence, or sexual misconduct are the most likely to result in denial.
The review is more thorough than a standard employment screen. Boards commonly require disclosure of every arrest, even those that were dismissed or expunged, and they review court transcripts, police reports, and personal statements. Failing to disclose an old offense on a license application often produces a worse outcome than the underlying conviction would have, because the omission is treated as a separate act of dishonesty toward the licensing authority.
This is where applicants get tripped up most often. They assume that because a conviction dropped off their employment background check, they don’t have to mention it on a license application. That assumption can cost the license permanently.
Expunged and Sealed Records
If a court has expunged or sealed a record, a consumer reporting agency should not include it in a background check. The CFPB has stated that reporting expunged or sealed information violates the FCRA’s requirement that agencies follow reasonable procedures to ensure maximum possible accuracy.2Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fair Credit Reporting – Background Screening
In practice, sealed records still surface with some regularity. Many screening companies pull data from third-party databases that aren’t updated in real time when a court grants an expungement. If an expunged or sealed record shows up on your report, you have the right to dispute it directly with the reporting agency, and the agency must investigate and correct it.
Expungement rules vary widely. Availability, qualifying offenses, and waiting periods all depend on the jurisdiction where the conviction occurred. And a state licensing board may still require you to disclose an expunged conviction even though it won’t appear on a commercial report.
How to Challenge What Shows Up
If your report contains inaccurate information, whether it’s a conviction that belongs to someone else, a dismissed charge reported as a conviction, or an expunged record that still appears, you can file a dispute directly with the reporting agency. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681i, the agency must conduct a free reinvestigation and resolve the dispute within 30 days of receiving your notice. That window can extend by 15 additional days if you submit new information during the initial 30-day period.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy If the agency cannot verify the disputed information, it must delete or modify it and notify you of the result. You can also add a brief statement to your file explaining your side if the reinvestigation doesn’t resolve things.
For errors caused by identity theft, the FCRA provides an expedited path. If you submit proof of identity, a copy of an identity theft report, identification of the fraudulent information, and a statement that it doesn’t relate to any transaction you made, the reporting agency must block the fraudulent information within four business days and notify whoever furnished it.10Federal Trade Commission. Fair Credit Reporting Act Section 605B
When an employer decides not to hire you based on a background report, federal law requires a two-step process. Before finalizing the decision, the employer must send you a pre-adverse action notice that includes a copy of the report and a written summary of your FCRA rights.11Federal Trade Commission. Fair Credit Reporting Act That gives you a chance to review the report and flag errors before the rejection is locked in.
If the employer proceeds, a final adverse action notice must follow. It must identify the reporting agency by name, address, and phone number, and must include a statement that the agency itself did not make the decision. You can request a free copy of your report from the agency within 60 days and dispute anything you believe is inaccurate.12Federal Trade Commission. Using Consumer Reports for Credit Decisions – What to Know About Adverse Action and Risk-Based Pricing Notices The same requirements apply to landlords using consumer reports. An employer or landlord that skips the adverse action process is violating the FCRA, and you may be entitled to statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 per violation for willful noncompliance, plus any actual damages you can prove.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681n – Civil Liability for Willful Noncompliance