Yes — felonies do show up on background checks, and under federal law there is no time limit on how long a felony conviction can be reported. A check run today can surface a conviction from five years ago or thirty. How visible the record is depends on the type of check being run, the state you live in, and whether you’ve taken legal steps to clear it.
What the Report Actually Shows
A background check that finds a felony doesn’t just flag the word “felony” and stop there. The report typically lists the specific offense, its classification, the date of conviction, the court that handled the case, and the case number. Sentencing details usually appear too: prison time, probation length, and fines.
Pending charges can also show up even when there’s no conviction yet. A pending felony charge is an open court matter sitting in public records, so it appears on most standard screenings.
The Type of Check Changes What Surfaces
Not every background check pulls from the same sources, and the difference matters.
Standard Employment and Housing Checks
Private background check companies search county, state, and federal criminal databases. These checks catch most felony convictions and are the standard for hiring, rental applications, and professional licensing. The company running the check is a “consumer reporting agency” under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and has to follow federal rules on what it reports and how far back it looks.
FBI Fingerprint-Based Checks
Government jobs, security clearances, law enforcement positions, and firearm purchases usually require an FBI check. These are fingerprint-based and search the Next Generation Identification (NGI) system, the national database that replaced the older Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System.1United States Department of Justice. National Crime Information Systems The FBI also maintains the separate National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database.2Federal Bureau of Investigation. Criminal Justice Information Services Together, these systems produce a fuller picture than a commercial screening. An FBI check can reveal arrests that never led to conviction, records from every jurisdiction you’ve lived in, and details commercial databases might miss.
How Far Back a Felony Can Be Reported
Federal law draws a sharp line between convictions and everything else.
Convictions Have No Federal Time Limit
The Fair Credit Reporting Act does not restrict how long a criminal conviction can be reported. A consumer reporting agency can include a felony conviction regardless of how old it is.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports A felony from 10, 20, or 30 years ago is legally reportable, and many employers will see it.
Non-Convictions Have a Seven-Year Cap
Arrest records, civil judgments, and paid tax liens get different treatment. The FCRA bars consumer reporting agencies from including these on a background check once they’re more than seven years old. For arrests, the clock starts on the date of the arrest or charge; for paid tax liens, on the date of payment.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has clarified that the seven-year period begins when the charge is filed, not when the case is later dismissed or resolved.4Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fair Credit Reporting; Background Screening
The $75,000 Salary Exception
Even the seven-year rule has a federal escape hatch. If you’re being considered for a position with an expected annual salary of $75,000 or more, the time restrictions on arrests, civil judgments, and tax liens don’t apply. The reporting agency can include records of any age.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports For higher-paying jobs, your full history can surface even if pieces of it are decades old.
State Laws That Add Protection
Federal law is the floor. Roughly a dozen states go further, limiting how long even convictions can be reported on employment background checks. In those states, a conviction older than seven years generally won’t appear on a standard screening. These state restrictions often have their own salary-based exceptions, and they typically don’t apply to sensitive positions in fields like education, healthcare, or law enforcement.
Separately, 37 states and more than 150 cities and counties have adopted fair-chance hiring laws, often called “ban the box.” These laws pull criminal history questions off job applications and delay background checks until later in the process. The strongest versions block employers from asking about criminal history until after a conditional offer, and require them to weigh factors like how long ago the conviction occurred and whether it relates to the job.
Industries Where a Felony Is a Hard Bar
Some fields go well beyond ordinary screening. Certain felony convictions trigger mandatory disqualification, and time alone won’t change the result without a formal waiver.
Banking and Financial Services
Federal law imposes a lifetime ban on working at any FDIC-insured bank or savings institution if you’ve been convicted of a crime involving dishonesty, breach of trust, or money laundering. The same prohibition applies if you entered a pretrial diversion program for such an offense. You can’t work at, own, or participate in the affairs of an insured bank without written FDIC consent. Covered offenses include theft, embezzlement, forgery, tax evasion, and writing bad checks. For serious financial crimes like bank fraud and money laundering, the FDIC cannot grant an exception during the first ten years after the conviction becomes final.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 USC 1829 – Penalty for Unauthorized Participation by Convicted Individual Automatic exceptions exist for minor offenses like small-dollar theft or use of a fake ID by someone under 21. One useful detail: if the conviction has been expunged or sealed, the FDIC treats it as no longer on the record, and no application for consent is required.6Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Your Guide to Section 19
Healthcare
The Department of Health and Human Services maintains an exclusion list that bars individuals from participating in Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and other federal healthcare programs. Certain felony convictions trigger mandatory exclusion with a minimum five-year ban, including healthcare fraud, patient abuse or neglect, other felonies related to healthcare financial misconduct, and felony convictions for illegally manufacturing or distributing controlled substances.7HHS Office of Inspector General. Exclusions Authorities Healthcare employers routinely screen against this list.
Commercial Driving
Federal regulations disqualify commercial driver’s license holders who use a commercial vehicle to commit certain felonies. Using a commercial vehicle in a drug manufacturing or distribution felony triggers lifetime disqualification with no reinstatement. The same lifetime bar applies to using a commercial vehicle in human trafficking. Using one to commit any other felony brings a one-year disqualification for the first offense and a lifetime bar for a second.8eCFR. 49 CFR 383.51 – Disqualification of Drivers Drivers seeking a hazardous materials endorsement also have to pass a TSA security threat assessment.
Federal Government Jobs
A felony conviction does not automatically disqualify you from federal employment. Agencies evaluate applicants case by case, weighing character and whether employment would protect the integrity of the service.9U.S. Office of Personnel Management. If I Was Convicted of a Felony Am I Disqualified From Suitability for Federal Employment? The Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act also bars most federal agencies from asking about criminal history before extending a conditional offer, with exceptions for law enforcement positions, jobs requiring security clearances, and positions where criminal history review is otherwise required by law.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 9202 – Limitations on Requests for Criminal History Record Information
Getting a Felony Off Your Record
Expungement and record sealing are the main legal tools for removing a felony from public view. Expungement destroys the record. Sealing keeps it intact but hides it from most public searches. Either one will keep the conviction off standard commercial background checks, and most states let you legally answer “no” when asked about prior convictions on applications after the order is granted.
Eligibility varies widely by state. Not every felony qualifies, and the answer usually depends on the type of offense, how much time has passed, and whether you’ve stayed out of trouble since. Court filing fees range from nothing to several hundred dollars, and many applicants hire an attorney.
The biggest limitation is that a state expungement order doesn’t automatically scrub the record from federal databases. The FBI’s NGI records are only updated when the state identification bureau or the original contributing agency sends an updated report to the FBI. If that notification doesn’t happen, the expunged conviction can still surface on an FBI fingerprint-based check. You can challenge it by working through your state’s identification bureau to request removal, but until that process is complete the record may still be visible for government employment, security clearances, and other positions requiring an FBI check.
Private background check companies can also lag. If a company’s database wasn’t updated after an expungement order, the old conviction may still appear in commercial reports. That’s exactly the kind of error you can dispute under the FCRA, and the reporting agency has to correct or remove it within 30 days.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy
Check Your Own Record Before Someone Else Does
Finding out what a background check will reveal before an employer or landlord does is one of the smartest moves you can make. You have two main options. First, request your state criminal history record from your state’s criminal record repository, usually the state police or state bureau of investigation. Certified copies typically run $10 to $25.
Second, request your FBI Identity History Summary, which shows everything in the federal system tied to your fingerprints. That request usually goes through your state identification bureau, especially if the check is for employment, licensing, or adoption purposes.12Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Review Correcting a state record involves contacting the court where the case was handled. Correcting an FBI record requires working through your state identification bureau to submit updated information to the FBI.
Your Rights When a Felony Shows Up
The FCRA builds in checkpoints when a background check surfaces a felony. Employers can’t just run a check and quietly move on.
Written Consent First
An employer cannot pull a background check without first providing a clear written disclosure that a report may be obtained, and you have to authorize it in writing.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports That disclosure has to be a standalone document, not buried in a stack of onboarding paperwork. If a check was run without your written permission, the check itself may have violated federal law.
Pre-Adverse Action Notice
If an employer plans to deny you a job based on what the check found, they have to first send you a copy of the report and a written summary of your rights under the FCRA. This happens before the final rejection, not after.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports The point is to give you time to review the report for errors and dispute anything wrong before the decision is final. This step is where most employers’ FCRA compliance breaks down.
Final Adverse Action Notice
Once an employer actually denies your application based on the report, they have to tell you and provide the name, address, and phone number of the consumer reporting agency that furnished it. The agency didn’t make the hiring decision, but you need its contact information to dispute inaccuracies.14Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act
Disputing Errors
Background checks frequently contain mistakes: records that belong to someone else, convictions that were expunged but still appear, or charges listed without their final disposition. If you dispute an error with the consumer reporting agency, it must conduct a free reinvestigation and resolve the dispute within 30 days. If you provide additional information during that window, the agency can extend its investigation by up to 15 days, for a maximum of 45 days total.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy If the disputed information can’t be verified or turns out to be inaccurate, the agency has to correct or remove it.