A felony does not come off your record on its own, no matter how much time passes. How long it takes for a felony to come off your record depends on whether your state lets you clear it at all, how long you have to wait before applying, and how quickly the court processes your petition. In most states that allow it, the waiting period runs three to ten years after you finish your sentence, and the court process adds another two to six months on top of that.
Why a Felony Doesn’t Age Off
The criminal record kept by courts and state repositories holds a felony conviction indefinitely. There is no automatic expiration. The only way to change what that record shows is a legal action such as expungement, sealing, or a set-aside.
Background check reports are a separate thing, and they follow different rules. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, arrests that did not lead to a conviction cannot be reported after seven years. Convictions have no federal time limit. The statute explicitly exempts “records of convictions of crimes” from the seven-year cutoff that applies to other negative information.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 15 – Section 1681c A handful of states cap how far back screening companies can look at convictions; most do not. In most of the country, a felony conviction can show up on a background check forever unless you take action to clear it.
The Waiting Period Before You Can Apply
Every state that allows felony record clearing makes you wait before you can file. The clock does not start at sentencing or at your release from prison. It starts when you have fully completed your sentence, which includes prison, parole, probation, and every dollar of fines, fees, and restitution. An unpaid balance on court-ordered restitution can block eligibility entirely.
Waiting periods across the country range from under one year to 20 years. Most states put felonies somewhere between three and ten years. Lower-level felonies typically qualify sooner, and more serious offenses carry the longest waits. Some states tier the wait by felony class, so a Class D felony might require five years while a Class B felony requires ten.
One condition is nearly universal: you have to stay crime-free through the entire waiting period. A new arrest or conviction usually disqualifies you and restarts the clock. The only reliable way to find your exact wait is to read the expungement statute in the state where you were convicted.
The Legal Tools That Actually Clear a Record
Three main tools exist, and which ones are available depends entirely on the state.
- Expungement: The court orders the record destroyed or removed from databases. The conviction is treated for legal purposes as though it never happened, and you can generally deny it on applications.
- Sealing: The record still exists but is hidden from public view. Most employers, landlords, and members of the public cannot see it. Law enforcement and certain government agencies still can.
- Set-aside: The court withdraws the guilty verdict and dismisses the case. The record may note that the conviction was set aside, so it is not fully invisible, but it signals rehabilitation.
About 13 states and Washington, D.C. have passed Clean Slate laws that automatically seal or clear eligible records once a person completes their sentence and stays crime-free for a set period.2The Clean Slate Initiative. Clean Slate in States In those states, eligible convictions may come off without any filing on your part. Everywhere else, you have to petition the court.
How Long the Petition Process Takes
Once the waiting period has passed, you file a petition in the court that handled the original conviction. Filing comes with a court fee that ranges from nothing in some states to several hundred dollars in others; many courts offer waivers for people who cannot afford it. The prosecutor gets a copy and can object. If the prosecutor does not contest, many judges grant the petition without a hearing. If the prosecutor objects, you will likely have to appear in court.
Some states add a step at the front: obtaining a certificate of eligibility from a state agency before you can file at all. That stretches the timeline further.
From filing to a final decision, the process generally runs two to six months, depending on the court’s backlog and whether a hearing is needed. Even after a judge grants the petition, agencies need time to update their records, which can add another month or two before the cleared conviction stops appearing in searches.
Federal Felony Convictions
Federal court is far more restrictive than most states. There is no general expungement statute for federal felony convictions. If you were convicted of a federal felony, there is no standard petition to have it cleared.
One narrow exception exists under the Federal First Offender Act. It applies only to first-time simple drug possession under the Controlled Substances Act. If you have no prior drug convictions, the court can place you on probation for up to one year without entering a formal conviction, and successful completion leads to dismissal. Full expungement of the record is available only if you were under 21 at the time of the offense.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 18 – Section 3607 The provision does not cover possession with intent to distribute or any other federal offense.
For everyone else with a federal conviction, the only realistic option is a presidential pardon, which is rare and does not erase the record.
Felonies That Cannot Be Cleared
Even in states with broad expungement laws, some convictions are permanently excluded. Sex offenses requiring registration, murder, and crimes against children are excluded in nearly every jurisdiction. Many states also exclude kidnapping, arson, human trafficking, and other violent felonies, and some add crimes against elderly or vulnerable victims.
Sex offenses are the most consistently excluded category. Virtually every state that allows expungement makes an explicit exception for convictions requiring sex offender registration, and many extend the exclusion to any sexually based felony regardless of registration status. If your conviction falls into one of these categories, the record is effectively permanent.
What a Pardon Does and Doesn’t Do
A pardon is an act of executive clemency that forgives a criminal offense. It can restore civil rights lost to a felony conviction, including the right to vote, serve on a jury, run for public office, and in some states possess firearms.4National Governors Association. The Governor’s Clemency Authority – An Overview of State Pardon and Commutation Processes It can also remove legal barriers to employment and professional licensing.
A pardon does not erase the conviction from your record. The felony still appears in court records and on background checks. The record may note that a pardon was granted, but the underlying conviction remains visible.
After Your Record Is Cleared
Getting an expungement or sealing order is not the last step. Your conviction may still show up on background checks for a while, because private screening companies pull from databases that take time to update. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires those companies to follow “reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy” of what they report.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 15 – Section 1681e Reporting an expunged or sealed conviction violates that standard, but in practice the burden falls on you to dispute the error with the screening company.