To get an arrest record expunged, you file a petition with the court in the county where the arrest happened, show that you meet your state’s eligibility rules, and wait for a judge to sign an order directing law enforcement and the courts to clear the record. Filing fees run from nothing to a few hundred dollars if you handle the paperwork yourself. Hiring an attorney can push the total into the low thousands. Every state writes its own rules, so the offenses that qualify, the waiting periods, and even what “expungement” means for your record depend entirely on where your case was handled.
Who Qualifies
Eligibility turns on four things: how your case ended, what you were charged with, how much time has passed, and whether you’ve stayed out of trouble since.
Arrests that never led to a conviction are the easiest to clear. If your charges were dismissed, you were acquitted, or you completed a diversion program, most states allow expungement with short waiting periods or none at all.
For convictions, the picture gets more complicated. Misdemeanors are broadly eligible across the country. Many states now extend eligibility to lower-level felonies, particularly drug offenses and property crimes. Violent felonies, sex offenses, and crimes against children are almost universally excluded. States that allow felony expungement typically limit it to lower-severity classes and impose longer waits.
Waiting periods vary widely. For misdemeanors, expect somewhere between one and five years after you finish your sentence. Eligible felonies usually take longer. The clock generally doesn’t start until you’ve completed everything the court ordered: jail time, probation, community service, fines, and restitution. You also need a clean record during the waiting period. A new arrest or charge in that window will almost certainly disqualify you.
Expungement vs. Sealing
Before you file anything, figure out what your state actually offers, because the words get used interchangeably but describe different outcomes.
When a record is expunged, the court orders the physical and digital records destroyed. In theory, the arrest ceases to exist in any database. When a record is sealed, the records still exist but are hidden from public view. Law enforcement and certain government agencies can still reach them, usually with a court order. Some states offer only sealing. Some offer true expungement. A few offer both depending on the offense. California doesn’t offer traditional expungement at all, and instead uses a relief process that dismisses the conviction without erasing the underlying record.
The distinction changes what shows up on future background checks and what you’re legally required to disclose. If your record is sealed rather than expunged, certain employers and licensing boards in sensitive fields may still see it.
Gather Your Documents First
Before you fill out the petition, pull together the paperwork that proves who you are and what happened in your case. Start with the basics: full name, date of birth, current address. Then the case details: date of arrest, arresting agency, exact charges, and court case number.
The most important document is the official record showing how your case ended. You need proof of the disposition, meaning whether the charges were dismissed, you were acquitted, you pleaded to a reduced charge, or you were convicted and completed your sentence. Get this from the clerk of the court where your case was handled. If you completed probation or parole, get documentation of that too.
It’s also worth pulling your own FBI Identity History Summary to see exactly what the federal government has on file. You can request one by submitting fingerprints through a participating U.S. Post Office location or by mailing a fingerprint card directly to the FBI. The fee is $18.1Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Frequently Asked Questions This step isn’t legally required for most state petitions, but it tells you whether anything unexpected is sitting in federal databases.
Filing the Petition
The petition is filed with the clerk of court in the county where the arrest or conviction occurred. Most courts provide the forms at the clerk’s office or on their website. You fill in your personal information, the details of the case, and your argument for why the record should be cleared. Some jurisdictions accept filings by mail or through online portals, but many still require you to file in person.
Court filing fees for expungement petitions generally range from nothing to around $400, depending on the jurisdiction and the severity of the offense. Felony petitions tend to cost more than misdemeanor petitions. If you can’t afford the fee, most courts allow you to request a waiver by showing financial hardship, typically that your income falls below a threshold tied to federal poverty guidelines. Ask the clerk for the fee waiver form when you pick up the petition.
Hiring an attorney is optional. It can be worth it for felony cases or situations where the prosecutor is likely to object. Attorney fees for this work typically range from $400 to $5,000, with straightforward misdemeanor cases on the low end and contested felony petitions on the high end. Many attorneys charge a flat fee rather than billing hourly. If you can’t afford one, look for legal aid organizations or expungement clinics in your area. Many run free clinics specifically for record clearing, staffed by pro bono attorneys and law students who handle the entire process at no cost.
After filing, most jurisdictions require you to serve notice on the prosecuting attorney and sometimes on the arresting agency. The clerk’s office can tell you exactly who needs to be served and how.
What Happens After You File
Once the petition is filed and the relevant parties have been notified, the court reviews it. The prosecutor typically has a window, often around thirty days, to file an objection. If nobody objects and your paperwork is in order, many judges grant the expungement without a hearing. You receive an order in the mail.
If the prosecutor objects, the court will schedule a hearing. The judge wants to know why you deserve a clean record. Be prepared to explain what you’ve done since the arrest: steady employment, education, community involvement, staying out of trouble. Bring documentation of anything that supports your case. The judge weighs the seriousness of the original offense, how long ago it happened, your behavior since, and the prosecutor’s reasons for objecting.
From filing to a final order, expect roughly three to six months. Contested cases, complex records, or backlogged courts can push that further. After the judge signs the order, copies go to law enforcement agencies, the court clerk, and any other entities that hold your records. Those agencies then take a period to update their systems, which adds a few more weeks to the real-world effect. Don’t assume your record is clear the day the order is signed. Check back after a reasonable period to confirm the records have actually been removed or sealed.
If Your Petition Is Denied
A denial isn’t the end of the road. Start by understanding why the judge said no. Common reasons include filing too early (the waiting period hadn’t actually expired), incomplete paperwork, a disqualifying offense the petitioner overlooked, or a persuasive objection from the prosecutor.
If the denial was based on a correctable issue like missing documents or a procedural error, you can usually refile once you’ve fixed the problem. If the judge exercised discretion and decided your case didn’t warrant expungement on the merits, you typically have a short window, often thirty days, to file an appeal with a higher court. An appellate court can uphold the denial, reverse it and grant the expungement, or send the case back to the lower court for reconsideration.
When expungement isn’t available at all, some states offer alternatives. Certificates of rehabilitation or certificates of relief are court-issued documents that formally acknowledge your rehabilitation without erasing the record. A governor’s pardon is another option in some situations, though it’s a longer and less predictable process. These alternatives don’t clear your record from databases, but they can help with employment and licensing barriers.
Automatic Clearing Under Clean Slate Laws
Before you file anything, check whether your state clears eligible records automatically. A growing number of states have passed Clean Slate laws that automatically seal or expunge certain records after the waiting period expires, without any petition. As of early 2026, roughly thirteen states and Washington, D.C., have enacted some form of automatic record-clearing legislation. Michigan began implementing its law in 2023, Colorado’s went fully into effect in mid-2025, and Illinois became the thirteenth state to pass a Clean Slate law in late 2025.
These laws typically cover lower-level offenses and non-conviction records. The catch is implementation. State agencies need to build the technology to identify and process eligible records at scale, so there can be a gap of months or even years between a law’s passage and records actually getting cleared. If you’re in a hurry, filing a petition yourself is almost always faster than waiting.
Federal Arrests Are a Separate Story
If your arrest involved a federal charge, state expungement laws don’t apply and the federal system has almost no expungement mechanism. The one narrow exception is 18 U.S.C. ยง 3607, which allows expungement for first-time simple drug possession offenders who were under twenty-one at the time of the offense. Under that statute, the court can place an eligible person on probation for up to one year without entering a conviction. If the person completes probation successfully and was under twenty-one, the court must grant expungement upon application, directing that all official records of the arrest and proceedings be erased.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3607 – Special Probation and Expungement Procedures for Drug Possessors Even under this provision, the Department of Justice keeps a nonpublic record solely to check whether someone tries to use the program a second time.
For anyone twenty-one or older, or for any federal offense other than simple drug possession, no federal expungement path exists. If your arrest was federal, talk to an attorney about whether any relief is available, because the options are extremely limited.
State expungement orders also don’t automatically update FBI records. Federal arrest data stays in the FBI’s criminal file until the agency that originally submitted it requests removal, or until the FBI receives a federal court order specifically directing expungement.1Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Frequently Asked Questions If you get a state expungement, follow up with your state’s identification bureau to make sure the update reaches federal databases.
What an Expungement Actually Changes
An expungement order means you can legally answer “no” when most employers, landlords, or schools ask whether you’ve been arrested or convicted. For everyday purposes, the record no longer exists. For most people, that’s the point.
But expungement has real limits that catch people off guard.
Private Background Check Databases
Getting a court order is one thing. Getting your record out of every private database is another. Commercial background check companies scrape public court records constantly, and your arrest may already be sitting in their systems by the time you get it expunged. Under federal law, consumer reporting agencies must follow reasonable procedures to ensure the maximum possible accuracy of the information they report.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681e – Compliance Procedures Reporting an expunged record falls short of that standard. Separately, arrests that never resulted in a conviction cannot be reported after seven years.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements on Consumer Reporting Agencies
Stale or expunged records still appear on background checks more often than they should. If it happens to you, dispute the error directly with the background check company in writing. They’re legally required to investigate and correct inaccurate information. Keep a certified copy of your expungement order handy for exactly this purpose.
Immigration Proceedings
Federal immigration authorities do not recognize state expungements. A conviction that has been expunged under state law is still a conviction for immigration purposes. USCIS has stated explicitly that an expunged record of conviction for a controlled substance violation or a crime involving moral turpitude does not relieve an applicant from the conviction in the immigration context.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12 Part F Chapter 2 – Adjudicative Factors USCIS can even file a motion with the court to unseal records if an applicant is unable to obtain them.
There is a narrow exception. If a conviction was vacated because of a constitutional or procedural defect in the original proceeding, rather than for rehabilitative reasons or to avoid immigration consequences, USCIS will not treat it as a conviction.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12 Part F Chapter 2 – Adjudicative Factors If you’re a non-citizen with any criminal history, talk to an immigration attorney before assuming expungement solves the problem. Getting this wrong can lead to deportation.
Security Clearances and Government Jobs
Federal security clearance applications require you to disclose arrests and charges regardless of whether the record has been sealed, expunged, or dismissed.6Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. Common SF-86 Errors and Mistakes The SF-86 form used for background investigations is explicit about this. Failing to disclose an expunged arrest on a clearance application is far worse than the arrest itself, because investigators will almost certainly find the record anyway, and the omission looks like dishonesty. Certain law enforcement positions carry similar disclosure requirements. When in doubt, disclose.
Professional Licensing
Licensing boards for fields like nursing, law, medicine, education, and finance often operate under their own disclosure rules. Some professions that involve public safety or vulnerable populations may still require you to disclose expunged convictions. Even where disclosure isn’t technically required, licensing investigators for these fields sometimes have access to sealed records. The rules vary by profession and state, so check with your specific licensing board before assuming an expungement resolves a licensing concern. For many lower-risk professions, expungement removes the barrier entirely.