How Long Does a Misdemeanor Stay on Your Record?

How long does a misdemeanor stay on your record? A misdemeanor conviction stays on your record indefinitely, unless a court seals, expunges, or sets it aside, or a state program clears it. As of October 2026, most states let you ask a court to clear one after three years or less, and nine clear some convictions automatically.

In most states nothing happens until someone files, so the date to know is the first day you can act. Filing can even beat the states that clear records themselves. A single class 2 misdemeanor in Colorado, settled with a fine, can be sealed by petition two years later, while the state's automatic program waits seven. Leaving it to the state there keeps the conviction visible for five more years.

Two things on your judgment or plea papers decide which wait is yours. The first is the offense class, such as class A, B, or C in Utah, because several states set a longer wait for a higher class. The second is the date your sentence ended, since that is where most clocks start. Find both, then look up your state in the first table below.

Do misdemeanors go away on their own?

Misdemeanor convictions do not go away with time alone in any state or in DC. Something has to act on the record, whether that is a court granting a petition, a judge's order at sentencing, a pardon in a few states, or a state's automatic program. Even an automatic program has to reach your case before anything changes.

South Dakota's rule for Class 2 misdemeanors and petty offenses comes closest to time alone, taking a case off the public record after five years, but only in narrow circumstances. The most serious charge in the case must have been one of those, the court's conditions must have been met, and there can have been no new conviction since. Even in Colorado, which runs its own sealing program, a record in most instances still does not go away automatically with time.

You may have heard that a misdemeanor falls off after three to seven years, and both numbers come from real rules. Three years is the longest most states make you wait before you can ask a court to clear the record. Seven years is how long Colorado, Michigan, and Pennsylvania wait before sealing one automatically, and, separately, how far back 11 states let most background reports reach. The court file outlasts both until something clears it.

Your state's relief law decides the rest, and in most states it lets you petition a court to clear an ordinary misdemeanor conviction. A few routes are so narrow that most people fall outside them. Florida seals a misdemeanor only if the judge withheld adjudication, and Wisconsin expunges one only if the judge ordered it at sentencing, so in both states the question was settled the day the case ended. Three states offer no court petition that will seal a misdemeanor conviction at all:

• Alaska: this is the hardest state in which to clear a misdemeanor conviction. A judge can set one aside only if imposition of the sentence was suspended, and even then the record stays public. Outside some marijuana cases, Alaska law makes no provision for sealing a valid conviction.
• Nebraska: a set-aside nullifies the conviction and lifts the civil disabilities that came with it, yet the conviction stays on the record. As the judicial branch's own guidance puts it, "A set-aside does not erase your conviction." Sealing takes a pardon, from the Board of Pardons or, for an Omaha or Lincoln ordinance conviction, from the mayor.
• South Dakota: there is no general petition for misdemeanor convictions. If the five-year rule does not cover your case, the route is a pardon, which seals the record, and misdemeanor pardons get a faster review after five years for Class 2 and petty offenses, or after ten for a non-violent Class 1.

If your conviction is from one of these three states, or falls outside a narrow route elsewhere, no wait in the next section applies to you. In that case, turn to the background-check section, which covers what a report may still show.

How long does a misdemeanor stay on your record by state?

A misdemeanor stays on your record until it is cleared. Your state's wait to clear one runs from nothing in a few states to ten years in New York, with most at three years or less. That clock usually starts when the sentence ends rather than on the conviction date, so a long probation pushes your date back.

Even a wait of zero comes with a condition. Arkansas lets you file as soon as the sentence, restitution, and court costs are complete, while Oklahoma and Texas skip the wait only when the sentence was a fine. Texas otherwise counts its two years from the day you complete the sentence. Its relief, called nondisclosure, bars government agencies from releasing the record to the public, although police and other government agencies can still see it. It is open only to someone never previously convicted of, or given deferred adjudication for, another offense, apart from a fine-only traffic offense.

Each wait below is for an ordinary misdemeanor, under the law of the state that convicted you, even if you have since moved away. DUI, domestic violence, and higher-class offenses often wait longer or are excluded altogether. If yours is a DUI, start with our guide to how long a DUI stays on your record instead. It covers whether the conviction can be cleared at all and how long the driving record keeps it.

† We could not confirm this cell against a current official state source, so check it with the court or a legal-aid office first.

Relief laws change faster than the summaries of them. North Carolina now allows a petition three years after the conviction or the end of the sentence, whichever is later. A widely used 50-state summary still gives North Carolina a five-year wait for a single misdemeanor, which would cost anyone planning from it two extra years. Check the date on any chart you plan from, this one included.

Automatic misdemeanor sealing can be the slower route

Automatic sealing saves you the paperwork, but in four of the nine states that run it, filing a petition clears a misdemeanor sooner. A petition can come up to five years earlier in Colorado, four in Michigan, and two each in Delaware and Utah, because it opens before the state's own program will act on your case.

If you have seen New Jersey or Oklahoma listed as automatic states, the list is early. New Jersey's 2019 law called for an automated process, and a bill introduced in May 2026 concedes that it "still does not yet exist." Oklahoma's program has not started either, so in both states filing is still the only route for now. Virginia is the open question, because its sealing was reported to have started on October 1, 2026 and the State Police have not confirmed it.

In California, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania, filing gains you no time on paper, as long as the automatic program covers your offense. In the first two it still puts the date in your hands, which matters because neither program is sure to reach you on time. California's monthly review depends on funding in the state budget, and a prosecutor or probation officer can ask the court to block relief. Minnesota's records bureau is still working through records that need individual review and expects to finish before the end of 2026. If your date in either state has passed and the conviction still shows, file instead of waiting for the program to catch up.

In a few places the automatic route is the faster one, because the petition there is narrower or slower. Connecticut's petition reaches only offenses from before 2000. New York's Clean Slate law seals a misdemeanor after three years, where a petition waits ten. The law took effect in 2024 but sealing may not have reached every record yet, because the courts have until November 16, 2027 to finish.

Where filing does win, the table gives the gain on paper, and these details can change it for your case:

• Different start dates: in Colorado the automatic clock starts when the case ends, but the petition clock waits until any probation or other supervision is over too, so the longer your probation, the less filing saves.
• More exclusions: Colorado's program leaves out crimes under its Victim Rights Act, including domestic violence, while Minnesota's and Utah's leave out impaired driving and domestic violence, among others. If your offense had a victim or involved impaired driving, confirm the program reaches it at all.
• Backlogs: when Delaware's first automated batch ran on June 1, 2026, it cleared more than 64,000 cases against a backlog of more than 1 million.

A Colorado case that ended in March 2023 shows the gap. The only conviction was a single class 2 misdemeanor with no DUI, domestic-violence, or sex-offense element, and the fine was paid at sentencing with no jail or probation, so both clocks started that month. The state's sealing law allowed a petition from March 2025, while its automatic-sealing law does not let the state act until its first quarterly run after March 2030.

In Arkansas the same paid fine would have made the case eligible to file the month it was paid, under the state's sealing statute. In Pennsylvania a second- or third-degree misdemeanor waits seven conviction-free years by either route. In Alaska the fine closes the only door, because a set-aside there needs a suspended imposition of sentence, and a fine imposed at sentencing means the judge did not suspend it.

How do you get a misdemeanor off your record?

Clearing a misdemeanor usually means filing a petition or motion in the court that convicted you once your state's wait has passed, which in most states is three years or less. In a state that clears records automatically, you check instead that its program has already reached your case. Either way, first confirm your offense qualifies.

What to check before filing

A legal-aid office can confirm each of the four details below, and LawHelp.org lists legal aid in every state.

1. The convicting state: its law applies even if you now live somewhere else.
2. Your date: add your state's wait to the event it counts from, usually the end of the sentence shown on your discharge or probation papers.
3. The carve-outs: check whether your offense is excluded or given a longer wait, and whether your state caps how many times relief can be granted. A misdemeanor DUI gets worse treatment than other misdemeanors in most states, and domestic violence does in about two-thirds of them, whether through a bar, a longer wait, a prosecutor's consent, or exclusion from the automatic route.
4. Where to apply: most states use the convicting court, Massachusetts takes a request to the Commissioner of Probation, and the state records repository can tell you whether automatic relief has reached your record.

Ohio must hold a hearing 45 to 90 days after you apply and waives its application fee if you file a poverty affidavit. Virginia charges no court fees or costs on a petition to seal. Costs and timelines vary that much, so ask the convicting court's clerk about fees and fee waivers rather than assuming you cannot afford to file.

What a petition looks like in Georgia

Georgia has no automatic program, and a denied petition there cannot be refiled on the same case for two years, so eligibility comes before filing. Its relief, called record restriction, reaches a misdemeanor conviction once the sentence is complete, no charges are pending, and the person has gone four years without a new conviction anywhere, minor traffic tickets aside. Georgia also allows only two misdemeanor restrictions in a lifetime, so someone with more than two old convictions has to choose which ones to use them on.

Suppose someone was convicted of a single simple battery that did not involve family violence and paid the fine at sentencing in March 2023. Their four conviction-free years run to March 2027, and until then there is nothing to file. From that month they can petition the court that convicted them and serve the prosecutor with a copy of the petition. Simple battery and battery appear on Georgia's exclusion list only as family-violence offenses, which keeps this conviction off it. Family-violence battery is excluded unless the person was under 21 at arrest, while DUI, reckless driving, and most theft other than shoplifting are excluded outright.

What your order does to the record

The name on your order can mislead, since states use the same names for different results, so check what it does. An Arizona set-aside leaves the record "still accessible to the public," with a notation that the judgment was set aside. In California, where true expungement does not exist, a dismissal lets you withdraw the plea and have the case dismissed, but the conviction can still count as a prior if you are charged again. Texas expunges a conviction only after a pardon, so without one the most a misdemeanor conviction there can get is an order of nondisclosure.

In Ohio the word does change the outcome, because the state offers sealing and expungement on the same one-year clock under one section of its code. An expunged Ohio record must be destroyed so that it is "permanently irretrievable," apart from one copy the state's criminal records bureau keeps only for checks on people seeking law-enforcement jobs. Traffic convictions are excluded, including OVI, Ohio's term for impaired driving. So is first- or second-degree misdemeanor domestic violence, while lesser degrees can be sealed but not expunged.

If your state clears misdemeanors automatically

In an automatic state you have nothing to file, but you still need to know when your clock started and what could disqualify you. A conviction older than the automatic wait, in a state whose program is running, may already be sealed, and the lookups below show how to check.

• Pennsylvania: since 2019, the state's Clean Slate law has sealed records automatically. It seals second- and third-degree and ungraded misdemeanors once you have gone seven years without a conviction for any offense punishable by a year or more. A companion section keeps out offenses against the person, against the family, firearms, and sex offenses. You do not need to pay court costs, fees, or fines first, although any restitution must be paid. A sealed case drops out of the courts' public case search. To be sure, ask the clerk of courts at any Pennsylvania courthouse for your complete record, or request an "Access and Review" record from the State Police.
• Michigan: the Clean Slate clock runs seven years from the date the sentence was imposed, with no pending charge and no new conviction in that time. The program has run since April 11, 2023. Operating while intoxicated, assaultive crimes, and serious misdemeanors are excluded. A serious misdemeanor is one listed in Michigan's crime victims' rights law, and most are offenses with a victim: assault and battery, including domestic violence, breaking and entering, stalking, indecent exposure, leaving the scene of an injury crash, and drunk driving that caused damage or injury. A charge on that list that was pleaded down to a lesser misdemeanor still counts.
• Checking Michigan: you can check three ways: ask for a fingerprint-based copy of your own record, which shows public and nonpublic entries, run the ICHAT public name search, or ask the court of conviction. If seven years have passed and the conviction still shows, an exclusion or a later conviction is the likely reason. Serious misdemeanors, assaultive misdemeanors, and a first drunk-driving offense can still be set aside by application after five years. A court can also reinstate an automatic set-aside if no good-faith effort was made to pay restitution.
• Colorado: the clock is seven years from final disposition with no intervening conviction, and the state has run sealing quarterly since July 2024. You cannot owe restitution, and the district attorney can object, but fines, fees, and costs no longer block sealing. If you have the case number, the courts' online Sealed Case Search shows whether a conviction has been sealed.
• Utah: a class C misdemeanor qualifies five years, and a class B misdemeanor six years, from the date the court accepted the guilty plea, once every fine, fee, and restitution amount is paid, and the process has been fully automatic again since January 1, 2026. A petition's wait counts instead from the end of the case, your release from jail or prison, or the end of probation or parole, whichever came last. To check, look the case up in the courts' My Court Case portal, where an expunged case shows as expunged. The Bureau of Criminal Identification will also send a letter listing what has been expunged from your state history.
• The other automatic states: in Minnesota, where automatic sealing began in June 2025, the clock is two years from discharge of the sentence. California reviews records monthly, counting from the end of probation or one year after judgment with the sentence complete. Connecticut's automatic program, which covers offenses from 2000 on while its petition covers only older ones, counts seven years from your most recent conviction once every sentence is complete. Delaware clears a single case five years after conviction if you have no other convictions, and South Dakota requires every court-ordered condition to be met.

Where a state offers no lookup, request your own record from the state's criminal records repository. Or call the clerk of the convicting court and ask whether the case has been sealed and, if it has not, which exclusion or unmet condition is holding it back.

Do misdemeanors show up on background checks?

Yes. A misdemeanor conviction can show up on background checks for as long as it stays on your record, because the Fair Credit Reporting Act sets no time limit on reporting a conviction. Two things can take it off a report sooner: a seven-year state reporting cap, which 11 states have, or a sealing order entered before the report runs.

As of October 2026, the 11 are California, Colorado, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Texas, and Washington, and most of their caps come with exceptions. These caps are one source of the seven-year belief. A cap governs reports and leaves the court file alone, so in those states a misdemeanor can drop off a covered report years before it is ever sealed.

If you have read that federal law takes old records off reports after seven years, that limit, in the Fair Credit Reporting Act, covers only arrests and other records that did not end in a conviction. It does nothing for a misdemeanor you were convicted of. For an arrest it runs seven years or until the statute of limitations ends, whichever is longer. It also drops away for a report tied to credit or life insurance of $150,000 or more, or to a position paying $75,000 or more a year.

Sealing is the stronger fix, since a report run after the order should leave the misdemeanor out. Virginia goes as far as prohibiting background check companies from sharing sealed records. The weak point is copies made before the order. A data company that bought the record before the sealing may still hold it, a gap our guide to what shows up on a background check walks through. A county court search reads the courthouse file as it stands, while a database search reads a copy that may predate the sealing order. That is why the levels of criminal background check can disagree about the same old misdemeanor.

Pull your own record before anyone else does, so that you are the first to see what an old misdemeanor looks like on paper. Your state's criminal records repository will send your history, and the FBI takes public requests for an Identity History Summary. Any consumer reporting agency must also disclose everything in its file on you when you ask, under federal law. If a report still lists a sealed or inaccurate record, dispute it, because a dispute starts a 30-day reinvestigation period in most cases.

Misdemeanor vs felony: how long each stays on your record

A misdemeanor and a felony both stay on your record until something clears them, but on the same relief route the misdemeanor clock is often shorter. Which side of the line an offense falls on depends on its maximum sentence.

Federal law treats an offense as a misdemeanor when its maximum prison term is more than five days but no more than one year, under federal sentencing law. A state can draw its own line higher, as Pennsylvania does, where a first-degree misdemeanor can carry up to five years.

Delaware's automatic route shows the usual gap, clearing a misdemeanor after five years and a felony after ten. Our guide to how long a felony stays on your record has the felony side of the comparison. In Utah and South Dakota the class decides whether waiting does anything, because their automatic programs clear some misdemeanors but leave ordinary felony convictions out.

Frequently asked questions

Does a misdemeanor go on your record if the case is dismissed?

A dismissed misdemeanor charge still leaves a court record, with the dismissal as its outcome, but it is easier to clear than a conviction. In about half the states, some dismissed or acquitted cases are cleared without a petition, although Alaska's and Maine's rules reach only part of the record. North Carolina does so 180 to 210 days after disposition for cases closed since December 1, 2021. Most others need a petition or request.

Will a misdemeanor stay on your record forever?

A misdemeanor conviction stays on your record permanently unless a court order, a state's automatic program, or a pardon clears it, because no state lets a conviction expire with time alone. Most states let you petition after a wait, and nine clear some convictions automatically. Nebraska, South Dakota, Connecticut, Arkansas, and Massachusetts seal or erase pardoned convictions, and in Nebraska and South Dakota a pardon is usually the only way to seal one.

Does deferred adjudication or supervision count as a misdemeanor conviction?

Deferred adjudication and court supervision are not convictions in several states once you complete them, although the case record remains until it is cleared. Under Illinois law, completed supervision "is not a conviction," and Texas offers automatic nondisclosure for certain nonviolent misdemeanors dismissed after deferred adjudication. Missouri closes the official records automatically once a case with a suspended imposition of sentence ends.

Can you expunge more than one misdemeanor?

You can expunge more than one misdemeanor in many states, but at least 13 jurisdictions cap how often relief is granted. Alabama allows two expungements, Georgia two misdemeanor restrictions, Missouri three misdemeanors, and Virginia two granted petitions in a lifetime. Idaho, Iowa, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wyoming allow relief once, and Montana's single lifetime petition covers all your misdemeanors. In Texas, any earlier conviction or deferred adjudication other than a fine-only traffic offense bars nondisclosure of a misdemeanor conviction.

Does a misdemeanor go on your criminal record?

A misdemeanor conviction goes on your criminal record, but a lesser label may not count as a crime, so check the offense level on your judgment. Minnesota defines a petty misdemeanor as an offense that "does not constitute a crime," and New York's Penal Law limits crimes to misdemeanors and felonies, which leaves violations out. Maine excludes traffic infractions from criminal history record information, and Arizona lets you petition to seal a petty offense immediately after the sentence.

Is a sealed misdemeanor deleted?

A sealed misdemeanor is usually hidden from the public rather than deleted. Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension says it "does not delete expunged criminal history records" and that they stay visible to other states unless a court orders otherwise. Florida law requires its records agency to retain criminal history records even after expungement, and Massachusetts keeps sealed records available to law enforcement. Sealing changes who can see the record, which is what most reports depend on.

Waiting out a misdemeanor record can cost years

In most states the end of your wait is the first day you may file, and the record stays put until you do. If your date has passed, file in the court that convicted you, or ask a legal-aid office on LawHelp.org to help. If it has not, request your own record now, mark the date, and have the petition ready for the week it arrives. In Colorado, Michigan, Delaware, and Utah, file rather than wait for the state's automatic program, because a petition there can come years sooner.

How this guide was put together

We checked the misdemeanor relief laws of all 50 states and the District of Columbia against each statute, and against the court or agency page that explains it where one exists. We last verified the waits on October 30, 2026.

Where an older summary, such as the Collateral Consequences Resource Center's 50-state comparison, differs from a statute, we followed the statute. This guide is not legal advice, and relief laws change often, so confirm your dates with the convicting court or a legal-aid office before filing.

Authenticate wrote this guide for people looking up their own record. We also sell identity and record checks to businesses, and if you run fraud or safety reviews, Authenticate searches court records across 3,200+ US counties. Authenticate is not a consumer reporting agency, and its data may not be used as a factor in a consumer's eligibility for credit, insurance, employment, or any other purpose covered by the FCRA.

Related resources

• How long a felony stays on your record
• How long a DUI stays on your record
• What shows up on a background check