Arizona Expungement Law: Set-Aside, Sealing, and Prop 207

Arizona expungement law does not exist in the traditional sense: the state will not erase a criminal record. What Arizona offers instead are three different ways to limit the damage. You can ask a court to set aside a conviction under A.R.S. § 13-905, you can petition to seal a record under A.R.S. § 13-911, and if your case involved a small amount of marijuana before November 30, 2020, you can seek expungement under Proposition 207. Each remedy has its own eligibility rules, its own waiting period, and its own effect on what shows up in a background check.

Set-Aside vs. Sealing: What Each One Actually Does

A set-aside is the older remedy. When a court grants it, the guilty judgment is vacated, the charges are dismissed, and you are released from most penalties tied to the conviction. The conviction still appears on your record, but with a notation that it was set aside. Anyone running a background check sees both the original conviction and the order.

Sealing goes further. The sealing law took effect on December 31, 2022, and it makes the record unavailable to the general public, most employers, and landlords.¹ Once a record is sealed, you can legally say you were never arrested, charged, or convicted of that offense on most job, housing, and financial aid applications. Sealing also reaches further than a set-aside: it covers convictions, dismissed charges, and arrests that never led to charges.

The two tools are not mutually exclusive. Many people file for a set-aside first, because it has no waiting period, and then come back years later to seal the same record once they qualify.

Who Qualifies for a Set-Aside

You can apply for a set-aside as soon as you have completed every condition of your sentence and the court has discharged you. That means finishing prison, probation, or parole, and paying all fines and restitution in full.² There is no mandatory waiting period, and the rule is the same whether your conviction was a misdemeanor or a felony.

The court decides whether to grant the petition. Judges weigh the nature of the offense, how well you complied with your sentence, your rehabilitation, and any new convictions. The more serious the original crime, the harder it gets.

You file in the same court that sentenced you. Municipal Court handles city ordinance violations, Justice Court handles most misdemeanors, and Superior Court handles felonies. There is no filing fee.² The prosecutor and any victim have 30 days to object. If no one objects, many courts rule on the paperwork without a hearing.

The Certificate of Second Chance

When the court grants a set-aside, it must also issue a certificate of second chance if enough time has passed since your discharge. The certificate adds employment protection by barring certain licensing boards from automatically denying an application based solely on the set-aside conviction. The waiting period depends on the offense class:

Misdemeanors: issued immediately with the set-aside, no additional waiting period.
Class 4, 5, or 6 felonies: at least two years must have passed since discharge.
Class 2 or 3 felonies: at least five years must have passed since discharge.

If you file before the certificate waiting period is up, the court can still grant the set-aside itself and issue the certificate later once you meet the time requirement.²

Convictions That Cannot Be Set Aside

Some convictions are permanently ineligible, no matter how much time has passed or how clean your record is since. The excluded categories are:

Dangerous offenses: crimes involving the use or threatening display of a deadly weapon or that caused serious physical injury.
Any conviction that required sex offender registration.
Crimes where the court made a finding of sexual motivation.
Felonies with a victim under 15 years old.

If your conviction falls into any of these categories, a set-aside is unavailable. Sealing has its own, broader exclusion list.²

Who Qualifies to Seal a Record

Sealing has stricter requirements. You must have completed all sentencing terms, including paying every dollar in fines, fees, and restitution. You also must not have any later criminal convictions, with a narrow exception for minor traffic offenses that do not include DUI.¹ That clean-record rule disqualifies many applicants.

Beyond the baseline, you have to wait a set number of years after discharge from the non-monetary parts of your sentence:

Class 2 or 3 misdemeanor: two years.
Class 1 misdemeanor: three years.
Class 4, 5, or 6 felony: five years.
Class 2 or 3 felony: ten years.

Dismissed charges and arrests that never led to charges can be sealed without any waiting period once the case is fully resolved.³

Convictions That Cannot Be Sealed

The sealing exclusion list is broader than the set-aside list. Under A.R.S. § 13-911, these convictions can never be sealed:

Dangerous offenses involving a deadly weapon or serious physical injury.
Dangerous crimes against children as defined in A.R.S. § 13-705.
Serious offenses, violent felonies, and aggravated felonies as defined in A.R.S. § 13-706.
Offenses involving the discharge, use, or display of a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument as an element, or the knowing infliction of serious physical injury.
Sex trafficking.
Class 2 through 5 sexual offenses and offenses against children under chapters 14 and 35.1 of the criminal code.

Because sealing excludes more than a set-aside does, some convictions qualify for a set-aside but not for sealing.³

What a Sealing Order Does and Doesn’t Do

Once a court grants a sealing order, the public-facing record disappears. Standard employer background checks, landlord screenings, and financial aid applications will not show the sealed offense, and you can legally deny the arrest or conviction ever happened on most applications.¹

Sealed records are not destroyed. Law enforcement, courts, prosecutors, and certain licensing agencies still have access. A sealed conviction can be used against you as a prior offense to enhance sentencing in a later prosecution, as impeachment evidence at trial, or as a historical prior felony conviction.³

Two more things to know. If the court denies your sealing petition, you must wait three years before refiling. And anything already published or distributed before the order, like news articles or public court documents already in circulation, is not pulled back by the sealing.¹

Marijuana Expungement Under Proposition 207

Arizona voters passed Proposition 207 in 2020. Along with legalizing recreational marijuana, it created a separate expungement process for certain marijuana-related offenses that occurred before November 30, 2020. That process lives in A.R.S. § 36-2862 and is distinct from both the set-aside and the general sealing statute.

Eligible offenses are limited to:

Possessing, consuming, or transporting two and a half ounces or less of marijuana, with no more than 12.5 grams as concentrate.
Possessing, transporting, cultivating, or processing no more than six marijuana plants at your primary residence for personal use.
Possessing, using, or transporting paraphernalia related to marijuana consumption or cultivation.

If you were arrested, charged, acquitted, or convicted of one of these offenses based on pre-November 2020 conduct, you can petition the court to seal those records. Forms are available through the Arizona Judicial Branch and vary by court level.⁴ The court must grant the petition unless the prosecutor proves by clear and convincing evidence that you are ineligible.

Firearm Rights After a Set-Aside

Under Arizona law, a set-aside restores your right to possess a firearm. The exception is a conviction for a “serious offense” as defined in A.R.S. § 13-706, which includes crimes like first- and second-degree murder, sexual assault, and other violent felonies.² First-time felony offenders whose civil rights are automatically restored under A.R.S. § 13-907 also get firearm rights back, unless the conviction was a dangerous or serious offense. Anyone not covered by automatic restoration can petition under A.R.S. § 13-910.⁵

Federal law is a separate problem. Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison is prohibited from possessing firearms.⁶ Whether a state set-aside removes that federal bar depends on how fully Arizona law restores your civil and firearm rights. If you have a felony conviction and intend to possess a firearm, talk to a firearms attorney before relying on a state order alone.

Immigration Consequences

If you are not a U.S. citizen, an Arizona set-aside or sealed record will likely not protect you from immigration consequences. USCIS treats a conviction as still valid for immigration purposes when it was vacated for rehabilitative reasons rather than because of a defect in the original criminal proceedings. Arizona’s set-aside is considered a rehabilitative remedy, not a finding that the conviction was legally flawed.⁷ A conviction is only removed for immigration purposes if it was vacated for constitutional or statutory defects, or errors that occurred before the conviction and affected the finding of guilt. Talk to an immigration attorney before assuming either remedy will fix your status.

Employment After a Set-Aside or Sealing

A set-aside with a certificate of second chance gives you real protection against licensing boards: they generally cannot deny you a professional license based solely on the set-aside conviction.

Sealing is stronger. You can legally answer “no” when asked whether you have been convicted, and most private employers will not see the offense because the record is hidden from public view. Civil rights restoration, by the way, is a separate track from both set-asides and sealing; getting one does not give you the others, and many people pursue them in parallel.

1
Arizona Judicial Branch. Completing the Petition to Seal Criminal Case Records
2
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-905 – Setting Aside Judgment of Convicted Person on Discharge
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-911 – Sealing of Arrest, Conviction and Sentencing Records
4
Arizona Judicial Branch. Prop 207
5
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-907 – Automatic Restoration of Civil Rights for First Offenders
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Policy Manual Volume 12 Part F Chapter 2 – Adjudicative Factors