Automatic Expungement in California: Eligibility and Limits

California clears many criminal records automatically, without an application, a filing fee, or a court appearance. The system is commonly called automatic expungement in California, but the statute calls it “automatic record relief” under Penal Code sections 851.93 and 1203.425, and the difference matters: the Department of Justice adds a notation to your record indicating relief was granted rather than deleting the record itself.¹ For most private employment and licensing background checks, the conviction stops showing up. For immigration, firearms rights, and some government background checks, it does not.

The DOJ reviews its statewide criminal justice databases every month and grants relief to anyone whose record meets the statutory criteria. You don’t need to know the system exists for it to work. But you do need to know its boundaries, because people regularly assume the dismissal has erased consequences it leaves fully intact.

Who Qualifies for Automatic Conviction Relief

Three baseline conditions apply to every eligible person: you are not required to register as a sex offender, you have no active local, state, or federal supervision, and you do not appear to be currently serving a sentence or facing pending criminal charges.² Beyond that, the timeline depends on what you were convicted of.

Misdemeanors and Infractions

If you were placed on misdemeanor probation and completed the full term without revocation, you qualify as soon as probation ends. No additional waiting period applies.²

If you were convicted of a misdemeanor or infraction without probation, automatic relief becomes available one calendar year after judgment, provided you’ve completed your sentence.²

Felonies

Felony convictions require more time. You must have finished all incarceration, probation, mandatory supervision, postrelease community supervision, and parole, and then four more years must pass without a new felony conviction. The underlying conviction must have occurred on or after January 1, 1973.² This covers felonies that resulted in state prison sentences, as long as they are not on the excluded list below.

Unpaid Restitution Doesn’t Block You

Owing victim restitution is not a disqualifier. Penal Code 1203.4 states that unpaid restitution or an outstanding restitution fine cannot be used to deny post-conviction relief, and a California appeals court confirmed this in People v. Murphy.³ If you otherwise qualify, relief should still be granted.

Convictions That Are Excluded

Three categories are carved out of the automatic process:

Sex offenses that trigger registration under the Sex Offender Registration Act (Penal Code 290 and related sections).
Serious felonies as defined in Penal Code 1192.7(c), including robbery, arson, and certain assaults.
Violent felonies as defined in Penal Code 667.5, including murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault.

These exclusions apply only to the automatic process under Penal Code 1203.425. If your conviction falls into one of these categories, a petition for discretionary relief under Penal Code 1203.4 may still be available, but it requires filing a motion and persuading a judge.³

There’s one more wrinkle. A prosecutor or probation department can petition to block automatic relief by showing it would pose a substantial threat to public safety.² It’s uncommon, but automatic doesn’t mean guaranteed.

Arrest Records Without a Conviction

Penal Code 851.93 handles arrests that didn’t result in a conviction. Eligibility depends on what happened after the arrest:⁴

Misdemeanor arrest with charges dismissed: relief once the dismissal is in DOJ records.
Misdemeanor arrest with no charges filed: one calendar year after the arrest with no resulting conviction.
Felony arrest with no charges filed: three calendar years after the arrest, or six years if the offense is punishable by eight or more years in prison.
Completed pretrial or posttrial diversion related to the arrest: eligible once completion is reflected in DOJ records.

As with convictions, the arrest record isn’t erased. The DOJ adds a notation and withholds the record from most background check disclosures.¹

How to Confirm Your Record Was Cleared

The DOJ doesn’t notify you. It sends electronic notice to the superior court that handled your case, and the court then limits public access to the record.¹ You have two ways to check:

Request your own DOJ criminal history through the “Criminal Records — Request Your Own” process, which uses a Live Scan fingerprint submission. If relief has been granted, the notation will appear.
Contact the superior court that handled your case to confirm it received and processed the DOJ notice.

If you believe you qualify but no notation appears, the DOJ advises filing a Claim of Alleged Inaccuracy or Incompleteness form (BCIA 8706).¹ The system depends on the accuracy of the DOJ’s electronic data, so a missing probation completion date or similar gap can cause an eligible record to be overlooked.

What Automatic Relief Does for Job Applications

This is where the relief has real teeth. Labor Code 432.7 bars employers from asking you to disclose, or seeking from any other source, information about a conviction dismissed under Penal Code 1203.4, 1203.4a, or 1203.425.⁵ On most private-sector applications in California, you can legally answer “no” when asked whether you have been convicted.

California’s Fair Chance Act goes further. Employers with five or more employees cannot ask about conviction history at all before extending a conditional job offer, and even afterward they can’t consider convictions that have been sealed, dismissed, expunged, or statutorily eradicated. If an employer wants to rescind an offer based on a different, still-visible conviction, they must do an individualized assessment of the offense, the time elapsed, and the job duties, and give you at least five business days to respond before a final decision.⁶

Exceptions remain. Labor Code 432.7 lets employers ask about specific convictions when federal law requires it, when the position involves firearms, or when a particular conviction legally bars someone from the role. Law enforcement, certain healthcare employers, and federally regulated financial institutions fall into these categories.⁵

What Automatic Relief Does Not Do

Several consequences survive the dismissal. If you plan around them as if they don’t, you’ll get caught.

Firearm Rights Stay Where They Were

A dismissal under Penal Code 1203.4, whether automatic or by petition, does not restore the right to own, possess, or control a firearm. If your conviction was a felony or a qualifying misdemeanor that triggered a firearm prohibition, that prohibition remains after dismissal.³

Professional Licensing Boards Can Still See It

Government agencies authorized to run fingerprint-based background checks can access conviction records after relief has been granted. The DOJ decides disclosure case by case based on the type of check and the authorizing statute.¹ If you’re applying for a nursing license, teaching credential, or similar regulated profession, assume the board will see the full record.

Future Prosecutions Can Use It as a Prior

If you’re charged with a new crime, prosecutors can use a dismissed conviction as a prior offense to seek enhanced sentencing. The dismissal doesn’t erase the conviction from the court’s perspective in a later criminal proceeding.

Immigration Consequences Don’t Go Away

This is the most dangerous gap. The Immigration and Nationality Act defines “conviction” independently from state law. Under INA section 101(a)(48), a conviction exists for immigration purposes when a court entered a formal judgment of guilt, or when you entered a guilty plea and the judge imposed any form of punishment, penalty, or restraint on your liberty — even if the court later withdrew the plea or dismissed the charges.⁷

USCIS policy is explicit that a vacated or dismissed judgment remains a conviction for immigration purposes if the dismissal was granted for rehabilitative reasons or to avoid immigration consequences, rather than for a defect in the original proceedings.⁷ California’s automatic relief is rehabilitative by design, so it falls squarely into the category federal immigration authorities disregard. If you are a non-citizen with a conviction that carries immigration consequences, talk to an immigration attorney before assuming automatic relief solved the problem. The only state-court action that can eliminate a conviction for immigration purposes is one based on a legal defect in the original case, such as a court’s failure to advise you of immigration consequences before accepting your plea.

Private Background Checks and Federal Records

Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, records of criminal convictions can be reported indefinitely.⁸ The seven-year limit on reporting non-conviction arrests does not extend to convictions. Federal courts have held that even expunged or dismissed convictions remain reportable, and in a 2026 federal case a court ruled that a background check company’s failure to note an expungement was not “inaccurate” under the FCRA. California’s Labor Code 432.7 and Fair Chance Act bar most California employers from using a dismissed conviction against you even if it appears on a report, but those protections may not reach jobs in other states or with federal employers.

The FBI maintains federal databases that may not update when California grants relief. For positions requiring federal background checks — some government jobs, military service, security clearances — the original conviction information may still be accessible.

International Travel

Other countries apply their own rules. Canadian border officers assess admissibility based on whether the offense would be a crime under Canadian law and may not treat a California dismissal as eliminating the conviction; the Canadian government advises people with foreign convictions to check with the relevant visa office about whether a pardon or discharge will be recognized, and officers retain authority to deny entry on other grounds.⁹

For TSA PreCheck, eligibility turns on whether you were convicted, pled guilty, or were found not guilty by reason of insanity for specific listed offenses. The focus is on the existence of the original conviction, not whether it was later dismissed at the state level.¹⁰ If your conviction is on TSA’s permanently or temporarily disqualifying list, automatic relief in California may not change the outcome.

1
State of California – Department of Justice – Office of the Attorney General. Automatic Record Relief – Penal Code sections 851.93 and 1203.425
2
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 1203.425
3
California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 1203.4 – Dismissal of Accusation
4
California Legislative Information. California Code Penal Code PEN 851.93
5
California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 432.7
6
California Legislative Information. California Code Government Code GOV 12952
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Policy Manual – Volume 12 Part F Chapter 2 – Adjudicative Factors
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
9
Government of Canada. Overcome Criminal Convictions
10
Transportation Security Administration. Disqualifying Offenses and Other Factors