Do Misdemeanors Go Away in Virginia? Automatic Sealing and Petitions

No. In Virginia, a misdemeanor conviction stays on your criminal record indefinitely unless you take legal action to clear it, so misdemeanors do not go away in Virginia on their own. What’s changing is the range of action available: a record-sealing law taking effect July 1, 2026 will, for the first time, let many misdemeanor convictions be cleared from public view, some automatically and others by petition. Charges that never led to a conviction can already be expunged under existing law. A short list of offenses, including DUI and domestic assault, remains permanently ineligible.

If Your Case Did Not End in a Conviction

Virginia’s expungement statute applies to non-convictions. If your charge was dismissed, you were acquitted, the prosecutor entered a nolle prosequi, you received an absolute pardon, or you were charged because someone used your identity, you can petition the circuit court where the case was resolved to expunge the records. The filing fee is $98, and the process involves fingerprinting through a law enforcement agency and a hearing before a judge.¹²

For a misdemeanor non-conviction where the Commonwealth’s Attorney does not object and you have no prior criminal record, the court should grant expungement without further proof. Otherwise, you need to show that keeping the record causes “manifest injustice,” meaning concrete harm to your access to jobs, housing, or education.¹

Until the 2026 sealing law takes effect, expungement is the only route, and it is not available for actual convictions outside the pardon or identity-theft paths.

What Changes July 1, 2026

Virginia’s new sealing law covers actual convictions. Sealing is not identical to expungement: a broader range of agencies can still access sealed records, but employers, landlords, schools, insurers, and most government agencies cannot see them or ask about them.³

Convictions Sealed Automatically

Five specific misdemeanor convictions will be sealed with no action required from you, provided seven years have passed since the date of conviction and you have picked up no new criminal convictions in that time. Traffic infractions do not count against you. The eligible offenses are petit larceny, shoplifting, trespass offenses (including instigating trespass and trespass on posted property), misdemeanor distribution of marijuana, and disorderly conduct. Automatic sealing reaches back to offense dates on or after January 1, 1986.⁴

Convictions for the former marijuana possession offense get even simpler treatment. Those records are sealed without any court order and with no waiting period. The Central Criminal Records Exchange, courts, law enforcement, and the DMV are required to identify and seal them on their own.⁵

Convictions You Can Petition to Seal

For misdemeanor convictions that fall outside the automatic categories but are not on the exclusion list, you can file a petition after seven conviction-free years. There is no filing fee for the petition tied to the automatic-sealing offenses, and a separate petition track exists for other misdemeanor and felony convictions under the same seven-year, clean-record rule.⁶⁷

The seven-year clock runs from the conviction date, not the offense or arrest date. Any new criminal conviction during that window resets eligibility; traffic infractions do not.⁴

Misdemeanors That Stay on Your Record

Some of the most common misdemeanors people want cleared are explicitly excluded from the 2026 sealing law. If your conviction falls into one of these categories, no amount of time will remove it:

DUI and related offenses under Virginia’s driving-under-the-influence statutes.
Assault and battery against a family or household member, and any offense where the victim was a family or household member.
Violation of an emergency, preliminary, or permanent protective order.
Any offense requiring registration on the Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry.
Hate crimes, animal cruelty offenses, and election law violations.

These convictions remain on your record permanently.⁷

What Sealing and Expungement Actually Do

Expungement seals police and court records so that standard employer, landlord, and school background checks will not turn up the charge. In most situations you can legally deny the arrest or charge happened.¹

Sealing under the 2026 law works similarly for everyday purposes. Once a record is sealed, you are not required to disclose it to state or local government agencies, private employers, schools, landlords, or insurers, and those entities are prohibited from asking about it. A state or local government employee who knowingly and intentionally discloses a sealed record commits a Class 1 misdemeanor.³

Neither process erases the record from existence. Law enforcement, courts handling future criminal proceedings, and certain licensing boards can still see sealed records. Private background check companies may continue to show older information in their databases, and clearing those often requires contacting the companies directly. Rights lost because of a conviction, including firearm rights, are not restored by sealing or expungement; those require a separate legal proceeding.¹

Finding Your Path by Outcome

Charge dismissed, acquittal, or nolle prosequi: file for expungement now under existing law.
Conviction for petit larceny, shoplifting, trespass, misdemeanor marijuana distribution, or disorderly conduct: wait for automatic sealing on July 1, 2026, once seven conviction-free years have passed. If the automatic process misses your record, file the no-fee petition.
Conviction for former marijuana possession: your record should be sealed automatically on July 1, 2026, with no waiting period.
Other misdemeanor convictions not on the exclusion list: petition to seal starting July 1, 2026, after seven conviction-free years.
DUI, domestic assault, protective order violation, sex offense, hate crime, animal cruelty, or election law violation: the conviction stays.

1
Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia 19.2-392.2 – Expungement of Police and Court Records
2
Virginia’s Judicial System. Circuit Court Fee Schedule – Appendix C
3
Virginia State Crime Commission. Sealing of Criminal Records
4
Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia 19.2-392.6 – Automatic Sealing of Offenses
5
Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia 19.2-392.6:1 – Sealing of Former Possession of Marijuana Offenses Without Entry of a Court Order
6
Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia 19.2-392.12:1 – Sealing of Charges and Convictions Related to Automatic Sealing; Petition
7
Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia 19.2-392.12 – Sealing of Offenses Resulting in a Deferred and Dismissed Disposition or Conviction by Petition