How Far Back Does a Background Check Go in Pennsylvania?

A background check in Pennsylvania can reach back indefinitely for criminal convictions, because the state sets no lookback limit and federal law lets consumer reporting agencies report convictions of any age. The seven-year cap you may have heard about is a federal rule that applies only to non-conviction items like arrests that were dismissed or ended in acquittal, and even that cap disappears when the job pays $75,000 a year or more.¹ How far back a check actually goes in your case depends on the type of record, whether it has been expunged or sealed, and who is running the check.

What Pennsylvania State Records Show

Most background checks in Pennsylvania start with the Pennsylvania Access to Criminal History system, known as PATCH, run by the Pennsylvania State Police.² A PATCH report pulls from the state’s central criminal history repository and includes convictions, non-convictions, and pending charges that took place in Pennsylvania.³ It does not cover federal offenses or crimes from other states unless those were separately reported into the repository.

Because Pennsylvania law caps nothing, a PATCH report can include records from any point in your life. A conviction from thirty years ago will appear the same way as one from last year. Anyone can request their own PATCH report for $22, and pulling your own copy before a job or apartment application is the cleanest way to know what a screener will find.⁴

The Federal Seven-Year Rule

When a background check is compiled by a consumer reporting agency, the Fair Credit Reporting Act limits what can be included. Most adverse non-conviction information cannot appear on a report if it is more than seven years old.⁵ That covers arrests that led nowhere, charges that were dropped, and cases that ended in acquittal. The seven-year clock runs from the date of the criminal charge, not from the date the case was dismissed.

Convictions are the big exception. Federal law expressly excludes them from the seven-year limit, which is why old convictions keep showing up on employment and tenant reports even after everything else has aged off.¹

The salary carve-out matters too. The seven-year cap on non-conviction items does not apply at all when the report is being prepared for a job with an annual salary of $75,000 or more.¹ For higher-paying positions, everything is fair game regardless of age.

How Expungement and Clean Slate Change What Appears

Two Pennsylvania mechanisms can pull records off a background check even though the state has no lookback limit. They work differently.

Expungement

Expungement destroys the record. Once a record is expunged, it is treated as though the offense never happened, and you can legally deny it on most applications. The rules live in 18 Pa.C.S. § 9122, and eligibility is narrower than most people expect.⁶ The main paths are:

Summary offense convictions, if you have been free of arrest or prosecution for five years after the conviction.
Acquittals and dismissed charges, when the court orders expungement of non-conviction records.
Convictions covered by an unconditional pardon from the governor.
Underage drinking offenses, once you have turned 21 and completed the sentence.
Any offense, if you are 70 or older and have been free of arrest or prosecution for ten years after completing your sentence.

Every path requires a petition to the court of common pleas, and the district attorney has 30 days to object before the court rules.⁶

Clean Slate Sealing

Clean Slate is automatic. Instead of destroying records, it seals them from public view so they no longer appear on standard background checks. You do not file anything; the state court system runs the sealing on a schedule. Sealed records stay visible to law enforcement and some government agencies, but employers, landlords, and the general public cannot see them. The current rules are at 18 Pa.C.S. § 9122.2:⁷

Non-conviction records seal automatically with no waiting period.
Summary convictions seal after five years, once court-ordered restitution is paid.
Second- and third-degree misdemeanor convictions seal after seven years without a new offense carrying a potential sentence of one year or more, once restitution is paid.
Certain drug and property felonies, including theft and drug possession, seal after ten years without a qualifying new conviction.

The 2023 expansion (Act 36) added the felony drug and property offenses and cut the misdemeanor waiting period from ten years to seven, so more Pennsylvanians qualify now than under the original 2018 law. One thing that catches people off guard: sealing is not instantaneous. Records process in batches, and months can pass between eligibility and the record actually disappearing from a PATCH result. If a record that should be sealed is still showing, you can petition the court to order limited access.

Juvenile Records

Juvenile records are generally not public in Pennsylvania and will not appear on a standard PATCH check. Certain checks reach further, though, including those for law enforcement positions, professional licenses, and federal security clearances. Under 18 Pa.C.S. § 9123, a summary juvenile offense can be expunged once the person turns 18, has completed the sentence with at least six months elapsed, and has no subsequent misdemeanor or felony convictions and no pending charges.⁸ Delinquency adjudications can be expunged at the court’s discretion.

Federal security clearance investigations are a special case worth flagging. The SF-86 form asks about criminal history using “ever” language, which means you must disclose offenses even if you were a minor at the time or the record was later expunged. A nondisclosure discovered later usually costs more than the underlying offense would have.

How the Answer Shifts by Who Is Checking

Employers

An employer using a consumer reporting agency has to give you a clear written disclosure and get your written authorization before pulling the report.⁹ If they are thinking about not hiring you based on something in the report, they must first send a pre-adverse action notice along with a copy of the report, so you can dispute anything wrong before the decision becomes final.¹⁰

Pennsylvania adds a job-relevance layer. Under 18 Pa.C.S. § 9125, employers can consider felony and misdemeanor convictions only to the extent they relate to your suitability for the specific position, and if a criminal record contributes to a decision not to hire you, the employer must tell you in writing.¹¹ A decades-old theft conviction may weigh heavily for a bank teller role and barely register for a warehouse job.

Philadelphia and Pittsburgh restrict when the question of criminal history can even come up. Philadelphia’s Fair Chance Hiring law bars asking about criminal background during the application process; the question can only follow an initial determination that you are otherwise qualified.¹² Pittsburgh has a similar ordinance that took effect in August 2023 and applies to city contractors.¹³ The federal Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act of 2019 does the same for federal agencies and federal contractors, blocking criminal history inquiries until after a conditional offer.¹⁴

Landlords

Pennsylvania has no lookback limit specific to tenant screening, so the FCRA rules do the work: non-conviction adverse items older than seven years are off limits, and convictions can appear indefinitely.¹ A landlord using a consumer reporting agency needs your written consent to pull the report, and if they deny your application based on something in it, they must give you an adverse action notice and a copy of the report so you can dispute inaccuracies.⁹ Credit information reported alongside criminal history has its own timing rules: most negative credit items drop off after seven years, and Chapter 7 bankruptcies can stay for up to ten.

Professional Licensing Boards

State licensing boards for professions like nursing, teaching, law, and accounting run their own reviews. The FCRA seven-year cap generally does not apply, because these boards typically pull records directly through PATCH or an FBI fingerprint check rather than through a consumer reporting agency. Boards evaluate criminal history case by case, weighing the nature of the offense, how long ago it occurred, and evidence of rehabilitation. A board cannot deny, revoke, or refuse to renew a license solely because of a bankruptcy filing, under 11 U.S.C. § 525.

FBI Federal Checks

A PATCH report only covers Pennsylvania. If you have lived in other states, worked for the federal government, or need a check for immigration or security clearance purposes, an FBI Identity History Summary draws from the FBI’s national fingerprint database and pulls in criminal records from across the country. You can request your own for $18, with results usually arriving in three to five business days. Many employers, licensing boards, and agencies that require a federal check handle the fingerprinting for you.

If Something Wrong Shows Up

Errors on background checks are common. Expunged or sealed records sometimes linger in commercial databases, convictions get pinned to the wrong person through name matches, and disposition information showing a case was dismissed often goes unreported. Any of these can cost you a job or an apartment if you do not catch them.

The FCRA gives you a dispute right. When you notify the consumer reporting agency of the error, it has 30 days to investigate and correct the record. If the agency cannot verify the item, it must remove it. Court records, disposition documents, and expungement orders make the strongest support.

Pull your own PATCH report first, for $22, and read it carefully.⁴ If something that should have been expunged or sealed is still there, contact the county court where the case was handled and confirm the order was actually processed. Fixing the record before someone else runs the check saves far more time than explaining it after.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
2
Pennsylvania State Police. Pennsylvania Access to Criminal History
3
Pennsylvania Access To Criminal History. Pennsylvania Access To Criminal History – Home
4
Pennsylvania Department of Education. Pennsylvania Access to Criminal History PATCH
5
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fair Credit Reporting – Background Screening
6
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 18 Chapter 91 Section 9122 – Expungement
7
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 18 Chapter 91 Section 9122.2 – Clean Slate Limited Access
8
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 18 Chapter 91 Section 9123 – Juvenile Records
9
Federal Trade Commission. Background Checks on Prospective Employees – Keep Required Disclosures Simple
10
Federal Trade Commission. What Employment Background Screening Companies Need to Know About the Fair Credit Reporting Act
11
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 18 Chapter 91 Section 9125 – Use of Records for Employment
12
City of Philadelphia. Fair Chance Hiring Law Poster
13
City of Pittsburgh. Ban the Box – Equal Opportunity for Persons Previously Convicted
14
U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. Fair Chance Act