How Long Does a Misdemeanor Stay on Your Record in MN?

In Minnesota, a misdemeanor stays on your record forever unless it’s sealed. No statute makes old convictions fall off after a set number of years, but under the Clean Slate Act that took effect January 1, 2025, most misdemeanors are now automatically sealed two years after you finish your sentence, and offenses that don’t qualify can still be sealed through a petition to the court.

Why the Record Doesn’t Expire

Once a Minnesota court enters a misdemeanor conviction, it becomes part of the public court system and stays there indefinitely. Employers, landlords, and anyone running a background check can find it whether the offense happened two years ago or twenty. Paying fines, finishing probation, and completing your sentence satisfy your legal obligations, but none of those steps remove the conviction from public view.

Federal law reinforces the permanence. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumer reporting agencies face a seven-year limit on reporting certain negative information like civil judgments and non-conviction arrest records, but criminal convictions are explicitly excluded from that cap. Background check companies can report a conviction no matter how old it is.¹ Sealing the record through Minnesota’s expungement process is the reliable way to keep a misdemeanor off background checks.

Automatic Sealing Under the Clean Slate Act

The Clean Slate Act created an automatic expungement system that seals qualifying records without requiring you to file anything. If your misdemeanor qualifies, the state seals it once the waiting period passes and you’ve stayed out of trouble. The waiting periods:

Petty misdemeanor: two years after discharge of the sentence
Misdemeanor: two years after discharge of the sentence
Gross misdemeanor: three years after discharge of the sentence

“Discharge of the sentence” is the date you finished everything the court ordered, including probation, community service, fines, and restitution. The clock starts from that date, not the date of conviction. Throughout the waiting period you cannot be convicted of any new offense other than a petty misdemeanor, and you cannot have charges pending when the waiting period ends.²

Misdemeanors Left Out of the Automatic Process

The Clean Slate Act carves out specific offenses the state considers too sensitive to seal without a judge’s review. For misdemeanors, the excluded offenses are:

Fourth-degree DWI
Fifth-degree assault
Domestic assault
Violation of an order for protection
Violation of a harassment restraining order
Interference with privacy
Interference with an emergency call
Obscene or harassing phone calls
Indecent exposure
Violation of a domestic abuse no-contact order

If your misdemeanor is on this list, you can still pursue sealing through the petition process described below.²

One absolute bar applies to both routes: if an offense requires registration as a predatory offender, expungement is never available.³

Petitioning the Court for the Rest

For records that don’t qualify for automatic sealing, you can file a petition asking a court to seal the record. This route covers the excluded misdemeanors above, gross misdemeanors, and certain felonies. The waiting periods mirror the automatic timeline:

Misdemeanor conviction: two years after discharge of the sentence with no new convictions
Gross misdemeanor conviction: three years after discharge of the sentence with no new convictions
Stay of adjudication: one year after completing the terms of the stay, with no new charges
Dismissal or acquittal: no waiting period

A stay of adjudication is worth understanding. When a judge stays adjudication, you plead guilty but the court holds off on entering the conviction. If you complete probation successfully, the case ends without a conviction. The one-year clock runs from the date you were discharged from the stay’s conditions.²

What Judges Weigh

Unlike automatic sealing, the petition process gives a judge discretion. The court weighs twelve statutory factors, and the ones that carry the most weight in practice are:

The seriousness of the original offense and how much time has passed
Your risk to the public based on your conduct since
Steps you’ve taken toward rehabilitation, including employment and community involvement
Concrete evidence that the record is blocking employment, housing, or other necessities
Outstanding restitution and your plan to finish paying it
Victim input and whether any victims were minors
Recommendations from law enforcement and prosecutors

An objection from law enforcement or a prosecutor doesn’t automatically defeat the petition, but it makes the case harder. Documentation matters: letters from employers who turned you down, rejection notices from housing applications, certificates from completed programs. Vague claims about hardship rarely persuade.⁴

Filing, Fees, and the Hearing

You file the petition with the district court in the county where the conviction occurred. Fillable forms are available from the Minnesota Judicial Branch.⁵ The filing fee is $300. It’s waived automatically if the case was resolved in your favor (dismissal or acquittal), and it can be waived based on financial hardship.⁶ If you go through the Minnesota Attorney General’s expungement program and qualify, you won’t owe the fee.⁷

After filing, you serve copies on each government agency that holds records related to the case, along with their attorneys. The hearing cannot take place sooner than 60 days after the agencies are served, giving them time to review and decide whether to object.⁴ If no one objects, the hearing is often brief. If an agency objects, the hearing is where you present your evidence directly to the judge.

What Sealing the Record Actually Does

Expungement in Minnesota seals a record from public view. It does not destroy the record. After a successful expungement, the conviction will not appear on most standard background checks, and the court file is no longer accessible to the public.⁸

Some agencies keep access. Law enforcement, prosecutors, the FBI, immigration authorities, and other government officials can still see the sealed record for investigations, sentencing, and probation purposes. If you apply for a job or occupational license that requires a criminal background check by law, the sealed record may also be visible to the licensing agency.⁹

Private background check databases sometimes retain old records after an expungement order is entered. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, screening companies must use reasonable procedures to ensure maximum accuracy, which means they should not report expunged records. If an expunged conviction shows up on a background check, you have the right to dispute it with the reporting company.¹

Job Hunting Before Your Record Is Sealed

Minnesota’s Ban the Box law offers some cover while you wait out the sealing timeline. Public and private employers cannot ask about your criminal history on the initial application or before you’ve been selected for an interview. If no interview is part of the process, they can’t ask until after making a conditional job offer.¹⁰

Employers can still consider your record. They just have to evaluate your qualifications first, which gives you a chance to explain the circumstances rather than being filtered out by a checkbox. Employers legally required to conduct criminal background checks for specific positions, such as certain healthcare or childcare roles, are exempt from the timing restriction.¹⁰

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
2
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Statutes 609A.015 – Automatic Expungement of Records
3
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Statutes 609A.02 – Grounds for Order
4
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Statutes 609A.03 – Petition to Expunge Criminal Records
5
Minnesota Judicial Branch. Criminal Expungement Forms
6
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Statutes Chapter 609A – Expungement
7
Office of Minnesota Attorney General. Expungement – Frequently Asked Questions
8
Minnesota Judicial Branch. Criminal Expungement Frequently Asked Questions
9
Minnesota Judicial Branch. Criminal Expungement
10
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Statutes 364.021 – Public and Private Employment; Consideration of Criminal Records