How to Get Your Record Sealed in Texas: Eligibility, Petition, and Fees

To get your record sealed in Texas, you ask a court for an Order of Nondisclosure under Chapter 411 of the Texas Government Code. Depending on your offense and how the case ended, the order is either issued automatically by the court or granted after you file a petition. Once signed, the order blocks public access to the sealed offense on most background checks, so private employers, landlords, and schools generally will not see it.¹

What Sealing Actually Does

A nondisclosure order prohibits courts, law enforcement, and prosecutors from sharing the sealed offense with the general public.¹ You are also not legally required to disclose the sealed offense on job applications or similar forms.

Sealing is not erasing. The record still exists in state and federal systems, and a specific list of government agencies and licensing boards keeps access. If you are heading into education, healthcare, law, finance, private security, or a similar regulated field, that access matters, and it is covered near the end of this article.

Sealing is also not the same as an expunction. An expunction wipes the record out entirely and is available in narrower situations, such as an acquittal or an outright dismissal. If your case ended in deferred adjudication or a conviction followed by completed probation, nondisclosure is the tool Texas gives you.

The Two Paths: Automatic or Petition

Texas has two tracks for sealing, and it saves time and money to know which one applies before you do anything else.

The automatic track covers nonviolent misdemeanors resolved through deferred adjudication when you have no other criminal history beyond fine-only traffic tickets.² You do not file a petition. The court is required to issue the order on its own when it discharges and dismisses your case, once at least 180 days have passed since you were placed on deferred adjudication. If the court dismissed your case but never issued the automatic order, you can submit a letter to the court with a $28 fee and proof of eligibility.¹

The petition track covers everything else that qualifies: felonies resolved through deferred adjudication, misdemeanors excluded from the automatic track, certain conviction-based misdemeanor cases, and DWI offenses. A judge decides whether to grant the order after the prosecutor has a chance to object.

Are You Eligible?

After Deferred Adjudication for a Nonviolent Misdemeanor

If your offense was a nonviolent misdemeanor, you have never had any other conviction or deferred adjudication beyond fine-only traffic offenses, and there was no family violence finding, the court should issue the nondisclosure order automatically after your discharge and dismissal.² The only timing rule is the 180-day wait from the date you were placed on deferred adjudication. The automatic track excludes DWI and boating-while-intoxicated offenses, along with misdemeanors under Penal Code chapters covering assault, sexual offenses, weapons, and similar categories.

After Deferred Adjudication for a Felony or Excluded Misdemeanor

If your deferred adjudication case does not qualify for the automatic track, you can still petition. Unlike the automatic track, you can use this path even if you have prior offenses on your record, provided you stayed clean during the required waiting period.³ The waiting periods run from discharge and dismissal:

Most misdemeanors: you can petition immediately.
Misdemeanors involving kidnapping, sexual offenses, assault, family-related offenses, disorderly conduct, prostitution, or weapons: two years.
Felonies: five years.³

The judge must also find that granting the order is in the best interest of justice, which is discretion the automatic track does not have.

After a Misdemeanor Conviction and Probation

Nondisclosure is not limited to deferred adjudication. If you were convicted of certain misdemeanors and completed community supervision, you can petition under a separate statute.⁴ The waiting periods mirror the deferred adjudication petition track: immediately after completing probation for most misdemeanors, or two years later for the misdemeanor categories listed above.

After a First-Time DWI

A first-time DWI conviction is eligible under specific conditions, and only for a standard DWI, not one enhanced for a blood alcohol concentration of 0.15 or above.⁵ You must have completed probation without revocation, paid all fines and restitution, and have no prior convictions or deferred adjudications beyond fine-only traffic tickets. The waiting period depends on the ignition interlock:

With an interlock device installed for at least six months during probation: two years after completing community supervision.
Without an interlock: five years after completing community supervision.⁵

One absolute bar: if the DWI involved a collision with another person, including a passenger in your own vehicle, the court cannot grant the order regardless of how much time has passed.⁵ If your DWI was resolved through deferred adjudication instead of a conviction, a separate provision applies with a two-year wait after discharge and dismissal.⁶

After Veterans Treatment Court

Veterans who successfully complete a veterans treatment court program can petition two years after finishing.⁷ This applies regardless of whether the case ended in conviction, deferred adjudication, or dismissal, provided you have no prior convictions for certain serious violent or sexual offenses and stay felony-free for two years after completing the program. DWI offenses that led into veterans court are excluded from this provision.

Offenses That Can Never Be Sealed

Certain offenses are permanently ineligible. If the offense you want sealed falls into one of these categories, or if any other offense in your criminal history does, no nondisclosure order can be granted:⁸

Sex offenses requiring registration
Murder or capital murder
Aggravated kidnapping
Human trafficking or continuous trafficking
Injury to a child, elderly person, or disabled person
Abandoning or endangering a child
Stalking
Violating a protective order in a family violence, sexual assault, or trafficking case
Any offense involving family violence

That last item catches people off guard. Even a relatively minor misdemeanor is disqualified if the case file carries a family violence finding.⁸ A single disqualifying conviction or deferred adjudication anywhere in your history blocks nondisclosure for everything.

The Clean-Record Requirement

Across every nondisclosure pathway, one rule is universal: you cannot pick up any new convictions or deferred adjudications, other than fine-only traffic tickets, between your original sentencing or supervision and the end of any required waiting period.⁸ A new offense inside that window makes you ineligible even if the original case would otherwise qualify.

Filing the Petition

If your case does not qualify for the automatic track, file a petition with the court that handled the original criminal case.⁹

Pulling Your Documents

Before you draft anything, gather the records from your case. The Texas Office of Court Administration recommends having your judgment, documentation showing you completed community supervision (including any jail time and full payment of fines, costs, and restitution), your discharge order, your discharge and dismissal order for deferred adjudication cases, any early termination order, and any signed order reflecting affirmative findings such as family violence.¹

Also review your criminal history record through the Texas Department of Public Safety. A DPS record alone will not tell you whether your offense carried a family violence finding or required sex offender registration, so checking with the court that handled the case is worth the effort.¹⁰ Finding a disqualifying detail after you have already paid to file wastes both time and money.

Filling Out and Submitting the Petition

Petition forms are available from the clerk of the court where your case was handled, and the Texas Judicial Branch publishes standardized forms online. The case number, court, offense description, and dates must match your official records exactly. File with the clerk of the court that handled your original case; depending on the court, you may file in person, by mail, or electronically.⁹ Your petition must include evidence showing you meet every eligibility requirement.³

Fees

For automatic nondisclosure orders under Section 411.072, the fee is $28, paid to the court clerk before the order issues.² For petition-based orders, the legislature repealed the separate $28 nondisclosure filing fee, but standard court filing fees may still apply. Call the clerk’s office where you plan to file to confirm the current fee before submitting.

What Happens in Court

After you file, the clerk provides copies of the petition to the judge and the prosecutor.⁹ The prosecutor reviews the petition and can object. If there is an objection, or the judge wants to hear more, the court schedules a hearing.

At the hearing, you or your attorney present evidence of your eligibility. The judge decides two questions: whether you meet every statutory requirement, and whether granting the order is in the best interest of justice.³ The second prong gives the court real discretion. Even if you check every eligibility box, the judge can deny the order if the circumstances of the offense or your conduct since raise concerns. Stable employment, community ties, and a clean record during the waiting period strengthen your case. Not every petition ends up in a hearing. If the prosecutor does not object and the paperwork is in order, some courts grant the order without requiring an appearance.

Who Can Still See a Sealed Record

A nondisclosure order blocks public access, but Texas law lets dozens of agencies view your sealed criminal history for licensing, employment, or regulatory purposes.¹¹ The categories that catch most people include:

Law enforcement, prosecutors, and courts
Education-related entities: the State Board for Educator Certification, the Texas Education Agency, school districts, charter schools, and private schools
Healthcare licensing boards: the Texas Medical Board, Texas Board of Nursing, Texas State Board of Pharmacy, and the Department of State Health Services
The Board of Law Examiners and the State Bar of Texas
The Department of Family and Protective Services and safe houses sheltering children
Financial regulators: banking, securities, credit union, and consumer credit commissioners, along with banks, credit unions, and mortgage companies screening employees and applicants
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, the Health and Human Services Commission, the Texas Private Security Board, and the Texas Department of Insurance

If you are pursuing a career in any field regulated by these agencies, a sealed record can still surface during a licensing background check. Knowing this before you file sets realistic expectations about what sealing will and will not accomplish.

Even after the record is sealed with DPS, private background check databases run by third-party companies may still show the offense for a time. If a sealed offense turns up on a background check, provide a copy of the order to the entity that ran the check and ask the background check company to correct its records.

1
Texas Office of Court Administration. Overview of Orders of Nondisclosure
2
State of Texas. Texas Government Code 411.072
3
State of Texas. Texas Government Code 411.0725
4
State of Texas. Texas Government Code 411.073
5
State of Texas. Texas Government Code 411.0731
6
State of Texas. Texas Government Code 411.0726
7
State of Texas. Texas Government Code 411.0727
8
State of Texas. Texas Government Code 411.074
9
Texas Law Help. Nondisclosure Orders and Sealing Your Criminal Record in Texas
10
Texas Law Help. Nondisclosure Order Prep Guide
11
State of Texas. Texas Government Code 411.0765