Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 55: Expunction

Texas expunction of criminal records is the court-ordered erasure of an arrest and everything tied to it, available under Chapter 55A of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure when a case ended in acquittal, dismissal, a grand jury no-bill, a qualifying pardon, or an arrest that never produced charges once the waiting period runs. Once a judge signs the order, every agency holding the records must destroy or return them, and you can lawfully deny the arrest ever happened on nearly every application you’ll ever fill out.

Who Qualifies

Eligibility turns on how the case ended. The broadest path is for people who were arrested but never formally charged, provided the case did not result in court-ordered community supervision and enough time has passed since the arrest:

Class C misdemeanor: at least 180 days from the arrest date, if no felony charge arose from the same incident.
Class A or B misdemeanor: at least one year from the arrest date, again if no related felony charge exists.
Felony: at least three years from the arrest date.

A prosecutor can waive those waiting periods entirely by certifying in writing that the arrest records are not needed for any ongoing investigation or prosecution.¹

Expunction is also available if you were acquitted at trial, convicted and later granted a full pardon by the Governor of Texas or the President, or pardoned or granted relief specifically on actual innocence grounds. Texas allows expunction when someone was arrested because an identity thief used their name, and when a case was dismissed, quashed, or ended in a grand jury no-bill. People who successfully completed pretrial diversion can also pursue expunction, depending on the terms of their agreement with the prosecutor.¹

Who Does Not Qualify

The most common disqualifier is court-ordered community supervision. Probation and deferred adjudication generally block full expunction. The one narrow exception is a Class C misdemeanor that resulted in deferred adjudication, which remains eligible. Anything more serious with community supervision on the record closes the door.¹

Texas also applies what practitioners call the arrest-suite rule. If you were arrested for multiple offenses during a single incident and convicted on even one of them, the dismissed charges from that same arrest generally cannot be expunged. The state treats the arrest episode as one package, and a conviction on any piece blocks selective cleanup of the rest.

If Expunction Isn’t Available: Nondisclosure

If deferred adjudication or another disqualifier rules out expunction, an order of nondisclosure is often the next-best option. Nondisclosure does not erase the record. It seals the record from public view while keeping it accessible to law enforcement, licensing agencies, and certain government entities. Most private employers, landlords, and members of the public will not see it, and you generally do not have to disclose the offense on private applications.

Nondisclosure is most commonly used after successful completion of deferred adjudication community supervision. Waiting periods depend on the offense: many misdemeanors qualify immediately after discharge, certain assaultive or weapons-related misdemeanors require two years, and felonies require five. Some offenses (including murder, capital murder, trafficking, offenses requiring sex offender registration, injury to a child or elderly person, stalking, and any offense involving family violence) are permanently ineligible.²

What the Petition Must Include

A petition for expunction must be verified (signed under oath). It must include your full legal name, sex, race, date of birth, driver’s license number, social security number, and your address at the time of the arrest. It must also state the offense charged, the date the offense allegedly occurred, the date of arrest, the county and municipality where the arrest happened, the arresting agency, the case number, and the court that handled the criminal case.³

The requirement that catches people out is the agency list. Your petition has to name and provide a mailing or email address for every law enforcement agency, jail, magistrate, court, prosecutor’s office, correctional facility, and state depository (such as the Department of Public Safety) that may hold records related to the arrest. It also has to include central federal depositories and any private companies that compile and sell criminal history information. If an agency isn’t on the list, the court’s order won’t reach it, and those records can survive the expunction.

Case details often need to come from the clerk’s office. District clerks maintain district court records, county clerks handle county court files, and justice and municipal courts keep their own. Some publish online; many require a direct request and a small fee.⁴

Filing and the Hearing

You file in the county where the arrest occurred. District court handles felony expunctions; municipal courts, justice courts, and county courts handle expunctions for offenses within their jurisdiction.

Once the petition is filed, the court sets a hearing no earlier than 30 days out. During that window, the clerk sends notice to every agency and entity listed in the petition by certified mail or secure electronic transmission.⁵ Starting January 1, 2026, courts charge a $25 fee per listed entity that cannot receive electronic notice, to cover certified mailings.⁶

At the hearing, any listed agency can object. In practice, objections are uncommon when the eligibility requirements are clearly met. If the judge is satisfied, the court signs an Order of Expunction directing every named entity to destroy or return its records.

What Happens After the Order

The clerk sends certified copies of the signed order to every agency and entity in the petition. Physical files must be returned to the court or destroyed. Digital records must be deleted from all databases. Once the order takes effect, no state agency may release, maintain, or use the expunged records, and you can legally deny both the arrest and the existence of the expunction order itself.³

That right to deny covers job applications, rental applications, loan applications, and everyday conversation. Federal contexts are different, and are covered below.

Federal Databases

Texas arrest information is shared with the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services system, and a state court order doesn’t automatically scrub the federal copy. Under 28 C.F.R. § 20.37, the agency that originally submitted the record is responsible for notifying the FBI that it has been expunged, using form FD-1114. Agencies are expected to submit disposition updates, including expungements, within 120 days.⁷

The handoff doesn’t always happen on time. Checking with the Department of Public Safety after your order is signed, to confirm the update was sent to the FBI, is a reasonable precaution.

Private Background Check Companies

Companies that sell criminal background reports are consumer reporting agencies under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The CFPB has read the FCRA’s accuracy requirement to mean these companies must have procedures in place to keep expunged, sealed, or otherwise restricted records out of their reports.⁸ If one reports an expunged record anyway, you can pursue actual damages, statutory damages, punitive damages for willful violations, and attorney fees.⁹

Some of these companies scrape old court records and update slowly. Running a background check on yourself through one or two major screening companies after your expunction is a quick sanity check. If the record still appears, file a dispute directly with the company; they are legally obligated to investigate and correct it.

Federal Situations Where Expunction Does Not Reach

A Texas expunction is powerful within the state system, but three federal contexts operate under different rules.

Immigration

For immigration purposes, a state expunction does not erase a conviction. The Board of Immigration Appeals has consistently held that state actions to expunge, dismiss, or vacate a guilty plea under a rehabilitative statute have no effect on whether someone is considered “convicted” under federal immigration law. That includes controlled substance offenses and crimes involving moral turpitude. USCIS can require you to produce evidence of the conviction even after it has been expunged, and getting those records remains your responsibility.¹⁰ You must disclose the arrest on every immigration form and to immigration officials who ask, regardless of an expunction or nondisclosure order.

Federal Firearms Law

Federal firearms law is more favorable. Under 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20), a conviction that has been expunged or set aside is generally not treated as a conviction for purposes of the federal firearms disability. If a felony conviction was blocking you from legally possessing firearms, a valid expunction can restore that right at the federal level. The exception: if the expunction order or pardon expressly says you may not possess firearms, the federal disability survives.¹¹

Security Clearances

Federal security clearance applications require disclosure of expunged records. The SF-86, used for national security investigations, tells applicants to report arrest information “regardless of whether the record in your case has been sealed, expunged, or otherwise stricken from the court record, or the charge was dismissed.”¹² Failing to disclose on an SF-86 is itself a federal offense, so the state right to deny the arrest does not extend to that form.

Costs

Court filing fees vary by court. On top of the base fee, courts charge $25 per listed entity that cannot receive electronic notice, effective January 1, 2026.⁶ Petitions routinely list a dozen or more agencies, so those per-entity fees add up. Attorney fees for handling the full process typically range from a few hundred to several thousand dollars depending on complexity and the number of charges.

You can file without an attorney. Petition forms are available through the Texas State Law Library and some clerk offices. The legal argument is usually straightforward when eligibility is clear. The hard part is compiling a complete agency list and getting every technical detail right, because a missing agency or a wrong case number can produce a denied petition or records that outlive the order.

1
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 55.01 – Right to Expunction
2
Texas Judicial Branch. An Overview of Orders of Nondisclosure
3
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 55A – Expunction of Criminal Records
4
Texas State Law Library. Court Records
5
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 55A.254
6
Texas Judicial Branch. District Court Civil Filing Fees
7
Federal Register. Agency Information Collection Activities – FBI Expungement and Sealing Form FD-1114
8
Federal Register. Fair Credit Reporting – Background Screening
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681e – Compliance Procedures
10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12 Part F Chapter 2 – Adjudicative Factors
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 921 – Definitions
12
Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. DCSA SF-86 Guide