Texas gives you two ways to clean up a criminal record: expunction, which orders every agency involved to destroy its files, and an order of nondisclosure, which seals the record from public view but leaves it intact for law enforcement and licensing agencies. Expunction is the stronger of the two, but its eligibility is narrower. Texas expunction and orders of nondisclosure each apply to different case outcomes, and figuring out which one fits your situation comes down to how the case ended, what you were charged with, and how much time has passed.
The Core Difference
An expunction order treats the arrest as if it never happened. Every agency that touched the case is directed to destroy its records, and once that is done you can legally deny the arrest on job and housing applications.
A nondisclosure order does less. It hides the record from the general public and from private background-check companies, but the file still exists. Law enforcement, prosecutors, state licensing boards, and certain government agencies keep their access for regulatory purposes.
If your case qualifies for expunction, take it. Nondisclosure is the fallback for people whose cases ended through deferred adjudication, which is the most common way people get a sealed record in Texas.
Who Qualifies for Expunction
Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 55A governs expunction, with the recodified structure taking effect on January 1, 2025.1State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 55A.001 You can petition to have records destroyed if your case ended in one of the following ways:
- A jury or judge found you not guilty at trial.
- The Governor of Texas or the President of the United States granted a full pardon.
- The charge was dismissed and you were never placed on court-ordered community supervision for that offense.
- You were arrested but the prosecutor never filed charges, and the waiting period has passed.
When no charges were filed, the wait before you can petition depends on the severity of the arrest offense:2Justia. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 55 – Expunction of Criminal Records
- Class C misdemeanors: 180 days from the date of arrest
- Class A and Class B misdemeanors: one year from the date of arrest
- Felonies: three years from the date of arrest
A few things will disqualify you. If a felony charge arose from the same set of events as the arrest you want expunged, the court will deny the petition. Anyone who fled or skipped bail during the proceedings is also barred. And the disqualifier most people run into: if you completed deferred adjudication community supervision on the charge, expunction is off the table. That scenario falls under nondisclosure.
When Nondisclosure Is Automatic
Many people eligible for nondisclosure do not have to file a petition. Since September 2017, Texas law has required courts to automatically issue a nondisclosure order for certain nonviolent misdemeanors when a person completes deferred adjudication. The court is supposed to evaluate eligibility at the moment it grants the discharge and dismissal.3Texas Judicial Branch. An Overview of Orders of Nondisclosure
Under Section 411.072 of the Government Code, automatic nondisclosure applies if all of the following are true:
- You completed deferred adjudication and received a discharge and dismissal on or after September 1, 2017.
- At least 180 days have passed from the date the court placed you on deferred adjudication.
- You have no prior convictions or deferred adjudication placements other than traffic offenses punishable only by a fine.
- The court did not find that automatic nondisclosure was not in the best interest of justice.
Automatic sealing does not cover every misdemeanor. Excluded categories include DWI, boating while intoxicated, and misdemeanors under Penal Code chapters covering kidnapping, sexual offenses, assault, family offenses, disorderly conduct, public indecency, weapons offenses, and organized crime. Those require a petition-based approach if they qualify at all.3Texas Judicial Branch. An Overview of Orders of Nondisclosure
If the court skipped the automatic evaluation, you can submit a letter to the court along with a $28 fee asking it to review your eligibility. This is not a formal petition, and standard civil filing fees do not apply.4Texas Judicial Branch. County-Level Court Civil Filing Fees If you cannot afford the fee, you may file a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs under Rule 145 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure.
Petitioning for Nondisclosure
When automatic sealing doesn’t apply, you can still petition for nondisclosure if you successfully completed deferred adjudication community supervision. Texas Government Code Section 411.0715 defines what counts: you entered a guilty or no-contest plea, the judge deferred proceedings without entering a conviction, you served the supervision period, and the judge ultimately dismissed the case.5State of Texas. Texas Government Code Section 411.0715
The waiting period before you can file depends on the offense:6Texas Judicial Branch. Petition for Order of Nondisclosure Under Section 411.0725
- Most misdemeanors: immediately upon discharge and dismissal
- Misdemeanors involving assault, family offenses, weapons, sexual conduct, disorderly conduct, kidnapping, or public indecency: two years after discharge and dismissal
- Felonies: five years after discharge and dismissal
First-Offense DWI
Section 411.0731 of the Government Code now allows nondisclosure for a first DWI offense under limited conditions. You must have completed community supervision, including all fines, costs, restitution, and any required period of confinement. You cannot have any prior convictions or deferred adjudication placements other than traffic offenses punishable only by a fine.7State of Texas. Texas Government Code GOV’T 411.0731
The wait depends on whether you had an ignition interlock:
- With ignition interlock installed for at least six months as a condition of supervision: two years after completing community supervision
- Without ignition interlock: five years after completing community supervision
The court will deny the petition if the prosecutor shows the DWI involved a collision with another person, including a passenger in your own vehicle. That is the provision that catches people out. If anyone else was involved in an accident, DWI nondisclosure is unavailable regardless of how the case resolved.7State of Texas. Texas Government Code GOV’T 411.0731
Judicial Discretion
A petition-based request gives the judge room to say no. Even when you meet every statutory requirement, the court can deny the petition if it determines that sealing the record is not in the best interest of justice. Judges weigh the nature of the offense, your behavior since the case ended, and whether the public has a legitimate interest in the information. Coming to the hearing with evidence of rehabilitation, stable employment, and community ties helps.
Offenses That Can Never Be Sealed
Section 411.074 of the Government Code creates a hard exclusion list. No nondisclosure order can be issued if you are seeking relief for, or have a prior conviction or deferred adjudication for, any of these:8State of Texas. Texas Government Code GOV’T 411.074
- Sex offenses requiring registration under Chapter 62 of the Code of Criminal Procedure
- Murder or capital murder
- Human trafficking
- Aggravated kidnapping
- Injury to a child, elderly individual, or disabled individual
- Stalking
- Violation of a protective order
- Any offense involving family violence
The family violence exclusion is broader than most people expect. It is not tied to a list of named offenses. The court can also deny nondisclosure if it makes an affirmative finding that the underlying offense involved family violence, even where the charge itself was something generic like assault or criminal mischief.8State of Texas. Texas Government Code GOV’T 411.074
How To File
Filing for expunction or petition-based nondisclosure starts with gathering the exact details of the original case. You will need:
- Your full legal name, date of birth, Social Security number, and driver’s license number
- The date of the arrest and the name of the arresting agency
- The court case number and the specific offense charged
- A list of every entity that may hold records of the incident, including the local police department, county sheriff’s office, booking facility, and the Texas Department of Public Safety
If you don’t have your case number, the county clerk’s office where the case was filed can look it up. Many Texas counties also offer online case searches through their district clerk portals, and DPS maintains a criminal history database where you can request your own records.
The petition must clearly identify which statutory provision you are relying on. Wrong dates, a wrong case number, or missing agencies can delay or sink the request. District clerks often provide standardized petition templates, and the Texas Judicial Branch website publishes model nondisclosure forms.
Filing Fees
Expunction petitions are filed in district court and carry standard civil filing fees, which vary by county. On top of the base filing fee, the court charges $25 for each agency or entity listed in the petition that cannot receive electronic service.9Texas Judicial Branch. District Court Civil Filing Fees Because a typical expunction petition names ten or more agencies, those per-entity fees add up. Total filing costs often land in the several hundred dollar range.
Attorney fees are usually the larger expense. Uncontested cases with clean facts sit at the low end, contested petitions requiring a full hearing cost more. If you cannot afford the filing fees, Texas courts allow you to file an inability-to-pay affidavit, with eligibility rules varying by court.
Hearing and Notification
Once you file, the clerk serves notice on every agency and entity named in the petition. Each has roughly 30 days to review it and file an objection. A hearing follows, at which the judge reviews the petition, considers any objections, and decides whether to sign the order. Some courts require you to appear; others let your attorney handle it.
If the order is signed, the clerk sends it to DPS and the listed agencies, and DPS updates its own database and notifies federal agencies. Don’t expect the change to appear instantly on every background check. Private background-check databases pull from various sources on different update schedules, and it can take weeks or months for the record to disappear from commercial reports.
What Changes After Your Records Are Cleared
The practical effect depends on which order you got. After an expunction, you can legally deny the arrest ever happened. If an employer or landlord asks whether you have ever been arrested, you can say no. The statute treats the arrest as though it never occurred, and no government agency is permitted to confirm it.
Nondisclosure is more limited. Private companies running background checks should not find the record, and criminal justice agencies cannot disclose it to the public. But the record still exists, and a long list of government entities keeps access, including law enforcement, prosecutors, regulatory agencies, and state licensing boards. If you apply for a professional license in nursing, law, real estate, or teaching, the licensing board can see the sealed offense and may ask about it.
Fixing Background-Check Errors
Even after a court order, expunged or sealed records sometimes linger on private background-check reports. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you have the right to dispute inaccurate information directly with the consumer reporting agency. The agency must investigate and correct or delete unverifiable information, typically within 30 days.10Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act If the company fails to remove expunged records after a proper dispute, you may have grounds to sue in state or federal court.
Keep a certified copy of your court order on hand. Sending it with a dispute letter makes the investigation faster and harder to dismiss.
Federal Limits on Texas Orders
A Texas court order binds state and local agencies, but federal authorities follow their own rules. Three areas catch people off guard.
Immigration
This is the most important exception to understand. A Texas expunction or nondisclosure order has no effect on immigration proceedings. USCIS treats an expunged conviction as a conviction. The agency has stated that state court actions to expunge, dismiss, vacate, or otherwise remove a guilty plea “by operation of a state rehabilitative statute” do not eliminate the conviction for immigration purposes.11U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Policy Manual Volume 12 Part F Chapter 2 Applicants for naturalization must still disclose expunged and sealed offenses, and USCIS can require you to produce the records. If the court destroyed them, USCIS may file its own motion to retrieve copies.
If you are not a U.S. citizen and have any criminal history, talk to an immigration attorney before relying on a Texas order as a fix. Deportation, denial of a green card, or a permanent bar from naturalization are outcomes you cannot afford to guess wrong on.
Firearm Rights
Federal regulations generally provide that an expunction or pardon removes the disability on possessing firearms, unless the state order expressly restricts firearm possession or fails to fully restore firearm rights.12ATF eRegulations. 27 CFR 478.142 In most Texas expunctions, firearm rights are restored because the arrest is treated as though it never occurred. If you received a nondisclosure order instead, the analysis is more complicated. The underlying conviction still exists, and whether federal law treats it as removed depends on the offense and whether Texas law fully restored your rights. If your case involved a felony or a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, get a definitive legal opinion before buying a firearm.
FBI Records
The FBI maintains its own criminal history database through the Criminal Justice Information Services division. When Texas DPS receives an expunction or nondisclosure order, it notifies the FBI to update its records. The FBI removes nonfederal arrest data only at the request of the submitting state agency, and it does not happen overnight.13Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks FAQ If you need to confirm the FBI record has been updated before a federal background check, you can request your own Identity History Summary from the FBI to verify.