Texas Order of Nondisclosure Eligibility Requirements

To qualify for a Texas order of nondisclosure, you generally need to have completed deferred adjudication or community supervision for an eligible offense, be a first-time offender aside from fine-only traffic tickets, finish any applicable waiting period without picking up new convictions, and avoid a short list of offenses that permanently disqualify you. Which specific rule applies depends on how your case ended and what you were charged with, so eligibility is best worked out one pathway at a time.

Find Your Pathway First

Texas has several separate nondisclosure statutes, and each covers a different kind of case outcome. The one that applies to you is set by what happened in court, not by what you prefer.

Automatic Nondisclosure After Deferred Adjudication

If you completed deferred adjudication for a qualifying misdemeanor, Section 411.072 requires the court to issue the order on its own. No petition is needed. The order follows the discharge and dismissal by operation of law, after you pay a $28 fee.¹²

To use this route, the offense cannot be any of the following:

DWI or boating while intoxicated (Penal Code Sections 49.04 and 49.06)
An offense under Penal Code Chapters 20 through 25 — kidnapping, sex offenses, assault, and offenses against the family
An offense under Penal Code Chapters 42, 43, 46, or 71 — disorderly conduct, public indecency, weapons offenses, and organized crime
Any offense with a family violence finding in the case file

You also must be a first-time offender, meaning no prior convictions or deferred adjudication placements for anything other than fine-only traffic violations.¹

Petition-Based Nondisclosure After Deferred Adjudication

If your deferred adjudication case falls into one of those excluded categories, Section 411.0725 still gives you a path, but you have to file a petition and the judge has discretion to deny it. The court must find that granting the order is in the best interest of justice. This pathway reaches the more serious misdemeanors and most felonies.¹

Nondisclosure After a Misdemeanor Conviction

Texas also allows nondisclosure for people who were actually convicted of a misdemeanor and placed on community supervision, under Section 411.073. This is sometimes called the “second chance” provision, and it applies to offenses committed on or after September 1, 2015.

To qualify, you must have completed your full term of community supervision, including any jail time and the full payment of fines, costs, and restitution. Community supervision cannot have been revoked. The first-time offender condition applies here too.¹

Several offense categories are excluded from Section 411.073: DWI, boating while intoxicated, flying while intoxicated, operating an amusement ride while intoxicated, minor DUI under the Alcoholic Beverage Code, and organized crime offenses.

Fine-Only Misdemeanors

Class C misdemeanors and other fine-only offenses have their own streamlined pathway under Section 411.0735. You must pay the fine in full and satisfy all court costs and restitution.³

First-Time DWI Convictions

Section 411.0731 allows sealing of a first-time DWI, but only when the offense was punishable as a Class B misdemeanor. That means your blood alcohol concentration must have been below 0.15; a BAC of 0.15 or higher makes the charge a Class A misdemeanor and takes this pathway off the table.³

The first-time offender rule applies, and there is one unusual limit: if the prosecutor presents evidence that your DWI involved a motor vehicle accident with another person — including a passenger in your own car — the court cannot grant the order. That is one of the few situations where the prosecutor can block a nondisclosure outright.³

Waiting Periods

Each pathway has its own clock. For petition-based nondisclosure after deferred adjudication:

Most misdemeanors: you may petition immediately after discharge and dismissal
Misdemeanors under Penal Code Chapters 20, 21, 22, 25, 42, 43, or 46 (kidnapping, sex offenses, assault, family offenses, disorderly conduct, public indecency, weapons): two years after discharge and dismissal
Felonies: five years after discharge and dismissal

Throughout the waiting period, you cannot pick up any new convictions or deferred adjudication placements beyond fine-only traffic violations. One new conviction inside that window disqualifies you.³

For nondisclosure after a misdemeanor conviction with community supervision, the waiting periods mirror that structure: immediately for most qualifying misdemeanors, and two years for offenses under Penal Code Chapters 20, 21, 22, 25, 42, 43, or 46.³

Fine-only misdemeanors are eligible immediately after sentence completion if the offense itself was fine-only; otherwise a two-year wait applies.³

Offenses That Permanently Disqualify You

Section 411.074 lists offenses that bar any nondisclosure order, regardless of waiting periods or clean conduct since. You are disqualified if the offense you want sealed, or any prior offense on your record, is one of these:¹

Any offense requiring sex offender registration
Aggravated kidnapping (Penal Code Section 20.04)
Murder or capital murder (Penal Code Sections 19.02 and 19.03)
Trafficking of persons (Penal Code Sections 20A.02 and 20A.03)
Injury to a child, elderly person, or disabled person (Penal Code Sections 22.04 and 22.041)
Violation of a protective order (Penal Code Sections 25.07 and 25.072)
Stalking (Penal Code Section 42.072)
Any offense involving family violence

The family violence disqualifier works two ways. If the court made an affirmative finding of family violence, that specific record cannot be sealed. And if any prior family violence conviction or deferred adjudication sits anywhere on your record, you cannot seal a different, otherwise eligible case. One family violence incident in your past blocks every future petition.¹

The First-Time Offender Rule

Across most of these statutes, you must have no other convictions or deferred adjudication placements besides fine-only traffic violations. That rule applies to your history before the offense you want sealed, during any applicable waiting period, and up to the time the court rules. A single disqualifying entry anywhere in that span is enough to end the inquiry. If you are not sure what your record shows, pull a full criminal history report before counting on eligibility.

Veterans Treatment Court and Trafficking Victims

Two narrower sections cover people the main statutes do not fully reach.

Section 411.0727 lets a person who successfully completed a veterans treatment court program petition for nondisclosure. The wait is two years from program completion, and no felony convictions are allowed during that window. You cannot have a prior conviction for a sexually violent offense or for a serious offense listed in Article 42A.054(a) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the underlying offense cannot involve operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated.⁴

Section 411.0728 covers people convicted of or placed on deferred adjudication for certain low-level drug possession, petty theft, or prostitution offenses committed solely as a victim of human trafficking. The waiting period is one year from completing the sentence or receiving discharge and dismissal. If law enforcement or the prosecutor sought your help investigating the trafficking offense, you must have cooperated, unless age or disability prevented it.¹

What a Nondisclosure Order Does Not Reach

Eligibility is only part of the picture. A nondisclosure order blocks most private parties from seeing your record, but several categories of entities keep access.

Licensing boards retain access, including the Texas Medical Board, Board of Nursing, Board of Law Examiners, State Bar of Texas, State Board of Public Accountancy, State Board for Educator Certification, and the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Child and family safety agencies, public and nonprofit hospitals, school districts, charter and private schools, regional education service centers, and the state’s financial regulators are also authorized to see sealed records.¹ If you are pursuing a professional license in Texas, assume the licensing board will see it.

A Texas nondisclosure order is a state order. It does not bind federal agencies. Criminal history that was already shared with the FBI’s national database before the order was entered is not removed automatically; the FBI will only remove nonfederal arrest data at the request of the submitting agency and in compliance with applicable law.⁵

For immigration, USCIS requires applicants to disclose all criminal activity, regardless of state sealing. Naturalization officers can request certified court dispositions for any arrest, and the burden is on the applicant to show good moral character. Failing to disclose a sealed offense on an immigration application can be treated as a misrepresentation.⁶

For federal firearm background checks, a sealed domestic violence conviction may still trigger the federal firearm prohibition under 18 U.S.C. Section 922(g)(9) unless the conviction has been formally expunged, pardoned, or your civil rights have been restored in a way that specifically addresses firearms.⁷

1
State of Texas. Texas Government Code Chapter 411 – Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas
2
Texas Judicial Branch. Justice Court Civil Filing Fees
3
Texas Judicial Branch. Overview of Orders of Nondisclosure
4
State of Texas. Texas Government Code 411.0727
5
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks FAQs
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Volume 12, Part F, Chapter 3 – Evidence and the Record
7
United States Department of Justice. Restrictions on the Possession of Firearms by Individuals Convicted of a Misdemeanor Crime of Domestic Violence