What Felonies Can Be Expunged in Ohio and What Cannot

In Ohio, the felonies that can be expunged — the statute calls it sealing — are generally fourth- and fifth-degree felonies that don’t involve violence or a sex offense, plus a limited number of third-degree felonies. First- and second-degree felonies, felony offenses of violence, sexually oriented offenses, convictions involving a victim under 13, theft in office, and all traffic felonies are permanently excluded, no matter how much time has passed.¹

Felonies You Can Seal

The clearest category is fourth- and fifth-degree felonies. If all of your convictions are fourth- or fifth-degree felonies or misdemeanors, and none involve violence or a felony sex offense, you can apply to seal them regardless of how many you have.² Common examples include low-level theft, receiving stolen property, certain drug possession charges, forgery, and non-violent fraud.

Third-degree felonies are also sealable, but with caps. You can seal up to two third-degree felony convictions, and your total record cannot exceed those two third-degree felonies plus two misdemeanors. If you carry more than one additional felony beyond the third-degree offense you want sealed, that third-degree felony is off the table.¹

How Ohio counts convictions matters here. When two or more convictions stem from the same act or were committed at the same time, they count as a single conviction. Convictions from the same indictment or plea that involved related crimes within a three-month window can also count as one, though the court has discretion to count them separately if that serves the public interest.¹ That rule can be the difference between qualifying and not, so it is worth checking carefully if your record looks disqualifying at first glance.

Felonies You Cannot Seal

Some convictions are permanently excluded. Rehabilitation and the passage of time do not change the answer:

First- and second-degree felonies, regardless of the specific offense.
Felony offenses of violence. Ohio defines the category broadly, and it includes crimes like murder, voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, kidnapping, and robbery.
Sexually oriented offenses. If the conviction triggered sex-offender registration under Chapter 2950, it cannot be sealed.
Any conviction where the victim was younger than 13, with a narrow exception for non-support cases.
Theft in office under Section 2921.41.
All traffic felonies, including felony OVI (Ohio’s term for DUI) and felony driving under suspension.

One public-corruption offense that sometimes gets lumped in with the permanent exclusions is actually sealable: soliciting improper compensation under Section 2921.43. It is not blocked outright. It just carries a much longer waiting period of seven years after final discharge.¹

How Long You Have to Wait

Ohio does not use a single waiting period for all felonies. The clock depends on the degree of the offense:

Fourth- or fifth-degree felonies: one year after final discharge.
Third-degree felonies: three years after final discharge.
Soliciting improper compensation under Section 2921.43: seven years after final discharge.

Final discharge means the end of everything: prison, parole, post-release control, and community control. The waiting period does not begin until every piece of your sentence is complete.

Qualifying Is Not the Same as Winning

Meeting the eligibility rules only gets you in the door. The court still exercises judgment and must weigh several factors before granting a sealing request:

Whether you meet the statutory definition of an eligible offender.
Whether you have any pending criminal proceedings. Open charges work against you.
Whether you have been rehabilitated. Letters from employers, evidence of community involvement, and a stable track record carry real weight here.
Whether the prosecutor objects. The prosecutor can oppose your application, and the court must consider those objections.
A balancing test between your interest in sealing the record and the government’s legitimate need to keep it accessible.

That last factor is where otherwise qualifying cases get unpredictable. A quiet record for several years and no prosecutor objection usually produces a grant. But a case that drew public attention, or a judge with concerns about the nature of the underlying offense, can tip the balance the other way even when the technical boxes are checked.

What a Sealed Ohio Felony Still Shows Up On

Sealed is not erased. When the court grants the application, the record becomes invisible for most job applications, housing screenings, and licensing inquiries, and you can legally respond as though the conviction never happened in those contexts.³ A number of agencies still see the record, though. Law enforcement and prosecutors can view sealed records when investigating new charges or classifying a new offense. Parole and probation officers can access them during supervision. The Bureau of Criminal Investigation can pull sealed records for background checks tied to certain licensed professions, including positions working with children, the elderly, or people with disabilities, and any law enforcement agency doing a hiring background check can see them.⁴

Three limits are worth knowing before you count on an Ohio sealing to solve a specific problem.

Private background-check companies are not bound by Ohio’s sealing order. Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumer reporting agencies can report convictions, and federal courts have held that an expunged conviction still qualifies as a reportable record of conviction. A 2026 federal decision confirmed that reporting an expunged conviction is not inaccurate under the FCRA.⁵ If a private employer runs a third-party background check and the vendor still holds your conviction data, the sealed record can surface.

Immigration is its own universe. Federal immigration law uses its own definition of conviction, and an Ohio sealing based on rehabilitation does not remove the conviction for immigration purposes. A conviction exists for USCIS and the immigration courts as long as a court found you guilty or you pleaded guilty and a judge imposed some form of punishment. Only a vacatur based on a constitutional, statutory, or procedural defect that affected the finding of guilt will clear the conviction for immigration purposes.⁶ If deportation or admissibility is on the table, talk to an immigration attorney before relying on a sealing.

Firearms rights are a separate process. Sealing your record in Ohio does not automatically restore your right to possess a firearm. Ohio has its own procedure under Section 2923.14 for relief from a weapons disability, requiring full discharge from imprisonment and supervision, a law-abiding record since release, a likelihood of continuing to be law-abiding, and no other legal prohibition.⁷ Federal law treats you as not convicted for firearms purposes if your conviction has been expunged, set aside, or pardoned, or if civil rights have been restored, unless state law still bars you.⁸ Sealing helps that case, but the firearms petition is a separate filing.

Federal security clearances are also outside Ohio’s reach. The SF-86 questionnaire requires disclosure of all arrests regardless of outcome, including sealed and expunged cases, and failing to disclose a sealed conviction tends to cause more trouble than the conviction itself.

1
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 2953.32 – Sealing or Expungement of Conviction Record
2
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 2953.31 – Sealing of Record of Conviction
3
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 2953.33 – Restoration of Rights
4
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 2953.34 – Effect of Sealing
5
Reason. Background Check’s Reporting Expunged Conviction Isn’t Defamation or Fair Credit Reporting Act Violation
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Policy Manual – Adjudicative Factors
7
Supreme Court of Ohio. Adult Rights Restoration and Record Sealing – Section: Relief from Weapons Disability
8
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Most Frequently Asked Firearms Questions and Answers