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Clearing your record: sealing, expungement, pardons, and fixing mistakes
For anyone with an arrest or a conviction on their record, and for the people helping them. This page passes on, by name, what the Federal Trade Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Justice Department’s pardon office, a federal rule on FBI records, the Collateral Consequences Resource Center and the Clean Slate Clearinghouse say: what the words mean, how to see what is on your record, where to find what your state allows, what a pardon does and does not do, and how to fix a background check that is wrong. It puts the questions you pick on one sheet to take to legal aid, and prints a card to keep.
Before anything else
- You are more than your record. Looking at it and asking what can be done is a real step. You do not have to do it all today.
- It depends on where it happened. A state case is cleared, if it can be, under that state’s law. This page shows where to find your state’s rules. It cannot tell you whether your case qualifies.
- “Automatic” does not always mean done. The Collateral Consequences Resource Center says some automatic clearing laws have not yet been put into practice. Look at your record.
- A pardon does not erase a record. The Justice Department’s pardon office says both the conviction and the pardon would appear.
- Check with legal aid before you pay anyone. Nobody can promise what a court will do, and the help may be free.
- If the weight turns into thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 at any hour. In danger right now? Call 911.
- This page saves nothing. There is nowhere on it to type your case. Your browser still keeps a history.
More help
- Looking for work with a record: the Fair chance job kit and Interview practice.
- Just out: Coming home from jail or prison and Getting your ID back.
- Someone you love is inside: When someone you love is in jail or prison.
- The legal side: When you need a lawyer and can’t pay and When you have to go to court without a lawyer.
- Your vote: Registering and voting, with a part on voting with a conviction.
- An open door: Different minds, our page for people the world has turned away, says: “A record is not a character reference.”
- Right now: Get help now.
- All our free tools.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No lawyer has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 7, 2026 on each source’s own pages: the Federal Trade Commission’s “Employer Background Checks and Your Rights” (August 2025); the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s “Arrest and Conviction Records” page; the Justice Department Office of the Pardon Attorney’s “Frequently Asked Questions” (updated September 9, 2026) and “Apply for Clemency” pages; the federal rule at 28 CFR 16.30 to 16.34 on eCFR.gov and the front page of the FBI’s request site; the Collateral Consequences Resource Center’s “50-State Comparison: Expungement, Sealing & Other Record Relief” (charts updated July 2024); the Clean Slate Clearinghouse pages of the National Reentry Resource Center; The Clean Slate Initiative’s “Clean Slate in States” page; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s bulletin “Expunging Juvenile Records” (December 2020); a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau answer on employment background checks (last reviewed December 31, 2024); and LawHelp.org’s front page. The FBI’s own pages on Identity History Summary checks would not open for our reader, and we did not read the pardon application form, any single state’s law, or a source on tenant screening, so this page says nothing from them. We called none of the numbers. This page does not say which state allows what, gives no counts of states, and promises nobody that their record can be cleared. Everything marked “ours” is ours. It saves nothing: no cookies, no storage, and no analytics on this page.