New York: Adult Conviction Expungement and Record-Sealing Eligibility
The short answer
New York seals rather than destroys qualifying conviction records. CPL § 160.57 provides automatic sealing after three years for misdemeanors and eight years for felonies, subject to exclusions and a statewide rollout due by November 16, 2027; CPL § 160.59 separately allows a discretionary petition for up to two eligible convictions after a ten-year clock.
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This is the general rule in New York. Ezel applies current New York law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Relief name and legal effect | Sealing, not destruction; conviction remains usable in later criminal proceedings (§§ 160.57(7), 160.59(10)) |
|---|---|
| Automatic or clean-slate relief | Yes—OCA automatic sealing under CPL § 160.57; backfile rollout must finish by Nov. 16, 2027, with quarterly eligibility rechecks |
| Convictions eligible by petition | Up to 2 eligible offenses, no more than 1 felony, under the separate ten-year CPL § 160.59 application route |
| Excluded offenses and statuses | Automatic: sex offenses and non-drug class A felonies; petition: sex, child-sexual-performance, homicide felony, violent felony, class A, related conspiracy/attempt, and registration offenses; other status bars apply |
| Waiting period and when it starts | Automatic: 3 years misdemeanor / 8 years felony from release or sentence if no incarceration; petition: 10 years from latest sentence or release, extended by later incarceration (§§ 160.57(1), 160.59(5)) |
| Sentence, restitution, and new-record conditions | Automatic requires no pending NY charge and no current probation/parole for the conviction; later conviction resets clock; sealing does not discharge restitution, fines, surcharges, or fees (§ 160.57(1), (8), (10)) |
| Petition process and decision standard | Automatic route ordinarily requires no filing; § 160.59 petition goes to conviction court, serves DA, allows 45-day objection, hearing if opposed, and discretionary multi-factor decision |
| Who can still see or use the record | Nonpublic, but extensive criminal-justice, court, fingerprint-screening, vulnerable-population, licensing, firearm, later-case, and other statutory access remains (§§ 160.57(1)(d), 160.59(8)–(10)) |
| Boundaries and alternative relief | State convictions only; Clean Slate rollout is not complete until Nov. 16, 2027; federal/out-of-state, juvenile, nonconviction, marijuana-specific, pardon, and innocence remedies are outside this survey |
Compare this rule across all 50 states + DC →
Requirements one by one
Relief name and legal effect
Both routes seal records; neither destroys the conviction. CPL
§ 160.57(7) and § 160.59(10) expressly keep a sealed conviction within the
definition of a conviction when a later criminal proceeding uses the prior
conviction to enhance a penalty or as an element of the charged offense.
Automatic or clean-slate relief
CPL § 160.57 directs the Office of Court Administration to identify and seal
eligible convictions without an application. The statute requires at least
quarterly rechecks when a conviction has reached its time threshold but remains
blocked by a pending charge, supervision, or the specified out-of-state-record
conditions.
The rollout is not yet complete. Chapter 631 took effect November 16, 2024,
and § 160.57(6) gives the court system three years after that date to finish
sealing the pre-effective-date backlog. The Unified Court System states that
eligible convictions will be sealed by November 16, 2027 and that its manual-
review form will be available no later than that date.
Convictions eligible by petition
CPL § 160.59 remains a separate route. A person with no more than two eligible
offenses, and no more than one felony among them, may apply to seal those
convictions. Multiple eligible offenses from the same criminal transaction
count as one eligible offense under the statute's definition.
The application route is narrower than Clean Slate. It excludes Penal Law
article 130 sex offenses, article 263 offenses, article 125 felonies, violent
felonies under § 70.02, class A felonies, specified conspiracy and attempt
offenses, and offenses requiring sex-offender registration.
Waiting period and when it starts
For automatic sealing, the clock is three years for a misdemeanor and eight
years for a felony. It begins at release from incarceration, or at sentence if
there was no incarceration. A new conviction before sealing resets an older
conviction's clock to the new conviction's start date.
For the petition route, ten years must pass from sentence on the latest
conviction or the latest release from incarceration. Time spent incarcerated
after the target conviction is excluded and extends that ten-year period.
Sentence, restitution, and new-record conditions
Automatic sealing cannot occur before the incarceration, parole, probation, or
post-release-supervision sentence ends. A pending New York criminal charge and
current probation or parole supervision for the target conviction also block
sealing. Sealing does not discharge restitution, reparation, fines, surcharges,
or fees, or automatically seal a collection proceeding.
The § 160.59 court must summarily deny a petition for an undisposed arrest or
charge, a later conviction after the last target judgment, or a record that
exceeds the statute's crime and felony caps.
Petition process and decision standard
The § 160.59 application goes to the court of the most serious target offense,
or the court of the latest conviction when the offenses have the same
classification. It includes disposition records, sworn disclosures about other
applications and target convictions, and the reasons supporting discretionary
relief. The applicant serves the district attorney, who has 45 days to object.
An objection requires a hearing. Without an objection, no hearing is required.
The court considers elapsed time, offense circumstances and seriousness, the
person's character and rehabilitation, victim statements, reintegration, public
safety, and public confidence in the law.
Who can still see or use the record
Clean Slate sealing removes the record from ordinary public and private access,
but § 160.57(1)(d) has a long exception list. It includes the person and
counsel; courts, prosecutors, and defense counsel in specified proceedings;
law-enforcement and qualified agencies; certain criminal and civil cases;
required or authorized fingerprint-based screening; vulnerable-population work;
police hiring; firearm licensing and background checks; specified professional
licensing and misconduct review; and other enumerated government uses.
The petition route preserves access for the person or designated agent,
qualified and law-enforcement agencies, gun-licensing officials, prospective
police or peace-officer employers, and the FBI for firearm checks. DCJS retains
fingerprints, palmprints, and photographs.
What trips people up
The three- and eight-year clocks do not mean every eligible old record is
already sealed. The court system has until November 16, 2027 to complete the
backfile rollout. A person should verify the record rather than assume the
clock alone completed sealing.
The ten-year petition and Clean Slate are different routes. A conviction
outside § 160.59's two-offense/one-felony limits may still qualify for automatic
sealing. Conversely, a person seeking relief before the automatic rollout
reaches the record may need to evaluate the existing petition statute.
Sealed does not mean erased. Both statutes preserve later-criminal-case use,
and each keeps specified government, licensing, screening, and firearm access.
Common questions
Must a person file for Clean Slate sealing? Ordinarily no. OCA identifies
and seals eligible records, though the law provides a form-based correction
process for a record that should have been sealed and was missed.
Does unpaid restitution prevent automatic eligibility forever? The statute
does not make payment a separate eligibility clock, but sealing does not erase
the obligation or seal an otherwise public collection proceeding.
Can a person use the ten-year petition for two felonies? No. The current
petition statute caps relief at two eligible offenses and no more than one
felony. Pending bills would change that limit, but they are not current law.
Statutes and sources
- N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law § 160.57 — automatic eligibility, clocks, exclusions,
rechecks, rollout, record treatment, access exceptions, retained criminal
effect, sentence completion, and monetary obligations.
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/CPL/160.57 (accessed 2026-07-19) - N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law § 160.59 — ten-year application eligibility, offense
exclusions, process, decision factors, sealing effect, access, and retained
criminal use.
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/CPL/160.59 (accessed 2026-07-19) - 2023 N.Y. Laws ch. 631 — enactment and one-year effective-date clause.
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/A1029/amendment/C
(accessed 2026-07-19)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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