Oklahoma's State Bureau of Investigation must open an online portal to request record sealing without a court petition
Countdown · updates itself every day
Doors that open soon
New laws on record clearing, voting, jobs and housing for people with records, each with a countdown. When a date arrives, the law moves to "Now in effect" by itself.
Every date comes from the law or agency cited on our sourced state and guide pages, each checked by a second reader.
Coming up
November 2026
Oklahoma's rewritten rule on registering to vote again after a felony takes effect
The Justice Department plans to open federal firearm-rights relief applications to the public, limited to the first 5,000 applicants
December 2026
Virginia's expungement law for charges that didn't end in a conviction expands
January 2027
Missouri must start automatically expunging eligible drug possession and paraphernalia convictions
Colorado's last group of older arrests without a conviction is due to be sealed
New Hampshire drops the filing fee to annul not guilty, dismissed or not prosecuted cases resolved since 2019
Washington's 2025 fair chance hiring amendments reach employers with fewer than 15 employees
Maryland's law requiring monthly release lists from state prisons, so earlier voter registrations can be restored, takes effect (procedures are due by January 1, 2028)
The Justice Department plans to let 500 more people apply for federal firearm-rights relief and to start the $30 application fee
October 2027
D.C.'s deadline for automatic sealing of many non-convictions and older misdemeanor convictions, and automatic expungement of decriminalized offenses and pre-2015 marijuana possession
November 2027
Oklahoma's State Bureau of Investigation must begin sealing eligible records automatically
New York's courts' deadline to finish Clean Slate sealing of older records
Now in effect
When a countdown reaches zero, the law moves here on its own.
- SINCE SEPT. 21, 2026Federal: The Justice Department's final rule restarting federal firearm-rights relief takes effect. Gun rights restoration guide
- SINCE SEPT. 2, 2026Federal: Appeals of federal suitability actions go to OPM instead of the Merit Systems Protection Board. Working for the federal government with a record
- SINCE JULY 30, 2026Federal: OPM's revised suitability factors for federal jobs take effect. Working for the federal government with a record
- SINCE JULY 20, 2026Federal: The Education Department's Workforce Pell final rule takes effect. College and financial aid with a record
- SINCE JULY 1, 2026Oklahoma: Oklahoma's new record-sealing law replaces the unbuilt 2022 Clean Slate process. Oklahoma record clearing
- SINCE JAN. 29, 2026Delaware: Delaware defendants in eviction cases can ask the court to shield the record. Eviction records guide
- SINCE JAN. 1, 2026Illinois: Illinois eviction complaints that name a minor as a defendant must be dismissed, and the case sealed immediately. Eviction records guide
Federal changes in the works
Proposed federal rules aren't law yet, so they live on the federal rule tracker.
Clear your own record
Each state's rules, waits and costs are on record clearing by state.