Key Takeaways
A new Virginia law arriving July 1, 2026 lets people with qualifying convictions seal their criminal records for the first time in the Commonwealth’s history. Some records seal on their own through a state-run process, while others call for a petition filed with the Arlington County Circuit Court. A sealed record disappears from most employer and landlord background checks, though courts, police, and federal agencies keep limited access. For Arlington and Northern Virginia residents carrying an old misdemeanor or low-level felony, the months ahead are the time to confirm eligibility.
What The Clean Slate Law Means For Arlington Residents
Virginia spent decades as one of the strictest states in the country when it came to clearing a conviction. If you were found guilty of an offense, that record stayed public for life, and expungement was reserved only for charges that never ended in a conviction. The Clean Slate Law rewrites that rule starting July 1, 2026.
The framework, set out in Va. Code § 19.2-392.5 and the sections that accompany it, opens two routes to sealing: one that the state handles for you, and one you request through the court. A sealed offense is pulled from the Virginia Judiciary’s public case search and shielded from the background checks that employers, property managers, and licensing boards routinely run. Consumer reporting agencies that compile Virginia records are barred from disclosing sealed offenses and are required to purge them.
Sealing is powerful, but it is not erasure, and that distinction matters more in Arlington than almost anywhere else in the state. We will return to why in a moment, because the federal dimension is where Northern Virginia residents most often get tripped up.
Sealed Records, Security Clearances & Federal Employment
Arlington sits at the center of the federal workforce. Tens of thousands of residents hold positions tied to defense contracting, intelligence, federal agencies, and the security clearances that come with them. For this community, understanding the reach of a sealed record is the single most important part of the conversation.
The core fact: sealing operates under Virginia law, and Virginia law cannot bind the federal government. The FBI maintains its own national criminal history through the Criminal Justice Information Services division, and a Virginia sealing order does not reach into that database. Federal investigators, clearance adjudicators, and agencies conducting suitability reviews can still see a sealed Virginia conviction.
This has practical consequences. The standard clearance questionnaire, the SF-86, asks applicants to report criminal history, and the instructions on federal forms frequently require disclosure even of offenses that a state has sealed or expunged. Answering that you have no record because Virginia sealed it can be treated as a falsification, which is often more damaging to a clearance than the original offense would have been.
None of this makes sealing pointless for a federal worker. A sealed record still vanishes from the commercial background checks that private employers, landlords, and many state licensing boards rely on, and that protection is real. The point is to go in with clear eyes. If you hold or are pursuing a clearance, the smart sequence is to understand exactly what remains visible federally before you file, so that your disclosures stay consistent and accurate. This is the kind of situation where reviewing the details with a criminal defense attorney before acting saves real trouble later.
Confirming You Qualify & How Long You Wait
Three factors decide eligibility: what the offense was, how long ago it happened, and whether you stayed out of trouble since.
7
Years for an eligible misdemeanor conviction
10
Years for an eligible felony conviction
The count begins at conviction or at your release from incarceration, whichever falls later. Throughout that window you must remain free of any new conviction reportable to Virginia’s Central Criminal Records Exchange, with traffic infractions set aside as the one exception.
According to analysis from the Virginia State Crime Commission, the new law reaches roughly nine in ten misdemeanors and close to two-thirds of Class 5 and Class 6 felonies. That is a sweeping expansion from the near-zero options that existed before.
Petitioned cases carry additional conditions the court weighs directly. A judge must confirm you have no Class 1 or Class 2 felony anywhere in your past, no felony carrying a possible life sentence, and no Class 3 or Class 4 felony conviction in the prior twenty years. The court also has to find that keeping the record public works a manifest injustice against you, meaning real harm to your livelihood or reputation. Any restitution that was ordered has to be satisfied in full first, and the statute caps petitioned sealings at two across your entire lifetime.
The Two Pathways At The Arlington County Circuit Court
The law splits sealing into a hands-off route and a hands-on route, and which one you fall into shapes everything that follows.
For the automatic route, Virginia State Police review the Central Criminal Records Exchange each month, assemble the list of newly eligible convictions, and route it through the Office of the Executive Secretary to the Arlington County Circuit Court, which signs the order. For the petition route, you file with the court where the case concluded, attach the warrant or indictment, and ask State Police to deliver your criminal history straight to the court. The Commonwealth’s Attorney then reviews the request and may agree in writing, letting the judge grant it without a hearing.
A word of caution that catches people off guard: automatic sealing only fires if the conviction actually landed in the Central Criminal Records Exchange. Skip the fingerprinting at arrest, or let a clerical error slip through, and the offense may never surface for the automatic sweep. When that happens, the automatic petition process exists to deliver the same outcome by hand.
Convictions The Law Leaves Out
The Clean Slate Law draws firm boundaries, and some offenses sit permanently outside them. Under Va. Code § 19.2-392.12 , sealing is unavailable for the following:
A conviction in any of these buckets cannot be sealed, regardless of how clean the years since have been. If your case lands here, other forms of relief may still be worth exploring depending on the specifics, and that is a conversation worth having directly.
Telling Sealing & Expungement Apart
People use the two words as if they mean the same thing. Under Virginia law they do not, and knowing which one fits your situation saves wasted effort.
The quick test: a dismissal or acquittal points toward expungement, while a conviction points toward sealing. Cases with several charges that ended differently can land in both columns at once, which is exactly when a full review of your record with an attorney earns its keep.
Starting The Sealing Process In Arlington
Sealing has several gears that have to mesh, and the petition leaves little room for error. Misidentifying the charge, overlooking a related matter like a probation violation that should travel with it, or filing in the wrong courthouse can stall the process or sink it outright. With petitioned sealings limited to two in a lifetime, getting it right the first time is worth the care.
1. Verify the conviction and its date
Confirm the charge sits in an eligible category and that seven or ten years have passed from conviction or release, whichever came later.
2. Check that it appears in the CCRE
Confirm the conviction is recorded in the Central Criminal Records Exchange. If a clerical gap left it out, the automatic petition route applies instead.
3. Gather any related matters
A tied probation violation or failure to appear should usually be sealed alongside the underlying conviction rather than left behind.
4. File with the Arlington County Circuit Court
Submit the petition with warrant or indictment copies to the court where the case concluded. The new law charges no filing fee.
5. Have your criminal history sent over
Ask Virginia State Police to forward your record directly to the court. No fingerprinting, just your name, date of birth, and SSN.
The Irving Law Firm has guided clients across Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, and the wider Northern Virginia region through the Commonwealth’s criminal courts for years. Our criminal defense team can review your history, pinpoint which pathway fits, and handle the process from first review through final order. You can confirm a sealed record later through Virginia Judiciary online case search or by requesting your criminal history from State Police.
Schedule A Case Evaluation
If you have a conviction on your record and want to understand whether Virginia’s new sealing law gives you a real path forward, The Irving Law Firm is ready to help. We will review your record, walk you through your options under the Clean Slate Law, and tell you plainly what we can do and what to expect.
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