California Penal Code 290, the Sex Offender Registration Act, requires anyone convicted of a qualifying sex offense to register in person with local law enforcement, keep that registration current every year, and continue doing so for 10 years, 20 years, or life depending on which tier the offense falls into.1California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 290 – Sex Offender Registration Act Willfully missing a deadline is a separate crime that can carry up to three years in state prison, and certain Tier 1 and Tier 2 registrants can eventually petition a court to end the requirement.
Offenses That Trigger Registration
Penal Code 290(c) lists dozens of qualifying convictions. In broad categories, they include rape and sexual assault, child molestation, lewd acts with a minor, sexual exploitation of children (including child pornography offenses), kidnapping committed with sexual intent, human trafficking for a sex act, and indecent exposure charged as a felony or repeat offense. Attempts and conspiracies to commit any of these offenses also trigger registration. The duty attaches whether the conviction came from a California state court, a federal court, or a military tribunal.1California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 290 – Sex Offender Registration Act
A narrow exception covers certain consensual conduct between young people. If the registrant was no more than ten years older than the minor at the time of the offense and the conviction is the person’s only registerable offense, some statutory rape and related charges do not require registration.
The Three Tiers and How Long You Register
Since 2021, California has sorted registrants into three tiers, each with its own minimum registration period.
- Tier 1 requires a minimum of 10 years and covers the least serious qualifying offenses, such as misdemeanor indecent exposure and certain non-violent offenses.
- Tier 2 requires a minimum of 20 years and covers mid-range offenses, including lewd acts involving a minor 14 to 17 years old and non-forcible sex offenses involving minors.
- Tier 3 requires lifetime registration and covers the most serious offenses, including forcible sex crimes, sex crimes against children under 14, and cases involving a sexually violent predator designation. Some people land in Tier 3 based on a risk assessment rather than the offense itself.
Your tier controls both how long you must register and whether you can ever petition your way off the registry. If you don’t know which tier applies to your conviction, the registering agency or a criminal defense attorney can tell you.
How and Where to Register
You must register in person within five working days of being released from custody, being placed on probation, or moving into a new city or county. Registration goes to the chief of police in the city where you live, or to the county sheriff if you live in an unincorporated area or a city with no police department. If you live on a University of California, California State University, or community college campus, you also register with the campus police.1California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 290 – Sex Offender Registration Act
At registration you provide identifying information, fingerprints, a current photograph, and a description of the qualifying offense. The information feeds the California Sex and Arson Registry, a statewide database used by law enforcement.2State of California – Department of Justice – Office of the Attorney General. California Sex Offender Registry There is no fee to register or to update your registration.
Keeping Your Registration Current
Registration is not a one-time appearance. Several recurring obligations trip up people who treat the first visit as the finish line.
Annual Birthday Update
Every registrant must appear in person within five working days of their birthday to update the registration on the Department of Justice’s annual update form.3California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 290.012 – Annual Update Missing the birthday window is one of the most common ways registrants pick up a failure-to-register charge, and forgetting is not a defense.
Change of Address
If you move, you must notify your current registering agency in person within five working days before or after leaving, then register with the agency in your new location within five working days of arriving. If you regularly stay at more than one residence, you register at each address. When you stop living at a registered address, you have five working days to notify the agency that had jurisdiction over that location.
Transient Registrants
If you have no fixed address, you must re-register at least once every 30 days with the law enforcement agency in whatever jurisdiction you are physically present.4California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 290.011 – Transient Registration The annual birthday update still applies, filed wherever you are on that date. The 30-day cycle runs continuously and does not reset when you move between jurisdictions. If you miss a cycle, you can be prosecuted in any jurisdiction where you are found.
School, Work, and SVP Status
If you enroll, work, volunteer, or carry on a vocation at a college, university, or community college, you register with the campus police, or with the local agency that covers the campus if there is no campus police department. Registrants whose victim was under 16 are barred from working directly with minors in any unsupervised setting. Anyone adjudicated a sexually violent predator must verify their address and employment every 90 days rather than once a year.3California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 290.012 – Annual Update
Penalties for Failure to Register
Every violation must be “willful” to be criminal, and the penalty depends on what the underlying conviction was.
If your underlying conviction was a misdemeanor, willfully violating any registration requirement is also a misdemeanor, carrying up to one year in county jail. If your underlying conviction was a felony, a willful violation is a felony punishable by 16 months, two years, or three years in state prison.5California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 290.018 – Penalties A second or later willful failure to register is a felony even if the original conviction was a misdemeanor. When a court grants probation instead of prison, state law still requires a minimum of 90 days in county jail as a probation condition.
Failing to complete the 30-day transient re-registration is a misdemeanor punishable by 30 days to six months in county jail. A third or later transient violation becomes a felony.
A felony failure-to-register conviction can also interact with California’s Three Strikes law. After Proposition 36 (2012), a third-strike life sentence generally requires the new felony to be serious or violent, but exceptions remain for people with prior convictions for offenses like rape or child molestation, so some registrants can face 25 years to life for a registration violation alone.
Registrants who cross state lines and fail to update their registration can also face federal prosecution under 18 U.S.C. ยง 2250, which carries up to 10 years in federal prison. If the person also commits a crime of violence, the range rises to 5 to 30 years, served consecutively to any other sentence.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 2250 – Failure to Register
Where You Can Live
Under Penal Code 3003.5, anyone required to register under Penal Code 290 is prohibited from living within 2,000 feet of any public or private school, or any park where children regularly gather. Cities and counties can impose tighter restrictions by local ordinance.7California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 3003.5 – Residency Restrictions
The California Supreme Court upheld the restriction as applied to parolees, and it technically applies to all registrants by the statute’s plain text. Registrants on parole should expect parole agents to actively enforce the 2,000-foot rule. Those who have completed parole most often see enforcement when attempting to establish a new residence. Federally subsidized housing adds another hurdle: HUD policy encourages property managers to deny admission to anyone subject to a lifetime registration requirement and to pursue termination of assistance for current tenants who are lifetime registrants.
What Appears on the Public Website
California’s Megan’s Law website, run by the Department of Justice, displays certain registrant information to the public. How much shows up depends on your tier and offense.8California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 290.46 – Public Disclosure
- Tier 3 registrants and certain serious offenses: name, known aliases, photograph, physical description, date of birth, criminal history, residential address, and risk-level assessment.
- Tier 2 registrants with specified offenses: similar identifying information but only the community of residence and ZIP code, not the exact address.
- Juvenile adjudications: excluded from the public website entirely.
The website never discloses the victim’s name, birth date, address, or relationship to the registrant, and it does not list employer information or criminal history beyond the specific registerable offense. Some registrants otherwise subject to the Act are excluded from public disclosure by state law, so the site is not a complete list.9Megan’s Law Website. Disclaimer – Megan’s Law Website
Petitioning to End Registration
Tier 1 and Tier 2 registrants can file a petition in superior court to terminate the registration requirement after completing the minimum period.10California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 290.5 – Termination of Registration
Tier 1 registrants can petition after at least 10 years of registration. The petition is filed on or after the next birthday following the end of the minimum period, with proof of current registration, and it must be served on the registering agency and the district attorney in both the county of registration and the county of conviction. If the district attorney does not request a hearing within 60 days and you meet all conditions, the court grants the petition without a hearing.
Tier 2 registrants generally must wait 20 years. Some can petition after 10 years if all of the following apply: no new registerable conviction since release, no new violent felony since release, only one victim aged 14 to 17, the registrant was under 21 at the time of the offense, and the offense was not a violent felony (with a narrow exception for certain lewd-act charges) or a human trafficking offense.11Judicial Council of California. CR-415 Petition to Terminate Sex Offender Registration
Tier 3 registrants generally cannot petition off the registry. The exception is for people whose Tier 3 designation was based solely on a risk-level assessment rather than on the offense itself; they can petition after 20 years, provided they have no new convictions for registerable offenses or violent felonies and are not required to register for certain serious offenses involving children.
You must keep registering fully and on time while a petition is pending. A lapse during the process can result in denial and new charges.
What Does Not End Registration
Two forms of post-conviction relief are commonly misunderstood. An expungement under Penal Code 1203.4 does not remove the duty to register; it can help with background checks and other collateral consequences but has no effect on Penal Code 290 obligations. A Certificate of Rehabilitation does not automatically end registration either. It may support a petition to terminate under Penal Code 290.5, but you still need to file that petition and obtain a court order.12California Courts Self Help. Certificate of Rehabilitation Until a court grants termination, you keep registering on the same schedule regardless of what other relief you have.
Defenses If You’re Charged With Failure to Register
Every penalty in the Act hinges on a “willful” violation, and that word carries most defenses.
Lack of willfulness applies when something outside your control prevented compliance: genuine confusion about which agency to register with after a move, a documented medical emergency during the five-day window, or a registering office that was closed. Forgetting or finding the process inconvenient does not qualify.
Reliance on official misinformation can also work. If a registering officer or other official source told you incorrectly that you did not need to re-register, and you relied on it, that is a defense, though you will need documentation or a witness to show what you were told.
Actual compliance is sometimes the answer. Paperwork gets lost, databases fail to update, and agencies occasionally neglect to enter information. If you appeared in person and completed the process, a charge built on a records gap should not survive.