California Sex Offender Law: Tiers, Residency, and Removal

California’s sex offender registration laws sort registrants into three tiers with minimum registration periods of 10 years, 20 years, or life, and since January 1, 2021, people in the lower two tiers have been able to petition a court for removal once their minimum period ends.¹ Registration itself is only part of the picture. The rules reach into where you can live, whether you can travel abroad, what shows up on the public Megan’s Law site, and how heavily a missed check-in can be punished.

The Three Tiers

Senate Bill 384 replaced California’s old lifetime-for-everyone rule with tiers based on the offense of conviction.

Tier 1 covers lower-level offenses such as misdemeanor sexual battery and indecent exposure. Minimum registration is 10 years.
Tier 2 covers mid-level offenses including lewd acts with a child under 14. Minimum registration is 20 years.
Tier 3 covers the most serious offenses, including rape and sex trafficking of minors. Registration is for life.

Not every Tier 3 registrant is there because of the offense alone. Some are designated “Tier Three – Risk Assessment Level” because they scored well above average on a standardized risk tool. Those registrants can petition for removal after 20 years from release from custody if their conviction is not among the most serious violent or child-victim offenses.¹ It’s a distinction worth confirming with your registering agency, because it changes whether you have a path off the list.

Whether the underlying offense was charged as a felony or misdemeanor also matters. It affects your tier, the penalties if you fail to comply, and how much of your information ends up on the public website.

When and Where You Register

Penal Code 290 lists dozens of qualifying offenses, from indecent exposure to rape to possession of child sexual abuse material.² The obligation applies regardless of the sentence you received. Prison, county jail, probation, or a suspended sentence: if the offense is on the list, you register.

You must register within five working days of release from custody, of arriving in a new city or county, or of changing your address within the same jurisdiction. You register with the chief of police in your city, or with the county sheriff if you live in an unincorporated area. If you live on a University of California, California State University, or community college campus, you also register with campus police.²

At registration you provide your legal name, date of birth, physical description, current address, fingerprints, and a photograph. You also disclose your employer and any volunteer positions, particularly those involving children.³

Internet Identifiers

Not every registrant has to report email addresses and social media usernames. The requirement applies only to people convicted of certain felonies on or after January 1, 2017, where a court specifically found the internet was used to further the crime — for example, to identify a victim, traffic a person, or distribute child sexual abuse material. If it applies to you, an “internet identifier” means any email address or username used for direct internet communication, but not passwords or Social Security numbers. Failing to report is a misdemeanor carrying up to six months in county jail.⁴

What Shows Up on the Megan’s Law Website

Your tier controls how visible you are to the public. Tier 3 registrants and those convicted of certain specified offenses have their full home address, photograph, physical description, and criminal history published online. Tier 2 registrants generally appear with their community and ZIP code, but not their specific address. Tier 1 registrants usually do not appear on the public site at all, though law enforcement retains full access and can disclose information selectively when public safety warrants it.⁵

Keeping Your Registration Current

Every registrant appears in person at their local law enforcement agency within five working days before or after their birthday each year to confirm or update their information. It is required even when nothing has changed.³

If you move, you report the new address in person within five working days.³ Moving out of state does not end your obligations: you must comply with the destination state’s laws, and under federal SORNA standards you generally have three business days to register after arriving in a new jurisdiction.⁶

Registrants without a fixed residence re-register at least every 30 days with the law enforcement agency where they are physically present, listing where they sleep, eat, work, and spend leisure time. They still complete the annual birthday update.³

Job changes and school enrollment changes must also be reported, with particular scrutiny for any position involving children or other vulnerable people.

Where You Can Live

Jessica’s Law

Proposition 83, approved by voters in 2006 and known as Jessica’s Law, prohibits registered sex offenders on parole from living within 2,000 feet of any school or park.⁷ It also imposed lifelong GPS monitoring for high-risk parolees.⁸

Case-by-Case Enforcement After In re Taylor

In 2015, the California Supreme Court ruled in In re Taylor that blanket enforcement of the 2,000-foot rule in San Diego County was unconstitutional. The restriction left so few housing options in urban areas that parolees were effectively forced into homelessness, a result the court found counterproductive to public safety. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation retains authority to impose residency restrictions on individual parolees, but only after evaluating each person’s specific circumstances.⁹ A parole officer can now set conditions that are stricter or looser than 2,000 feet, depending on offense history, risk level, and housing.

Local Rules

Cities and counties can add their own restrictions. Some prohibit registrants from living near daycare centers, libraries, or bus stops. The combined effect of state and local rules in dense urban areas can leave registrants with almost no viable housing.

Federal Public Housing Ban

Federal law permanently bars any household that includes someone subject to lifetime registration from living in federally assisted housing.¹⁰ In California, that effectively means Tier 3 registrants. The ban has no exception and no expiration date.

International Travel and Your Passport

Under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, you must notify your registration jurisdiction at least 21 days before any planned international travel. That notice is forwarded to the U.S. Marshals Service.¹¹

Under International Megan’s Law, the State Department will not issue a passport to a covered sex offender unless the book carries a printed statement reading: “The bearer was convicted of a sex offense against a minor, and is a covered sex offender pursuant to 22 USC 212b(c)(1).”¹² Passports issued without that identifier can be revoked.¹³ The Angel Watch Center within the Department of Homeland Security determines who qualifies as a “covered sex offender,” and destination countries may deny entry based on the notification.

Penalties for Not Complying

State

Consequences turn on whether your registrable offense was a felony or misdemeanor. If it was a misdemeanor and this is your first failure to comply, the violation is a misdemeanor carrying up to one year in county jail. If the underlying offense was a felony, or you have a prior conviction for failing to register, the charge is a felony carrying 16 months, two years, or three years in state prison. Even when a judge grants probation on a felony violation, the law requires a minimum of 90 days in county jail.

Transient registrants who miss a 30-day check-in face a misdemeanor carrying at least 30 days and no more than six months in jail. A third or subsequent violation can be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony depending on the underlying offense.

Beyond incarceration, noncompliance can trigger parole revocation, extended registration periods, and stricter conditions such as electronic monitoring or tighter residency limits.

Federal

Cross a state line while out of compliance and federal exposure stacks on top of state penalties. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2250, knowingly failing to register or update after traveling in interstate commerce is a federal crime carrying up to 10 years in prison.¹⁴ If you commit a violent crime while out of compliance, the range jumps to 5 to 30 years, served consecutively with the sentence for the registration failure.

Petitioning to Get Off the Registry

The tiered system created a path off the registry, but removal is never automatic. You have to file.

Tier 1 registrants can petition after completing the 10-year minimum. Tier 2 registrants must wait 20 years. Most Tier 3 registrants face lifetime registration and cannot petition, with the exception of those designated at the Risk Assessment Level, who can petition after 20 years from release if their conviction is not among the most serious offenses.¹

You file a Petition to Terminate Sex Offender Registration (form CR-415) in the superior court of the county where you are registered. There is no filing fee.¹⁵ Attach proof of current registration and formally notify both law enforcement and the district attorney.

Law enforcement then has 60 days to verify your eligibility and report back to the court and the district attorney. The district attorney has 60 days to decide whether to challenge the petition. Opposition can rest on a claim that you haven’t met your minimum period or that continued registration is necessary for community safety.¹⁵

If no one opposes and you meet the statutory requirements (current registration, no pending charges that could change your tier, and you are not in custody or on supervision), the judge must grant removal without a hearing. A community safety hearing is required if you are a Tier 2 registrant seeking the 10-year early termination exception, or a Tier 3 registrant whose designation was based solely on risk assessment. At that hearing, the judge decides whether continued registration would significantly enhance community safety.¹⁵ A denial triggers a one-year wait before you can file again.

What Removal Does Not Do

Coming off the registry ends your registration duties. It does not erase the conviction. Background checks still show the offense, and restrictions tied to the conviction itself, rather than to registrant status, remain in force.

Employment barriers are a common example. Federal law disqualifies anyone convicted of certain sex offenses from working in child care facilities that receive federal funding, and that disqualification applies regardless of registry status.¹⁶ Many professional licensing boards run their own criminal history reviews.

Moving to another state after California removes you does not guarantee freedom from registration elsewhere. Other states apply their own criteria and may require registration based on the original California conviction, even after California no longer considers you a registrant.

1
California Department of Justice. Sex Offender Tiering (SB 384) FAQs
2
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 290
3
State of California Department of Justice. Summary of California Registration Laws
4
California Department of Justice. Collection of Identifiers from Registered Sex Offenders
5
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 290.46
6
Federal Register. Registration Requirements Under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act
7
Secretary of State. Proposition 83 – Sex Offenders, Sexually Violent Predators, Punishment, Residence Restrictions and Monitoring
8
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Sex Offender Information
9
Justia Law. In re Taylor (2015)
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 13663 – Ineligibility of Dangerous Sex Offenders for Admission to Public Housing
11
Office of Justice Programs. SORNA: Information Required for Notice of International Travel
12
U.S. Department of State. Passports and International Megan’s Law
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 22 U.S. Code 212b – Unique Passport Identifiers for Covered Sex Offenders
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 2250 – Failure to Register
15
Judicial Branch of California. How to Ask to End Sex Offender Registration Requirement
16
Administration for Children and Families. Overview of 2024 CCDF Final Rule Comprehensive Background Check Clarifications