What Does Limited Access Mean for Your Criminal Record?

Limited access is Pennsylvania’s term for a court order that seals a criminal record from public background checks while keeping it available to law enforcement, courts, and certain government agencies. For a limited access criminal record in Pennsylvania, the process applies to qualifying misdemeanor convictions and ungraded offenses, and you become eligible to petition after seven years without any new conviction and after paying all court-ordered restitution.¹ Pennsylvania also has a separate Clean Slate process that seals some records automatically with no petition required, so before you file anything, it’s worth knowing which path fits your situation.

What Limited Access Actually Does to the Record

Limited access hides the record from the public but preserves it within the justice system. Employers, landlords, and commercial background check companies can no longer see it. Law enforcement, courts, and certain government agencies still can.²

That’s different from expungement, which destroys the record entirely. Expungement is generally reserved for non-conviction records (cases dismissed or ending in acquittal), certain summary offenses, and people over 70 who have been arrest-free for a decade. If you were convicted of a misdemeanor and don’t fit those narrow categories, limited access is the realistic option.

Who Qualifies Under 18 Pa.C.S. § 9122.1

Three requirements all need to be met before a court will consider your petition:¹

Seven years conviction-free. You cannot have been convicted of any offense punishable by one or more years in prison during the seven years before your petition. The clock runs from the date of conviction or release from confinement, whichever came later.
All restitution paid. Court-ordered restitution and the statutory fee for the limited access process must be fully paid. Any unpaid balance stops the petition cold.
Qualifying offense. The conviction you want sealed must be a qualifying misdemeanor or an ungraded offense carrying a maximum sentence of no more than five years.

Restitution is where petitioners most often get caught. Even a small outstanding balance is enough to block the order, regardless of how much time has passed. Confirm your balance with the clerk of courts before you start the paperwork.

Offenses That Don’t Qualify

Not every misdemeanor is eligible. First-degree misdemeanor convictions involving danger to other people, crimes against family members, and firearms offenses are excluded.³ The law permanently bars people convicted of indecent exposure, sexual offenses requiring registration, unlawful paramilitary training, and several other specific offenses no matter how much time has passed.

Lookback periods create additional bars. Two or more first-degree misdemeanor convictions (or higher) within the past 15 years make you ineligible even if the individual offenses would otherwise qualify. Felony convictions involving violence, firearms, or sex offenses within the past 20 years create the same bar. These windows run backward from the date you file, so waiting them out is sometimes a workable strategy.

Clean Slate: Automatic Sealing Without a Petition

Pennsylvania’s Clean Slate law, originally enacted as Act 56 of 2018 and expanded by Clean Slate 3.0 in 2024, seals certain records automatically. No petition, no filing fee, no court appearance. The state’s court system identifies eligible records and restricts public access on its own.

Summary convictions are sealed automatically after five years with no pending criminal charges.
Many misdemeanor convictions are eligible for automatic sealing after seven years without a subsequent misdemeanor or felony conviction.
Under the 2024 expansion, some low-level drug and property-related felonies may be sealed after 10 years without any misdemeanor or felony conviction during that period.
Arrests that didn’t result in a conviction are eligible for automatic sealing.

If your record qualifies for automatic sealing, you don’t need to do anything. The process isn’t instant, though. The system runs periodically, and there can be a lag between when you become eligible and when the record disappears from background checks. If you need the record sealed sooner, filing a petition for limited access under § 9122.1 gives you more control over the timeline.

How to File a Limited Access Petition

Gathering Your Records

Before completing the petition, you need the Offense Tracking Number (OTN) for each case and your court docket numbers. The simplest way to get these is to request your RAP sheet through the Pennsylvania State Police PATCH (Pennsylvania Access to Criminal History) system. An individual background check costs $22 through the online portal, with notarization available for another $5.⁴ Mail-in requests are also available.

Every field on the petition needs to match the data on your RAP sheet exactly. Mismatched docket numbers or incorrect OTNs cause processing delays. Petition forms are available through the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.

Filing and Serving the Petition

File the completed petition with the clerk of courts in the county where the conviction occurred.² Filing fees vary by county, generally around $130 to $140, though some counties charge more. If you can’t afford the fee, you can file a petition to proceed in forma pauperis to request a waiver.

After filing, the court notifies the district attorney’s office. The DA then has 30 days to consent, object, or take no action.¹ If no objection comes in during that window and you meet the statutory requirements, the judge can grant the petition without a hearing. If the DA objects, the court schedules a hearing where both sides present their arguments and a judge decides.

Who Can Still See a Sealed Record

A limited access order blocks the general public, not everyone. The following still have access:²

Police and prosecutors during investigations and when deciding charges in new cases.
Judges making bail, sentencing, and other judicial decisions.
Child welfare agencies and employers covered by Pennsylvania’s Child Protective Services Law, which reaches anyone working with children.
Government licensing agencies conducting background investigations for certain state licenses and government employment positions.

Limited access protects you in the private job market and in rental applications. It won’t hide anything from the criminal justice system or from employers in sensitive fields involving children or government security.

Where You Still Have to Disclose

Sealing in Pennsylvania doesn’t erase the conviction for every purpose. Several federal processes require disclosure regardless of state sealing, and getting this wrong often creates problems worse than the underlying offense.

Federal Security Clearances

The SF-86 questionnaire used in federal security clearance investigations requires applicants to report criminal history “regardless of whether the record in your case has been sealed, expunged, or otherwise stricken from the court record, or the charge was dismissed.”⁵ Omitting a sealed conviction is treated as falsification, which is usually worse for clearance prospects than the original offense.

Immigration and Naturalization

USCIS does not recognize state sealing or expungement for immigration purposes. A sealed conviction still counts as a conviction when USCIS evaluates good moral character for naturalization, and it still triggers inadmissibility grounds for visa applications. The agency’s position: “A record of conviction that has been expunged does not remove the underlying conviction” for immigration purposes.⁶ You remain responsible for producing these records after sealing, and USCIS can file a motion with the court to unseal them if you can’t. Non-citizens with sealed records should consult an immigration attorney before filing anything with USCIS.

Professional Licensing

Many professional licensing boards require disclosure of sealed convictions. Nursing boards, for example, often specify that an expunged or sealed conviction must still be reported and that failing to disclose it can be grounds for disciplinary action. Requirements vary by profession and board, so read the application questions carefully. If a form asks about convictions “including those that have been sealed, expunged, or set aside,” you need to answer truthfully.

Federal Firearms Restrictions

Federal law prohibits anyone convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence from possessing firearms.⁷ The statute provides an exception if the conviction has been “expunged or set aside” or if civil rights have been restored, but the treatment of sealed-but-not-expunged records is less clear. Limited access restricts who can view the record. It doesn’t set aside the conviction itself. If your sealed conviction involved domestic violence, treat the federal firearms prohibition as still in effect unless an attorney confirms otherwise. The consequences of guessing wrong are a federal felony charge.

What Sealing Means for Jobs and Housing

Once a limited access order is in effect, a standard background check run by a private employer or landlord should return no results for the sealed conviction. Under Pennsylvania law, a record subject to limited access cannot be treated as a conviction that would disqualify you from employment. You can generally answer “no” when a private employer’s application asks whether you’ve been convicted of a crime, as long as the question doesn’t specifically ask about sealed or limited-access records.

Some application forms are drafted more broadly, and the right answer depends on the exact wording. An application that asks “have you ever been convicted, including convictions that have been sealed” requires a different answer than one that simply asks “have you been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor.” Read the question literally. If it doesn’t mention sealed records, the sealed record doesn’t need to be disclosed to a private employer. Government positions and the exceptions above follow different rules.

If a Sealed Record Still Shows Up on a Background Check

Sealed records sometimes surface in commercial background checks, usually because screening companies rely on outdated databases they haven’t refreshed since the sealing. Federal law provides a remedy.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires background check companies to use reasonable procedures to ensure “maximum possible accuracy” in their reports. A 2024 advisory opinion from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau made explicit that reporting sealed or expunged records violates this standard. A screening company without procedures to prevent reporting information that has been “expunged, sealed, or otherwise legally restricted from public access” is not in compliance with the FCRA.⁸

If a sealed record appears on your report, request a copy from the company that produced it. You have the right to dispute inaccurate information, and the company must investigate within 30 days. If it can’t verify the accuracy of the reported record, it must delete or correct the information. Multiple class-action settlements have been reached against screening companies that continued reporting sealed records, so the right has teeth in practice.

1
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 18 Chapter 91 Section 9122-1
2
Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute (LII). 234 Pa Code r 791 – Procedure for Obtaining Order for Limited Access in Court Cases
3
Dauphin County. Clean Slate, Expungement, and Limited Access From the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania
4
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Request a Criminal History Background Check
5
Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. Common SF-86 Errors and Mistakes
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Chapter 2 – Adjudicative Factors
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 922 – Unlawful Acts
8
Federal Register. Fair Credit Reporting Background Screening