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What is the FCRA's 7-year rule?
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is the federal law that governs background checks conducted through third-party screening providers. Section 605 of the FCRA (15 U.S.C. § 1681c) sets specific limits on how long certain types of information can be reported in a consumer report used for employment decisions.
Under the FCRA, the following cannot be reported after seven years:
- Arrests that did not result in conviction — including charges that were dismissed, dropped, or resulted in acquittal
- Civil suits and civil judgments
- Paid tax liens
- Collection accounts (measured from date of original delinquency, not date sent to collections)
- Other adverse information (excluding criminal convictions)
The seven-year clock starts from the date the information was filed or entered into the record — not from the date of disposition. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed this interpretation in a ruling that the seven-year window for criminal charges begins at the date of entry, not the date the case is resolved.
Under federal law, a conviction — whether a misdemeanor or a felony — can be reported indefinitely on a background check. There is no FCRA time restriction on how far back a conviction can appear.
The FCRA's seven-year rule on non-conviction records (arrests, civil suits, judgments, tax liens, and collections) applies to positions where the annual salary is reasonably expected to be under $75,000. For higher-paying positions, the seven-year restriction on non-conviction records does not apply under federal law — though state laws may still impose limits regardless of salary.
How long different record types stay on file
| Record type | Federal FCRA limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Criminal convictions | No limitIndefinitely reportable | State laws may restrict; see below |
| Arrests without conviction | 7 years | Clock starts at date of charge entry |
| Pending criminal charges | Reportable until resolved | Once dismissed, 7-year clock applies |
| Bankruptcies (Chapter 7) | 10 years | |
| Bankruptcies (Chapter 13) | 7 years | |
| Civil suits and judgments | 7 years | |
| Paid tax liens | 7 years | |
| Collection accounts | 7 years | |
| Employment verification | No FCRA limit | Employer discretion |
| Education verification | No FCRA limit | Employer discretion |
| Credit history (adverse) | 7 years | |
| Motor vehicle records (non-criminal) | 7 years | Including non-criminal traffic violations |
The most important line in that table for employers is the first one. A conviction from 15 years ago can legally appear on a background check under federal law. Whether it should affect a hiring decision is a separate question — one that the EEOC's guidance on criminal history addresses directly, requiring employers to consider the nature of the offense, the time elapsed, and the nature of the job before making an adverse decision based on old convictions.
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Where state law changes the answer
Federal FCRA limits are the floor — states can go further. These rules fall into three categories: what a screening company can report, what gets sealed and simply won't appear, and what the employer must do once they have the report.
Reporting restrictions (the CRA's compliance lane)
Nine states limit conviction reporting to seven years, overriding the federal rule allowing indefinite reporting: California, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, and Washington. Kansas caps this at salaries under $20,000; Maryland at under $75,000.
Note: Texas and Colorado passed similar limits in 1997, but because that postdates the FCRA's 1996 preemption cutoff, their laws are generally unenforceable.
- California bars reporting non-conviction arrests even within seven years.
- Massachusetts caps misdemeanor lookback at three years.
- Hawaii caps felonies at seven years, misdemeanors at five (with exemptions for schools, daycares, financial institutions).
- California's Clean Slate Law (2023) seals most convictions four years post-supervision.
- Virginia's Clean Slate law (July 2026) begins automatic/petition-based sealing going forward.
- New York requires an Article 23-A individualized assessment before adverse action — no blanket disqualification.
- Philadelphia (Jan 2026) cut its misdemeanor lookback to four years and regulates employer conduct directly, not CRA reporting.
For multi-state or remote hiring, candidate location determines which rules apply — making this patchwork a real compliance consideration. See our guide on background checks for remote employees.
What "on file" means — and what it doesn't
There's an important distinction between how long a record exists in public records and how long it can be reported on a background check.
A criminal conviction from 20 years ago may still be in the courthouse record. In most states, it's still publicly accessible. But whether a PBSA-accredited screening company can legally include it in a background check report used for an employment decision depends on FCRA rules, the candidate's state of residence, the job's salary level, and whether any expungement, sealing, or Clean Slate law has made the record legally off-limits.
When a record is expunged or sealed under state law, PBSA-accredited screening providers are required to suppress it from employment background checks. Reporting a sealed or expunged record is an FCRA violation — and in states with Clean Slate laws, that suppression happens automatically without the individual having to petition the court.
This is why the quality of your screening provider matters. A provider without proper suppression workflows could include records that should be off-limits — exposing your organization to adverse action challenges and FCRA liability. See our FCRA compliance guide for how a compliant adverse action process should work when a report comes back with a reportable record.
What this means for employers making hiring decisions
Understanding reporting limits is not just a compliance exercise — it directly affects how you evaluate candidates and defend hiring decisions.
Just because a seven-year-old conviction is legally reportable doesn't mean it's automatically relevant to a hiring decision. The EEOC requires employers to conduct individualized assessments — considering the nature of the offense, the time elapsed, the nature of the job, and evidence of rehabilitation — before declining a candidate based on criminal history. A blanket policy of disqualifying anyone with a conviction, regardless of age or relevance, creates disparate impact exposure.
For a candidate based in California, California's conviction reporting limits apply — regardless of where your company is headquartered. For a remote employee in New York, New York's Article 23-A analysis requirement applies. Applying only federal FCRA rules to multi-state hiring is a compliance gap.
Clean Slate laws and expungement orders require screening providers to suppress reportable records that have been sealed. A provider without up-to-date suppression workflows will return records that are legally off-limits — and put you in the position of making adverse action decisions on information you were never supposed to see.
When you take adverse action based on a background check — including based on a conviction within the reportable window — the FCRA requires a documented, two-step process: pre-adverse action notice, waiting period, final notice. That process applies regardless of how old the record is. For a full walkthrough, see our FCRA compliance guide.
How Bchex handles reporting limits and compliance
Jurisdiction-specific suppression, applied automatically — by candidate location, not company headquarters.
Bchex Core Screening is built to return only legally reportable records — applying FCRA limits, state-level restrictions, and suppression requirements automatically based on the candidate's jurisdiction and the position's salary level. When a record falls outside the reportable window for a given state, it doesn't appear in the report. When a record has been sealed or expunged, it's suppressed before the report is delivered.
Adjudication for flagged results means that when a reportable record appears, a trained reviewer confirms its accuracy and legal reportability before it reaches your HR team — reducing the risk of adverse action decisions based on records that shouldn't have been reported.
For employers navigating multi-state FCRA compliance across a distributed workforce, Bchex's platform applies jurisdiction-specific rules by candidate location — not by company headquarters — so the right rules apply to every check regardless of where your office is.
Bchex is PBSA-accredited — meaning its data quality, compliance practices, and suppression workflows have been independently audited against the industry's highest standard.
Related: Background Check Compliance Explained (FCRA Guide) · What Is a Background Check? · Background Checks for Remote Employees · How Long Does a Background Check Take? · What Is PBSA Accreditation?
FAQs about background check record retention
How far back does a background check go?+
Can a 10-year-old conviction show up on a background check?+
Does an expunged or sealed record show up on a background check?+
What is the FCRA 7-year rule?+
Which states have stricter background check lookback rules than federal law?+
Does the 7-year rule apply to all positions?+
How does an employer know which state's rules apply?+
The bottom line
The seven-year rule is real — but it's only part of the answer. Criminal convictions can be reported indefinitely under federal law. Nine states cap conviction reporting at seven years regardless. Clean Slate laws in California, Virginia, and other states are automatically sealing records that used to stay reportable. And the rules that apply to any given candidate depend on where they live and work, not where your office is. Employers who rely on a single assumption about lookback periods — rather than jurisdiction-specific compliance — are making decisions based on an incomplete picture.
Explore Bchex Core Screening
PBSA-accredited, FCRA-compliant, with jurisdiction-specific suppression built in — applied automatically by candidate location.
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