How it works in New York

The steps

1. Get fingerprinted

   In New York, IdentoGO — the state's live scan fingerprinting vendor — takes your fingerprints, and that appointment is also your record request. Schedule it on the IdentoGO website or by phone at (877) 472-6915 with the Division of Criminal Justice Services' service code 15465F for an unsuppressed record, which shows every conviction including sealed and suppressed ones — the record to read before you apply — or 15464Z for a suppressed record, which leaves those out. Bring one form of identification. You pay the Division's fingerprint processing fee at the appointment; checks or money orders are made out to Idemia. If you cannot pay, ask the Division's Records Review Unit for its fee waiver application packet by email or by mail at 80 South Swan Street, 5th Floor, Albany, New York 12210. If you live outside New York, the Division's page gives the out-of-state service codes, and where no IdentoGO center is near you, a fingerprint card your local law enforcement agency completes and IdentoGO's Cardscan service submits.

   Fingerprint fee: $17.50 — The fingerprint processing fee, paid to IdentoGO at your appointment (as of February 2, 2026; checks or money orders to Idemia) — the one fee for the fingerprinting and the record together. Outside New York, $57.45 at an IdentoGO center, or $17.50 to submit a fingerprint card by Cardscan. If you cannot pay, the Division's Records Review Unit mails a fee waiver application packet on request.

2. Request your record

   There is no separate application: the Division of Criminal Justice Services — the only official source for New York's criminal history records — mails its response to you within three to four weeks of your IdentoGO appointment, and you cannot pick it up in person. The response includes your criminal history record and information explaining how to challenge the accuracy of anything reported. Until the Office of Court Administration finishes the automatic sealing under CPL § 160.57, the Division says a record it provides may still show a conviction that qualifies.

   Record request fee: None — No separate fee: the fingerprint processing fee paid at your IdentoGO appointment covers the record, which the Division mails within three to four weeks. You cannot pick it up in person.

3. Review your record

   Confirm there is no disqualifying information in your history. If there is something incorrect, follow the process to challenge the issue. If everything is accurate, make a copy for your file and keep the original somewhere safe.

4. Request certified documents

   Under CPL § 160.59, the application must include a copy of the certificate of disposition, or similar documentation, for every offense you were convicted of — or an explanation of why it is not available. Ask the clerk of the court that handled each case for it. The statute does not ask for the arrest record or proof that you completed your sentence; the court itself requests your fingerprint-based record, including sealed and suppressed records and any FBI report, from the Division of Criminal Justice Services once you file. The rest of the application is sworn statements you write: whether you have filed or intend to file any other sealing application (with a copy of any you filed), the convictions you want sealed, and the reasons the court should grant it, with any supporting documentation.

   Certified copy fee: Varies by court — a Certificate of Disposition costs $5 from a court located outside of New York City and $10 from a court located within the five boroughs of New York City.

5. Verify the final documents

   Check each item against your record and the court's file: the names, the addresses, the dates, and every charge and request listed. Make copies of every original.

6. Prepare your application

   Use the court system's form application for sealing under CPL § 160.59, or your own papers with the same contents. Under CPL § 160.59, you may apply once at least ten years have passed since the sentence on your latest conviction or, if you were incarcerated, your latest release; time you spent incarcerated after the conviction you want sealed is added to the ten years. You may seal up to two eligible offenses but not more than one felony; offenses committed as part of the same criminal transaction count as one. An eligible offense is any crime except a sex offense under article 130 of the Penal Law, an offense under article 263, a felony under article 125, a violent felony under section 70.02, a class A felony, a conspiracy under article 105 whose underlying offense is not eligible, a felony attempt to commit an ineligible offense, or an offense that requires sex offender registration. The court must deny the application without a hearing if you must register as a sex offender, already used the maximum sealing under CPL § 160.58 or this section, have not waited the ten years, have an arrest or charge pending, were convicted of any crime after the last conviction you want sealed, left out the sworn statement of reasons, or have two or more felonies or more than two crimes. The application contains a copy of the certificate of disposition or similar documentation for each conviction, or why it is unavailable; a sworn statement whether you have filed or intend to file any other sealing application, with a copy of any you filed; a sworn statement of the convictions you want sealed; and a sworn statement of the reasons the court should grant it, with any supporting documentation. Sign the application in front of a notary public. No plea or sentence can make you waive this sealing. The three- and eight-year waits belong to the automatic route under CPL § 160.57, which needs no application: a misdemeanor conviction seals three years after your release or sentence, a felony eight, and a later conviction restarts both clocks; the Office of Court Administration must finish sealing convictions entered before the law took effect within three years of that date, and until it does, the Division of Criminal Justice Services says a record you request may still show a conviction that qualifies. If an automatic seal has not happened, you or your attorney may file the court system's form, and the conviction is sealed within thirty days.

7. Finalize your application

   Put the application together: the form or papers from Step 6 with their sworn statements, and the certificate of disposition for each conviction from Step 4. Your own record from Step 2 is for your review; under CPL § 160.59 the court requests its own fingerprint-based record from the Division of Criminal Justice Services. Keep a copy of the complete package for your file, and a second copy to serve on the district attorney.

8. File your sealing application

   Under CPL § 160.59, file the application in the court where you were convicted of the most serious offense; if your offenses have the same classification, in the court where you were last convicted. Serve a copy on the district attorney of the county where the conviction — or convictions — was obtained; the district attorney has forty-five days to tell the court of any objection. The application goes to the sentencing judge, or to the county court or supreme court of that county if more than one application is filed.

   Filing fee: None — CPL 160.59 names no filing fee. To confirm the seal afterward, mail the Division of Criminal Justice Services' seal verification form with a copy of the signed order; the response comes by mail within two weeks.

9. Work with the court

   Under CPL § 160.59, the court requests your fingerprint-based record — including sealed and suppressed records and any FBI report — from the Division of Criminal Justice Services, and may share it with the district attorney and you. There is a hearing only if the district attorney opposes the application; if not, none is required. At a hearing either side may offer evidence. The judge weighs the time since your last conviction; the circumstances and seriousness of the offense, including whether the arrest charge was an ineligible offense, and of any other offense you stand convicted of; your character and any steps toward rehabilitation, such as treatment programs, work, schooling, community service or volunteer programs; any statement by the victim; the effect of sealing on your rehabilitation and reentry; and its effect on public safety and public confidence in the law.

10. Receive the court's order

    When the judge orders sealing under CPL § 160.59, the clerk notifies the Division of Criminal Justice Services of the records to be sealed, and any court where you said you had filed or would file another sealing application. Keep a certified copy of the order: the Division's seal verification form asks for a copy of the signed order. A sealed conviction still counts as a conviction in a later criminal case where a prior conviction raises the penalty or is an element of the charge.

11. Verify the record is sealed

    Under CPL § 160.59, every official record and paper relating to the arrests, prosecutions and convictions on file with the Division of Criminal Justice Services or any court is sealed; the Division keeps your fingerprints, palmprints and photographs. The clerk notifies the Division, and any court where you said you had filed or would file another sealing application. The sealed records stay open to you or your designated agent, to qualified agencies and federal and state law enforcement acting within their duties, to a gun licensing officer when you apply for a license, to a prospective police or peace officer employer, and to the FBI for a firearm background check; and the conviction still counts as one in a later criminal case where a prior conviction raises the penalty or is an element of the charge. A conviction sealed on its own under CPL § 160.57 is marked sealed by the Division, the court of conviction, the county clerk, the police and sheriff departments, the prosecutors and the other law enforcement agencies the Office of Court Administration notifies, and it counts the same way in a later criminal case. When a case ended in your favor under CPL § 160.50 — a dismissal, an acquittal, a vacated judgment, a decision not to prosecute, or a marijuana conviction the law expunged — or by conviction for a traffic infraction or violation under CPL § 160.55, the clerk notifies the Division and the police departments and other law enforcement agencies; the records on file with the Division, police agencies and prosecutors — and under CPL § 160.50 the courts too — are sealed, and each agency destroys your photographs, palmprints and fingerprints or returns them to you. Under CPL § 160.60, an arrest and prosecution that ended in your favor are a nullity: they are no bar to any lawful occupation, profession or calling, and you need not disclose them unless a statute requires or permits it or a superior court authorizes it. To confirm a seal, mail the Division's CPL 160.59 seal verification form — or its CPL 160.50 or 160.55 form — with a copy of the signed seal order or the district attorney's notice of decline to prosecute; the response comes by mail within two weeks. If a background-check provider later produces an outdated report, your certified copy of the court's order is your authoritative reference.

If you have to mail anything, remember to keep a copy of whatever you send and to use a method with a tracking number like the USPS Flat Rate Envelope.