How it works in Oregon

The steps

1. Get fingerprinted

   Under ORS § 137.225, you send the Oregon State Police a full set of your fingerprints on a fingerprint card when you file your motion, and the court's motion form asks you to declare that you already have, so send them before you sign it (step 7). The State Police ask for a properly rolled, complete set on the standard blue applicant fingerprint card, FD-258. A local law enforcement agency or a public fingerprinting service can take them; fees vary by location. The State Police also take them at their Salem headquarters, 3565 Trelstad Avenue SE, Building 1, Monday to Friday from 8 AM to 4:30 PM, first come first served. The card must carry your printed name, your signature, your date of birth, the fingerprinting official's signature and the date, and the reason fingerprinted in the State Police's own words: Application for Set Aside ORS 137.225.

   Fingerprint fee: $30.00 — At the Oregon State Police's Salem headquarters (3565 Trelstad Avenue SE, Building 1; Monday to Friday, 8 AM to 4:30 PM, first come first served). The State Police say fees vary by location — a local law enforcement agency or a public fingerprinting service sets its own.

2. Request your record

   This is your own review copy; ORS § 137.225 does not require it, and the record check the law does require is a separate packet you mail to the State Police before you sign your motion (step 7). To get the copy, complete the State Police's Copy of Own Record form, add a fingerprint card and the fee, and mail them to Oregon State Police – CJIS Division, Unit 11, P O Box 4395, Portland, OR 97208-4395. The State Police mail the results only to you, usually within 7 to 10 business days, and the copy covers Oregon only — another state's record comes from that state, and the national record from the FBI.

   Record request fee: $33.00 — A copy of your own Oregon record, by mail, with a fingerprint card; the State Police mail the results only to you, usually in 7 to 10 business days. The State Police's separate record check for a set-aside motion over a conviction is also $33.00, paid when you file.

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. Gather your case details

   Under ORS § 137.225, the court's order must state the original arrest or citation charge, the conviction charge if it differs, the date of the charge, the submitting agency and the disposition, so gather those facts for each case: the judgment or the register of actions from the clerk of the court that handled it, and the arrest or citation record from the agency that made it. The statute requires no certified copies or proof of completed obligations with the motion, and the court's form asks for none: it asks for your date of birth, the case number (blank if there was no court case), the citing or arresting agency, the arrest date, your SID and fingerprint numbers if you know them, and each charge with its count number, with a separate page only if you have more charges than its lines hold. If you want a certified copy of the judgment for your own file, the clerk charges for it.

   Certified copy fee: $5.00 — Plus $0.25 a page for a paper copy; a certified copy delivered electronically is $5.00 with no per-page charge.

5. Check your records

   Check each record against the facts the form asks for. The form asks for no proof that you finished your sentence: you declare, under penalty of perjury, that you have fully complied with and performed every term of the sentence, so be sure each statement you check is true before you sign. Make copies of every original.

6. Prepare your motion

   Use the State Court Administrator's statewide form, the Motion to Set Aside and Seal and Declaration of Eligibility: under ORS § 137.225 the request is a motion, filed in the court that entered the conviction or contempt finding, or in the court in the county of the arrest, citation or charge. You do not submit an order: the court's forms page says there is no order form in the packet and the court creates the order itself. A conviction or contempt finding can be set aside once you have fully complied with and performed the sentence — a person still under supervision has not — and the wait has run from the date of conviction or your release from imprisonment, whichever is later: seven years for a Class B felony; five years for a Class C felony or a contempt finding for violating an order related to abuse or a person crime; three years for a Class A misdemeanor; and one year for a Class B or Class C misdemeanor, a violation or any other contempt finding. If the court revoked your probation, you wait three years from the revocation or the regular period, whichever ends later; if the court reduced the offense's class, the reduced class's period applies. In that same period before you file you must have no other conviction — motor vehicle violations, one lone violation and a drug enforcement misdemeanor for possession do not count, but a conviction already set aside does — and no crime or qualifying contempt charge pending against you. The section covers a Class B felony other than one under ORS 166.429 or a person felony; any misdemeanor, Class C felony or felony punishable as a misdemeanor; a violation; an offense from before January 1, 1972 that would qualify today; and a contempt finding. It does not cover a traffic offense; criminal mistreatment in the second degree, or in the first degree, of a victim 65 or older, or first-degree criminal mistreatment that is child abuse; endangering the welfare of a minor when it is child abuse; criminally negligent homicide when it was a Class C felony; third-degree assault under ORS 163.165(1)(h); or a sex crime, unless a court has relieved you of the duty to report as a sex offender, or the narrow Class C felony exception for an offender under 16 applies, each with its own conditions. If no accusatory instrument was filed, you can ask 60 days after the prosecuting attorney indicates the state will not proceed; after an acquittal or any other dismissal, at any time — but not for a driving under the influence charge dismissed after diversion, a dismissed traffic violation citation, or while a crime or qualifying contempt charge is pending against you. There is no time limit for making an application, and cases from before September 9, 1971 count too. Under ORS § 137.226, a marijuana possession, delivery or manufacture conviction can be set aside one year after the judgment if you were under 21 when convicted, have no other conviction apart from motor vehicle violations, and have performed the sentence; for conduct before April 21, 2017, the court classes the offense as if it happened after that date, or as a Class C misdemeanor if it is no longer a crime. A qualifying marijuana conviction has its own door, ORS § 475C.397: a conviction for a marijuana offense committed before July 1, 2015, for possessing less than one ounce of the dried leaves, stems or flowers of marijuana, or for conduct ORS 475C.305 lists — such as up to four homegrown plants or eight ounces of usable marijuana at a household of adults 21 or older — where you have completed and fully complied with or performed the sentence. You file that motion in the court that entered the judgment, at any time after it, with no filing fee or any other fee, no fingerprints and no State Police background check, and serve a copy on the prosecuting attorney when you file — the district attorney, or the city attorney for a city case. The prosecuting attorney has 30 days to object, and only on the ground that your conviction does not qualify; with no objection in 30 days the court must grant the motion, and with one it holds a hearing where you show, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the conviction qualifies. The order works like a set-aside under ORS 137.225: the law treats you as never convicted, the court seals the record of conviction and the other official records in the case, the clerk sends certified copies where the court directs, and you may answer any question about the case accordingly. For a municipal or justice court conviction for possessing less than one ounce of marijuana before July 1, 2015, any unpaid fines or fees no longer count against you under either door — the law treats that part of the sentence as performed (Oregon Laws 2025, chapter 395). If Oregon law has since lowered your marijuana offense's class — a felony to a misdemeanor, a higher felony or misdemeanor to a lower one, or a crime to a violation — ORS § 137.222 lets you ask the court by motion, with no fee, to amend the judgment to the lower class once you have performed the sentence; you serve the prosecuting attorney, who has 30 days to object, and ORS § 137.225 then counts your wait by the reduced class. If your judgment was guilty except for insanity rather than a conviction, ORS § 137.223 is the door, with the same waits, which run from the judgment or the end of the Psychiatric Security Review Board's jurisdiction over you, whichever is later.

7. Finalize your motion

   Mail the State Police their packet first: the Request for Set Aside Criminal Record Check form, your fingerprint card from step 1 and, for a motion over a conviction, their fee by check or money order payable to Oregon State Police, to Oregon State Police, CJIS – Unit 11, Attn: Set Aside, P.O. Box 4395, Portland, OR 97208-4395. The court's motion form asks you to declare that you have filed your fingerprints with the State Police and, for a conviction, paid their fee, so send the packet before you sign. Under ORS § 137.225 the State Police charge one fee however many counties you file in, and they send the results to the prosecuting attorney for each county or municipality in your motion. Then sign the motion from step 6 and make two copies: one for your file and one for the prosecuting attorney. Your own review copy from step 2 is for you, not the court.

   Cost: $33.00 — The Oregon State Police's fee for the set-aside record check — their Request for Set Aside Criminal Record Check form, your fingerprint card and a check or money order payable to Oregon State Police, mailed when you file a motion over a conviction under ORS 137.225; one fee however many counties you file in. A motion under ORS 475C.397 or ORS 137.222 needs no State Police check and no fee.

8. File your set-aside motion

   File the motion in the court that entered the conviction or contempt finding; for an arrest, citation or charge that ended with no conviction, the court in the county where it happened. Under ORS § 137.225 you pay no court filing fee. Serve a copy on the office of the prosecuting attorney who prosecuted the case, or who had authority to prosecute it if no charge was filed, and fill out the certificate of mailing at the bottom of the form; the prosecuting attorney may not charge you for anything the section requires. The State Police packet from step 7 goes to the State Police, not the court.

   Filing fee: None — Under ORS 137.225(1)(g) a person filing a set-aside motion is not required to pay the filing fee established under ORS 21.135 — the same for a judgment of guilty except for insanity, ORS 137.223(3)(d), for a qualifying marijuana conviction, ORS 475C.397(2)(b), and for a marijuana offense reduction, ORS 137.222(2). You pay the Oregon State Police separately for the record check on a motion over a conviction under ORS 137.225, and whatever your fingerprinting location charges; a motion under ORS 475C.397 or ORS 137.222 needs neither.

9. Work with the court

   Under ORS § 137.225, the prosecuting attorney has 120 days from the date you filed to object and must notify you and the court; if the case had a victim, the prosecuting attorney mails the victim a copy of the motion and notice of any hearing date. If no objection comes — and for every motion over an arrest, citation or charge with no conviction — the court must grant the motion without a hearing. If the prosecuting attorney objects, the court holds a hearing, may ask for affidavits or other proof, and must let the victim speak. It then grants the motion unless it finds in writing, by clear and convincing evidence, that your circumstances and behavior from the conviction to the hearing create a risk to public safety — looking only at conduct that was a crime, or a regulatory or administrative violation that relates to the character of the conviction, never at civil liability, money you owe or motor vehicle violations. The State Police's check reaches the prosecuting attorney directly, so make sure you mailed it. You are not eligible while a crime, or a contempt charge over an order related to abuse or a person crime, is pending against you.

10. Receive the court's order

    Under ORS § 137.225, the order the court enters states the original arrest or citation charge, the conviction charge if different, the date of the charge, the submitting agency and the disposition, and with it the court issues an order sealing the record of conviction and every other official record in the case, including the records of arrest, citation or charge. The clerk forwards a certified copy of the order to the agencies the court directs, and to the Department of Corrections when the order concerns a conviction. Ask the clerk for a certified copy of your own and keep it with your papers.

11. Verify the record is set aside

    Under ORS § 137.225, once the court enters the order the law treats the conviction, arrest, citation, charge or other proceeding as if it never occurred, and you may answer any question about it accordingly. The court seals the official records in the case, including the records of arrest, citation or charge, and the clerk sends a certified copy of the order to the agencies the court names and to the Department of Corrections for a conviction; the Oregon State Police say a court's order is the only way a record comes off their files. Three limits remain. In a civil case where the truth is an element of a claim or a defense, the set-aside does not apply and a party may ask the court to order disclosure of the records. On a prosecutor's or defendant's motion showing good cause, a court may reopen sealed records for the limited purpose of an investigation. And when the record set aside is an arrest, citation or charge the state never pursued, the prosecuting attorney may unseal it to start a prosecution within the statute of limitations, with written notice to you. If a background-check provider later reports the case, send it your certified copy of the order and ask for a correction, and confirm with the clerk of court and the arresting agency that their records show the set-aside.

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.