Ask the court to seal your criminal record in Texas with a nondisclosure order. Petitions and orders of nondisclosure, related documents, and instructions are available on the Office of Court Administration (OCA) website.
Only people who have been granted deferred adjudication can file an order of nondisclosure. An expunction order is reserved for those who were wrongfully convicted, arrested, indicted or had no final conviction. You cannot pursue an expunction if you were court-ordered to community supervision or deferred adjudication.
For other misdemeanor and felony convictions, this period is 2-5 years after the sentence completion date. After this waiting period, obtaining a nondisclosure order in Texas usually takes between four and nine months.
In order to obtain an order of nondisclosure, you must first file a petition for an order of nondisclosure with the proper court. The petition is to be filed with the clerk of the court that handled the offense for which you were placed on deferred adjudication.
The requirements for this category of nondisclosure eligibility are that (1) you were convicted and placed on probation for a misdemeanor, (2) the misdemeanor was not a prohibited misdemeanor (a misdemeanor under Section 106.041, Alcoholic Beverage Code, Section 49.04, 49.05, 49.06, or 49.065, Penal Code, or Chapter 71 ...
For adult name changes and uncontested child name changes in Bexar county, your name change attorney can normally obtain a court order within two to three weeks of your initial appointment. Meanwhile, adult and uncontested cases in Comal, Guadalupe, or other counties normally take 4-6 weeks.
It doesn't need to be notarized or filed with any state or local administrative office.