Career Guide · Electricians & Licensed Trades
Expungement for TDLR-Licensed Trades in Texas
Texas licenses the skilled trades through TDLR, which publishes criminal-conviction guidelines by program: which offenses relate to the license, how long they matter, and what mitigation counts. It's one of the fairer systems — and one where cleaning the record first still beats explaining it after.
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How TDLR evaluates records
TDLR reviews convictions and deferred adjudications against offense-relevance factors, and offers a pre-application Criminal History Evaluation Letter so you can learn your standing before paying for exams. Its focus is convictions — arrests that ended in dismissal are noise the law lets you delete entirely.
Customer-facing reality matters too: many trade employers and home-service platforms run commercial checks where a nondisclosure order blocks visibility, even where TDLR review could technically see a sealed case.
The working play
Expunge eligible arrests, seal qualifying deferreds and convictions, and if anything substantial remains, use the evaluation-letter process before spending on licensure. In-home service work is a trust sale — a clean check closes jobs.
Common questions
Will TDLR deny my electrical license over an old conviction?
It depends on relevance and recency under the published guidelines — and the pre-application evaluation letter answers it definitively before you invest. Sealable convictions and expungable arrests should be handled first.
Do home-service platforms see sealed records?
Platforms use commercial screeners, which a nondisclosure order blocks. That alone reopens a lot of work for tradespeople with a single old case.
Disclaimer: This page is general legal information about Texas law, not legal advice about your case, and reading it does not create an attorney‑client relationship. Eligibility depends on the complete details of your criminal history — get a free case review for a definitive answer.
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