Last Updated: January 23, 2025. Report error / Make suggestion
After gathering your criminal history, you may be eligible to end your registration. Sometimes you must go to court to explain to a judge why you should not have to register and other times you can write a letter to the county sheriff/local police department asking to end your registration. There can be more than one way to end the duty to register.
Never assume your duty to register automatically ends without written notice from the police or a judge.
To be eligible to ask a judge or law enforcement to end your registration, you must have a period of time where you have remained crime free and out of jail/confinement. The judge or police will look at (1) if you have any criminal history since your sex offense conviction, which is a called a disqualifying offense, and (2) how long you have been in the community. The following information about disqualifying offenses and other requirements apply to adult convictions. Juvenile convictions have different requirements. For more information, please go to the section of this guide titled: Juvenile Convictions and Relief from Registration Process in Washington State.
CAUTION: If you were determined to be a “sexually violent predator” pursuant to chapter RCW 71.09 or convicted as an adult of a Class A felony sex/kidnapping offense that was committed with forcible compulsion after June 7, 2000, you cannot end the duty to register. RCW 9A.44.142 ( Section 2).
If this applies to you, you cannot ask a judge to end your duty to register. You can ask a judge to be exempted from community notification 15 years after your sentencing date or the last day you served in confinement, whichever is later. If you were convicted of a disqualifying offense since entry of your judgment and sentence or release from confinement, you must wait 15 years in the community after your disqualifying offense conviction to petition for exemption from the community notification requirement.
Do You Have a Disqualifying Offense?
To be relieved from the duty to register for an adult offense, the law requires you spend a certain period of time in the community (i.e., not held in jail or prison), and that you have not been convicted of a disqualifying crime or offense since your conviction for the sex offense. This information can be found in RCW 9A.44.128 (Section 4).
A disqualifying offense is any conviction (including guilty plea) for:
- Any felony
- Any sex offense1
- Crime against Children/Persons (including Simple Assault or Assault 4th Degree) RCW 43.43.830
- Any Conviction under RCW 9A.88 (Indecent Exposure, Prostitution, Promoting Prostitution)
- Any conviction with a Domestic Violence tag or enhancement
- Promoting Commercial Sexual Abuse of a Minor (CSAM)
If you have a disqualifying offense, it restarts your time in community. For example, if you were released from prison for Rape of a Child in the First Degree in 2008, you would be eligible to ask the court to end your registration in 2018. However, if you were convicted of disqualifying offense, such as felony with domestic violence like Assault 3rd Degree with Domestic Violence, in 2010 and released from jail for your Assault conviction in 2011, you won’t be able to ask the court to end your sex offense registration for another 10 years after release from jail—2021 .
If you have a juvenile conviction, the requirement for not having a disqualifying offense does not apply. For juvenile convictions, your duty to register can end through notification, a letter from law enforcement or, in certain circumstances, you must go to court to ask a judge. For more information, please go to the section of this guide titled Juvenile Convictions and Relief from Registration Process in Washington State.
Time in the Community
Time in the community begins the day you were released from confinement (jail, prison, etc.) for the sex offense conviction or disqualifying conviction. Confinement includes any time served on probation violations in county jail or full-time residential treatment. If you did not serve any time in confinement, the time in the community starts from the date of conviction.2
For example, if you were convicted as an adult of Rape of Child in the First Degree you must be in the community for at least 10 years without any convictions for disqualifying offenses or jail time served on probation violations before asking a judge to end your duty to register.
FAQs on Eligibility
Question: What if I have a disqualifying offense?
Answer: If you have a conviction for a disqualifying offense, you may not be eligible to end your register. A disqualifying offense restarts the clock on your time in the community. This means you may have to wait longer for the opportunity to ask for registration to end.
Question: What if I have convictions from other states?
Answer: It is important to know what your convictions were for and the date of last confinement. Those convictions may be considered disqualifying offenses. If they are considered disqualifying offenses, you may have to wait longer before asking a judge or law enforcement to end the duty to register. If you aren’t sure whether your convictions are disqualifying offenses, you can schedule a free consultation with a Civil Survival attorney.
Question: What happens if I had a probation violation for my sex offense conviction that I served time on?
Answer: Any time served in confinement will restart the clock for time in the community and you will have to wait longer to end registration.
Question: My case is from juvenile court, and I have a disqualifying offense conviction. Can I apply for relief?
Answer: Disqualifying offenses do not apply to juvenile cases. For many juvenile convictions, law enforcement will automatically end your duty to register after a certain period of time. There are some juvenile cases where a judge has to end your duty to register as long you have not been convicted of failure to register and/or another sex offense. If you have additional questions, please read the Juvenile Convictions and Relief from Registration Process in Washington State or talk to a lawyer.
- One conviction for failure to register is not considered a sex offense. However, a conviction for failure to register is considered a sex offense if you have two or more convictions for failure to register. RCW 9.94A.030 (Section 47). ↩︎
- In most cases, the date of conviction is the day you were found guilty and sentenced. If you were found guilty and sentenced on different dates, you should speak to attorney to understand more about which date is considered your conviction date. ↩︎
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