How long a DUI stays on your record in Washington
Longer than most people are told. The conviction cannot be cleared, and the licensing record keeps it for life. What changes over the years is who can see it and how much it counts.
People usually ask this a few weeks in, once the urgent part is over and the rest of a life has to be planned around it.
Most people asking have already been given a number by someone — five years, seven, ten. The number they were given is usually a real one. It is just usually the answer to a different question.
There are two records, and they follow different rules
There is your criminal history, which is what a conviction goes on. And there is your driving record, which the Department of Licensing keeps. A DUI lands on both.
Nearly all the confusion about this comes from answering one with the other's answer.
| Record | How long a DUI stays |
|---|---|
| Criminal history | Indefinitely. DUI cannot be vacated |
| Driving record, most convictions | 5 years from the conviction date |
| Driving record, alcohol-related convictions | Life |
| Driving record, a deferred prosecution | Life |
| The copy an insurer may buy | 3 years |
| The copy an employer may obtain | Not limited the same way |
Can a DUI be vacated?
Washington lets a good many misdemeanor convictions be vacated — set aside, so you can lawfully say you were not convicted. Driving under the influence is one of the offenses specifically excluded from that.
There is no waiting period that changes this, because there is no waiting period at all. A bill that would have allowed DUI convictions to be vacated was introduced in the 2025 session, was voted out of its committee, and then stalled. It is not law.
What the Department of Licensing keeps
The driving record works differently and ends in the same place. Most convictions are kept for five years from the conviction date. Alcohol-related convictions are kept for life.
That phrase is a term of art rather than a description — it is defined by which statute the conviction sits under, not by what was in someone's system — so a DUI involving drugs rather than alcohol is kept the same way.
A deferred prosecution is kept for life as well, which catches people out, because a deferred prosecution carried through to the end does result in the charge being dismissed. The dismissal comes years after the treatment is finished rather than on the day it is, but it comes.
The case ends. The entry does not.
So where does "it falls off after a few years" come from?
Probably from insurance. The version of your driving record an insurance company is allowed to buy is a three-year history. After three years an insurer's copy stops showing the conviction, and rates often move accordingly.
Nothing about the record itself has changed — only which copy was bought. The version an employer can obtain is not limited the same way, and it shows convictions, suspensions and deferred prosecutions.
And the seven-year figure?
That one is real too, and it is about sentencing rather than clearing.
If there is ever another charge, prior offenses are counted from arrest to arrest: a prior counts if the arrest for it happened within seven years before or after the arrest for the new one, with a ten-year window at a higher level.
That is a number about what a future case would look like. It is not a date on which anything disappears.
What that means for planning
There is nothing to wait for, and that is worth knowing early rather than late. If something in your life turns on this record — a job, a professional license, a commercial driver's license — the answer it gives today is the answer it will give in fifteen years. Planning around a date that is not coming costs people years.
The practical step is small. You can buy your own driving record from the Department of Licensing, and it is the quickest way to see what an employer would see rather than guessing at it.
And if you are making a decision on the strength of a number somebody gave you, it is worth finding out which of the two records they were talking about.