What a Criminal Record Is and What Its Consequences Are

A criminal record is the legal status of a person in respect of whom a guilty verdict imposing a punishment has entered into legal force; in most cases it continues after the sentence has been served. Below: from what day a person is considered to have a criminal record, when it ends and what it affects. The expungement periods are covered in detail in the article on expungement and removal of a criminal record.

What a criminal record is

The Criminal Code defines a criminal record by its limits in time: a person is considered to have a criminal record from the day a guilty verdict enters into legal force until the criminal record is expunged or removed (Article 88(1) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (CC)). That is, neither a notice of suspicion nor a verdict that has been pronounced but is not yet in force creates a criminal record.

In most cases a criminal record does not end with serving the sentence: from that day only the period for its expungement begins to run (Article 90(1) of the CC). There are exceptions, in particular for a criminal misdemeanour (see below).

The following have no criminal record (Part 3 and Part 4 of Article 88 of the CC):

• persons convicted without a punishment being imposed or with release from punishment;
• those who served a sentence for an act whose criminal wrongfulness and punishability the law later eliminated;
• rehabilitated persons.

For a criminal misdemeanour a criminal record arises, but it is short: the person is deemed to have no criminal record immediately after serving the sentence (clause 2-1 of Article 89 of the CC). How a misdemeanour differs from crimes of different gravity — see the article on the classification of crimes by gravity.

When a criminal record ends

Expungement. A person is deemed to have no criminal record when the period set by Article 89 of the CC has passed and during that time the person has not committed a new criminal offence. The period is from one year (clause 5 of Article 89 of the CC) to eight years (clause 9 of Article 89 of the CC) from the day the sentence is served, depending on the type of punishment and the gravity of the crime.

Removal — only by a court and early, before those periods expire, if after serving restriction of liberty or imprisonment the person has proved their reform (Article 91(1) of the CC). All the conditions for removal and the procedure for considering the petition — in the article on expungement and removal of a criminal record.

If a court released the person from serving the sentence on probation, the criminal record is expunged when the probation period ends, under the conditions of clause 1 of Article 89 of the CC — in detail in the article on criminal record after a suspended sentence; about the release on probation itself — in the article on conditional punishment.

After expungement or removal, the person is considered to have no criminal record (Article 88(1) of the CC): a new offence will no longer constitute recidivism (Article 34 of the CC), and the bans that the law links to an unexpunged or unremoved criminal record cease to apply. But some laws take into account the very fact of conviction, even when the criminal record has been expunged or removed — an example is given in the article on expungement and removal of a criminal record.

Consequences in a criminal case

The law names two cases in which a criminal record has legal significance: the commission of a new criminal offence and other cases provided for by the laws of Ukraine (Article 88(2) of the CC). In a new case this means:

• Recidivism. A new intentional criminal offence committed by a person who has a criminal record for an intentional criminal offence is recidivism (Article 34 of the CC).
• Stricter legal classification. In a number of CC articles, the commission of an offence by a person previously convicted of the same offence is a feature of a more severe part of the article. For example, hooliganism committed by a person previously convicted of hooliganism is punishable by imprisonment for a term of two to five years (Article 296(3) of the CC). A circumstance that is already such a feature cannot be taken into account by the court again as one that aggravates the punishment (Article 67(4) of the CC).
• May aggravate the punishment. The law names repeated offending and recidivism among the circumstances that aggravate punishment (Article 67(1)(1) of the CC), but the court may, depending on the nature of the offence, decline to recognise them as such, giving its reasons in the verdict (Article 67(2) of the CC). There is no repeated offending if the criminal record for the previous offence has been expunged or removed (Article 32(4) of the CC).
• Later conditional early release. If a person previously served imprisonment for an intentional criminal offence and, before the criminal record was expunged or removed, committed another intentional one for which the person was sentenced to imprisonment, conditional early release is possible only after actually serving at least two thirds of the term (Article 81(3)(2) of the CC), and replacing the unserved part with a milder punishment — no earlier than after half of the term (Article 82(4)(2) of the CC). If, however, the person had already been conditionally released early and during the unserved part of the punishment committed another intentional criminal offence, conditional early release requires actually serving at least three quarters of the imposed term (Article 81(3)(3) of the CC).
• Preventive measure. When choosing a preventive measure in a new case, the investigating judge or court assesses, among other circumstances, whether there are previous convictions (Article 178(1)(8) of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine (CPC)). For more detail, see how a court chooses preventive measures.
• Not evidence of guilt. Evidence relating to previous convictions is, as a general rule, inadmissible for proving guilt in a new case; the exceptions are listed in the second part of the same article (Article 88 of the CPC).

Consequences outside a criminal case

Outside a criminal case, a criminal record matters only in cases provided for by laws (Article 88(2) of the CC), so there is no single “ban because of a criminal record”: each law sets its own conditions. Three examples show how different they are:

• People’s Deputy — a citizen who has an unexpunged and unremoved criminal record for an intentional crime cannot be elected (Article 76(3) of the Constitution of Ukraine).
• Judge — the obstacle is any unremoved or unexpunged criminal record (Article 69(2)(3) of the Law of Ukraine “On the Judiciary and Status of Judges”).
• Attorney at Law — the obstacle is an unexpunged or unremoved criminal record for a serious or particularly serious crime, as well as for a minor crime if imprisonment was imposed for it (Article 6(2)(1) of the Law of Ukraine “On the Bar and Practice of Law”).

Other positions and professions with such requirements are collected in the article on professions for which a criminal record is an obstacle. When refusal of employment because of a criminal record is lawful and when it is not — in a separate article; what the employer sees in an extract — in the article on the criminal record certificate.

Travelling abroad. The right to leave may be temporarily restricted if a person has been convicted of a criminal offence — until the sentence is served or the person is released from punishment (Article 6(1)(4) of the Law of Ukraine “On the Procedure for Leaving Ukraine and Entering Ukraine by Citizens of Ukraine”). This clause is tied to an unserved sentence, not to the whole period of the criminal record.

What to check in your situation

1. The date the verdict entered into legal force — the criminal record began from that day.
2. The date the main and additional punishment was served — the expungement period is counted from that day.
3. The type of punishment and the gravity of the crime — the expungement period depends on them; whether early removal is possible, check against the conditions of Article 91 of the CC.
4. The requirements of the law that governs the position or activity you need.

For more on what an attorney in criminal cases helps with, see the page of our service.

The provisions are cited as currently in force as of 13 October 2026.