Casier Judiciaire: The French Criminal Record Explained (B1, B2, B3)

Most people who search for their casier judiciaire are not curious about French criminal procedure. They have a job offer that mentions a background check, a naturalisation file sitting at the préfecture, an application for a licence or an agrement, or an old conviction from years ago that they are afraid will surface at exactly the wrong moment. The question underneath is always the same one: what is actually written down about me, and who gets to read it.

The honest answer is that there is one national file and three different windows onto it, and the three windows show very different things to very different people. Understanding which window an organisation is looking through tells you almost everything about what it can see, what you are obliged to hand over, and what you can do to change what is there. This page walks through the three bulletins, how to obtain the one that belongs to you, and the routes by which a conviction eventually stops being visible.

Information last verified on 21 July 2026. This page presents general legal information, not legal advice.

One file, three bulletins

The casier judiciaire national is a single centralised register held by the Ministry of Justice at Nantes. Every conviction handed down by a French court for a crime or a delit is recorded there, along with certain contraventions and a set of civil and administrative decisions.

What varies is the extract. The law defines three bulletins, each with its own contents and its own list of recipients, and it is the recipient who determines which bulletin is produced. A court passing sentence needs to see everything. A préfecture examining a firearms authorisation needs to see rather less. A private employer needs to see less still, and in most cases needs to see nothing at all.

Bulletin n° 1: the complete record, for judges only

Bulletin n° 1 is the whole file. Under CPP Article 774, the complete record of the entries applying to a given person is set out on the bulletin n° 1, and it is delivered only to the judicial authorities.

In practice that means courts, prosecutors and, in defined circumstances, the prison administration. No employer, no landlord, no préfecture and no professional body receives a B1, and you cannot obtain a copy of your own. What you can do instead is read the full record through the procedure described below, which is a different thing from being issued the bulletin.

Bulletin n° 2: filtered, and routed administratively

Bulletin n° 2 is the version that goes to public authorities. CPP Article 775 does not define it by what it contains but by what it leaves out, and the list of exclusions is long: convictions of minors, contraventions de police, convictions expressly excluded by a court under Article 775-1, most sentences that have become void through a successful sursis, convictions that have been rehabilitated, and several other categories. Sentences handed down without sursis under Code pénal Articles 131-5 to 131-11, the alternative and complementary penalties, drop off after five years from the day the conviction became final, or three years for a jours-amende.

When nothing remains that meets the criteria, the bulletin is issued bearing the single word Neant.

The critical point, and the one most summaries blur, is the routing. A bulletin n° 2 is not a document you carry to an interview and it is not something an employer can demand from you. It moves from the Casier judiciaire national to a specific authority that the law names. In the narrow private-sector case where a check is permitted, that authority receives the bulletin and then tells the employer only whether there is anything on it that bears on the post. The employer is sent the bulletin only where it is empty; where it carries entries, only the fact of a mention and whether it blocks the post is passed on, never the offence. This routing rule, the list of authorities entitled to trigger it, and the two statutory ways to get a conviction taken off the B2 are covered in detail on our page on the French criminal record bulletin n° 2.

Bulletin n° 3: the only one that is yours

Bulletin n° 3 is the extract an individual can request about themselves, and it is the narrowest of the three.

CPP Article 777 lists what appears on it, and only convictions for a crime or a delit that are not already excluded from bulletin n° 2 can qualify. Within that, the B3 carries custodial sentences of more than two years that carry no suspension or that must be served in full after a sursis was revoked; custodial sentences of two years or less only where the court expressly ordered the mention on the B3; unsuspended prohibitions, disqualifications and incapacities imposed under Code pénal Articles 131-6 to 131-11, for as long as they run; and decisions imposing socio-judicial supervision or a ban on professional or voluntary activity involving regular contact with minors, for the duration of the measure.

The same article states that the bulletin n° 3 may be requested by the person concerned and must never be communicated to a third party. That is why so many French bulletins n° 3 come back completely empty even for people who have been convicted. A fine, a suspended sentence or a short prison term with no order for mention simply does not reach the threshold.

Requesting your bulletin n° 3

The request is free and is made through the official Ministry of Justice service at casier-judiciaire.justice.gouv.fr, or by post or in person to the Casier judiciaire national in Nantes. You provide your civil status, your place of birth and your current address, and choose how the answer should reach you. The service is open whatever your nationality, provided the entries concern the French casier judiciaire.

Treat the resulting document as confidential. The official service warns that a bulletin n° 3 must never be delivered to a third party, on pain of a 7,500 euro fine, and an employer to whom you show it may look at it but has no right to keep a copy on file.

Reading the whole record: the releve integral

If your worry is not a specific job but simply not knowing what is on file, there is a route that goes beyond the B3. CPP Article 777-2 provides that any person who proves their identity may ask the procureur de la République at the tribunal judiciaire for the area where they live for communication of the releve integral of the entries concerning them. That is the entire record, B1 content included. A legal person applies through its representative at the court where it has its seat, and someone living abroad applies through the competent consulate or diplomatic agent.

Two limits are written into the article itself. No copy of the releve may be issued, so this is a right to read rather than a right to hold. And the communication does not amount to notification of decisions that are not yet final, so it does not start any appeal period running.

One protection is worth knowing before you use it. CPP Article 781 punishes by a 7,500 euro fine anyone who gets the person concerned to hand over all or part of the mentions of that releve integral, so it is a document to read for yourself and not one anybody may ask you to produce.

Erasure route one: réhabilitation legale

French law does not leave convictions on the record forever. Code pénal Articles 133-12 to 133-17 set out réhabilitation, which comes in an automatic form and a judicial form.

Réhabilitation legale happens by operation of law, with no application to make, provided the person has not been convicted again of a criminal or correctional penalty within the relevant period. Article 133-13 fixes three periods: three years for a fine or a jours-amende, running from payment or from prescription; five years for a single sentence of imprisonment not exceeding one year or for a penalty other than reclusion, détention, imprisonment, fine or jours-amende, running from execution of the sentence or from prescription; and ten years for a single sentence of imprisonment not exceeding ten years, or for several sentences of imprisonment totalling no more than five years. One qualifier changes all three figures. Where the person was convicted for acts committed in a state of legal recidivism, Article 133-13 doubles every one of these periods, so the three-year clock becomes six years and the ten-year clock becomes twenty.

Where the sentence carried a sursis, the clock runs from the date the conviction is deemed never to have happened rather than from the sentence itself. That is a detail worth checking against your own judgment, because it can move the finish line by years.

Erasure route two: réhabilitation judiciaire

If the automatic route is unavailable or too slow, the convicted person can apply for réhabilitation judiciaire. The application goes to the chambre de l'instruction, which can order that the conviction be withdrawn from the casier judiciaire and no longer mentioned even on bulletin n° 1.

CPP Article 786 sets the waiting periods before an application can be lodged: five years for a criminal penalty, three years for a correctional penalty and one year for a contraventional penalty. For a fine, the period runs from the day the conviction became irrévocable; for a custodial sentence, from final release, or from conditional release where that release was not followed by révocation.

Article 133-16 then describes what réhabilitation does. It erases all the incapacities and disqualifications flowing from the conviction. Where the person was sentenced to socio-judicial supervision or to a ban on activity involving regular contact with minors, the effects only arrive at the end of the measure, and where a permanent complementary prohibition or incapacity was imposed, only after forty years. And in all cases réhabilitation does not prevent the judicial authorities, and only them, taking the conviction into account in later proceedings for the rules on legal recidivism.

Why this matters for jobs, licences and naturalisation

Three situations bring most readers here, and each turns on a different bulletin. For an ordinary private-sector job, only the bulletin n° 3 is in play, and only where the request is proportionate to the post. For public-sector recruitment, Code general de la fonction publique Article L321-1 provides that a person cannot hold the status of fonctionnaire where the entries on their bulletin n° 2 are incompatible with the exercise of the functions. That is a compatibility test judged by the administration, not an automatic bar.

For naturalisation the rule is harder-edged and sits in the Code civil rather than in criminal procedure. Article 21-27 blocks acquisition of French nationality for a person convicted of an offence against the fundamental interests of the nation or of an act of terrorism, and, whatever the offence, for a person sentenced to six months or more of imprisonment without suspension. The same article carves out an exception that is worth knowing about: it does not apply to someone who has obtained réhabilitation, whether automatic or judicial, under Code pénal Article 133-12, nor to someone whose conviction has been excluded from bulletin n° 2 under CPP Articles 775-1 and 775-2.

That single sentence is why the exclusion mechanisms matter so much in practice, and why they are worth pursuing well before a file is submitted rather than after it is refused. More on the French legal system generally is collected on our France legal guides hub.

A change that is already law but not yet in force

Ordonnance n° 2025-1091 of 19 November 2025 rewrites the legislative part of the Code de procédure pénale. Article 1 repeals the existing legislative provisions and replaces them without changing the substance of the law, and the new numbering enters into force on 1 January 2029, unless it is deferred by decree, which the ordonnance permits up to 1 September 2030.

The practical consequence is only that today's article numbers, including 774, 775, 775-1, 775-2, 777 and 777-2, will eventually be replaced by new ones in a restructured code. Until then they remain the operative references.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can an employer in France ask to see my criminal record?

An ordinary private employer can ask you for your bulletin n° 3, which is the extract you can obtain about yourself, and only where the request is justified by the job. That employer cannot obtain your bulletin n° 2. Bulletin n° 2 travels administratively between the casier judiciaire national and a designated authority, and in the narrow sectors where a check on staff working with minors is allowed it is passed to the employer only where it is empty. Where it carries entries, a designated administrative authority reports back only that there is a mention and whether it prevents the hiring, never what the offence was.

How much does a bulletin n° 3 cost?

Nothing. The bulletin n° 3 is issued free of charge by the Casier judiciaire national through the official service at casier-judiciaire.justice.gouv.fr, by post or in person. Any site charging you a fee to obtain it is a commercial intermediary, not the Ministry of Justice.

Does a fine or a suspended sentence show on my bulletin n° 3?

Generally no. Under CPP Article 777, bulletin n° 3 lists custodial sentences of more than two years that carry no suspension, shorter custodial sentences only where the court expressly ordered the mention, unsuspended prohibitions or incapacities while they run, and socio-judicial supervision or a ban on activities involving regular contact with minors while the measure lasts. A simple fine does not appear there.

How can I find out everything that is on my record, not just the B3?

Use CPP Article 777-2. Anyone who proves their identity may ask the procureur de la République at the tribunal judiciaire where they live to be given the releve integral, meaning every entry on their own casier judiciaire. The article is explicit that no copy of that releve may be handed over, so you read it rather than take it away. People living abroad go through the competent consulate or diplomatic agent.

Does réhabilitation wipe the conviction out completely?

Almost, but not entirely. Code pénal Article 133-16 says réhabilitation erases all the incapacities and disqualifications flowing from the conviction, and a rehabilitated conviction is excluded from bulletin n° 2 under CPP Article 775. The same article adds that réhabilitation does not stop the judicial authorities, and them alone, taking the conviction into account in later proceedings for the purposes of the rules on legal recidivism.