If background checks only go back 7 years, what happens if a job candidate was convicted of a crime 10 years ago?

All convictions, no matter how old, may be reported and considered when making final employment decisions. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), any employer using a third-party Credit Reporting Agency (CRA) to conduct a background check must adhere to a set of strict rules. An often-misunderstood clause in the FCRA states that CRAs may not report criminal information other than convictions that are older than seven years. For example, if an applicant was arrested but never charged with a crime nine years ago, that information may not be reported by the CRA being used.