DOSSIER · IMM

Bars, Waivers & Relief

What happens when status has already gone wrong — accrued unlawful presence, waiver routes, humanitarian categories, removal defense, and custody.

Brief stack

In this dossier

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IMM-05 · 01

Unlawful Presence Bars: Three-Year, Ten-Year, and Permanent-Bar Risks

9 MIN · IMM

Time alone does not create a bar. A departure does. This brief maps how unlawful presence accrues, which act triggers which bar, and where the exceptions and tolling rules apply.

Unlawful presence and unlawful status are different concepts; a person can be out of status without accruing unlawful presence at all.
More than 180 days but under a year, followed by a qualifying departure, triggers a three-year bar; a year or more triggers ten.
The permanent bar comes from reentering or attempting to reenter without admission after a year of aggregate unlawful presence or a removal order.

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IMM-06 · 02

The I-601A Provisional Waiver: Eligibility, Hardship Proof, and the Consular Step

8 MIN · IMM

The provisional waiver removes one obstacle — accrued unlawful presence — before a person leaves the United States for an immigrant visa interview. It does nothing about any other bar.

Form I-601A waives only the unlawful-presence ground of inadmissibility. Every other bar survives approval and can still stop the visa abroad.
The hardship must be suffered by a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse or parent — not by a child, and not by the applicant.
Approval is provisional: it takes effect only on departure, after a consular officer finds the applicant otherwise admissible.

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IMM-07 · 03

VAWA Self-Petitions, U Visas, and T Visas: Choosing Among Three Humanitarian Routes

8 MIN · IMM

Three humanitarian routes answer three different questions: who harmed you, what the harm was, and what a law-enforcement agency is willing to confirm. The answers rarely point to the same form.

VAWA self-petitions run on Form I-360 and need no agency signature; the relationship to an abusive citizen or resident does the qualifying work.
U visas require a signed Form I-918 Supplement B certification from a qualifying agency and are capped at 10,000 principal grants per year.
T visas require compliance with reasonable law-enforcement requests, with exceptions for minors and for trauma-based inability to comply.

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IMM-08 · 04

Cancellation of Removal for Nonpermanent Residents: Proving the Four Elements

8 MIN · IMM

This relief is decided by an immigration judge, not a service center, and it is lost far more often on the presence clock and the hardship standard than on sympathy.

Non-LPR cancellation requires ten years of continuous physical presence, good moral character, no disqualifying conviction, and hardship to a qualifying relative.
The hardship standard is exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to a U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse, parent, or child — never to the applicant.
The stop-time rule ends the presence clock on service of a notice to appear or on commission of certain offenses.

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IMM-09 · 05

Immigration Detention and Bond Hearings: Who Is Eligible and What the Judge Weighs

8 MIN · IMM

A bond hearing answers two questions and nothing else: is this person a danger, and will this person come back to court. Everything in the packet should serve one of the two.

Discretionary custody under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) allows an immigration judge to release a person on bond or conditional parole.
Mandatory detention under § 1226(c) removes that authority for people detained on specified criminal grounds, and Congress expanded those categories in 2025.
The judge weighs danger to the community first and flight risk second; failing the danger question ends the hearing.

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IMM-22 · 06

Following to Join: Derivative Asylum and Refugee Petitions on Form I-730

8 MIN · IMM

Form I-730 moves a spouse or unmarried child into the principal's protected status. Two facts decide most cases: when the petition was filed, and when the family relationship began.

A principal asylee or refugee may petition for a spouse and unmarried children under 21 using Form I-730, filed separately for each beneficiary.
The petition is generally due within two years of the asylum grant or refugee admission, and USCIS may extend that window for humanitarian reasons.
The qualifying relationship must have existed before the principal was granted asylum or admitted as a refugee, not afterwards.

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IMM-23 · 07

The Asylum One-Year Deadline and Its Exceptions

9 MIN · IMM

Asylum applications are barred after one year unless an exception applies. This brief sets out what counts as changed or extraordinary circumstances and how the reasonable-period requirement is applied.

An asylum application must be filed within one year of the applicant's last arrival, proved by clear and convincing evidence of the arrival date.
Two statutory exceptions exist: changed circumstances materially affecting eligibility, and extraordinary circumstances directly related to the delay in filing.
Either exception must be followed by filing within a reasonable period, judged case by case rather than against a fixed number of days.

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IMM-24 · 08

Immigration Court Logistics: Venue Changes, Continuances, and Filing Rules

9 MIN · IMM

Removal cases are lost on logistics more often than on law. This brief covers where a case sits, how it moves, when more time is granted, and the filing rules that carry hard consequences.

Venue lies with the immigration court where the charging document was filed, and only an immigration judge can change it, on a good-cause motion.
A venue motion normally requires the respondent's new address, pleadings to the charges, and a statement of the relief that will be sought.
Continuances are granted for good cause, and both Attorney General and Board decisions since 2018 have narrowed what qualifies, especially for collateral applications.

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