Stay of Removal (Form I-246): How to Ask ICE to Pause a Deportation After a Final Order, and What a Stay Does Not Do

You have a final order of removal. Maybe a check-in with ICE in three weeks, a letter telling a relative to report, or someone picked up on a Tuesday who is now detained. Someone told you to file a stay. Read the sentence that controls this subject first: 8 CFR 241.6(a) provides that neither a request for a stay nor a failure to receive notice of how it was decided "shall delay removal or relieve the alien from strict compliance with any outstanding notice to surrender for deportation or removal." As of September 2026 that is still the rule. Filing Form I-246 pauses nothing. It is a request, not a brake.

Two Kinds of Stays, One Word

Two things share the word "stay," and confusing them is the costliest mistake here. An administrative stay comes from ICE, the agency trying to execute the order. It is requested on Form I-246, Application for a Stay of Deportation or Removal, under 8 CFR 241.6, and it is discretionary, with no hearing and no appeal.

A stay from an adjudicator comes from an immigration judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals, or a court of appeals. Under 8 CFR 241.6(c), ICE "shall take all reasonable steps to comply" with a stay granted by the judge or the Board, but such a stay "shall cease to have effect if granted (or communicated) after the alien has been placed aboard an aircraft or other conveyance for removal."

Behind both sits a clock. Under INA 241(a)(1)(A), ICE is to remove a person within 90 days, a period that ordinarily starts when the order becomes administratively final, and 8 USC 1231(a)(3) puts anyone still here under supervision. Under 8 USC 1231(a)(1)(B)(ii), a court stay means those 90 days do not start until the court's final order, so a judicial stay resets the clock.

The ICE Administrative Stay: Form I-246

8 CFR 241.6(a) requires the request be filed on Form I-246 "with the district director having jurisdiction over the place where the alien is at the time of filing." The regulation still uses legacy Immigration and Naturalization Service titles for offices that no longer exist; in practice it goes to the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations field office with jurisdiction, here Philadelphia.

The official may act "in his or her discretion and in consideration of factors listed in 8 CFR 212.5 and section 241(c) of the Act," for "such time and under such conditions as he or she may deem appropriate." That reference to 8 CFR 212.5 is the closest thing to published criteria here: serious medical conditions, certified pregnancy, certain minors, witnesses in United States proceedings, and cases where detention is not in the public interest.

Under 8 CFR 241.6(b) a denial "is not appealable." But the same paragraph preserves the courtroom path: a denial "shall not preclude an immigration judge or the Board from granting a stay in connection with a previously filed motion to reopen or a motion to reconsider." Note the sequence. File the motion first.

The fee, carefully. As of September 2026 the Form I-246 fee is $155. On May 7, 2026, ICE published a proposed rule at 91 FR 24739 that would amend 8 CFR 103.7(d)(6) to raise it to $755. Comments closed July 6, 2026, and a Federal Register search as of the date of this post returns no final rule, so $755 is not in effect. A final rule could issue at any time, so confirm the amount and payment method with ICE before filing.

What Goes Into an I-246 Packet

Because the standard is discretion rather than law, the packet is an exercise in evidence. An officer reading quickly wants a reason not to remove this person now:

• A reason tied to a date. "My family will suffer" is not a reason. "The I-130 filed for my wife was receipted in March and is pending" is. So is a pending motion to reopen, a scheduled surgery, or a post conviction hearing.
• Documents, not adjectives. Receipt notices, medical records and physician letters, school records, lease or mortgage papers, tax and pay records, proof of United States citizen children. Sworn declarations carry weight a cover letter does not.
• The criminal record addressed directly. Certified dispositions and proof of completed sentences. The officer will find the record anyway, and a packet that hides it loses credibility on everything else.

Ask for a named period, usually six or twelve months, and include a Form G-28 so counsel can speak to the office. File early and comply anyway.

What a Granted Stay Actually Gets You

Time. That is a real benefit, and the only one. A grant runs for such time and under such conditions as the officer thinks appropriate, so the grant letter controls. Renewal is a fresh discretionary request, not a right, and ICE can revoke a stay.

A person living under a final order outside detention is usually on an order of supervision under 8 CFR 241.5, Form I-220B, with the conditions families actually live with: periodic reporting under oath, continuing efforts to obtain a travel document, advance approval for travel, and written notice of any address change. Under 8 CFR 241.5(b) the officer may require a bond.

Work authorization is a separate question with a strict statutory gate. Under INA 241(a)(7), 8 USC 1231(a)(7), no person ordered removed is eligible for work authorization unless a specific finding is made that every country designated has refused to receive them, or that removal is "otherwise impracticable or contrary to the public interest." The implementing rule, 8 CFR 274a.12(c)(18), makes the grant discretionary, weighing economic necessity, dependent family, and the anticipated time before removal. This gets oversold, so be precise: a granted I-246 stay is not a work permit and does not create eligibility for one. Confirm the current Form I-765 fee with USCIS before filing.

Do you or a family member have a final order of removal?

A stay request, a motion to reopen, and a custody filing do different things, and the order you file them in decides what is still possible. We read the order and the notices, tell you which clock is running, and move within days when a report date is close.

Talk to a Removal Defense Attorney

Or call (484) 763-4984

Stays Inside the Immigration Courts: Automatic and Discretionary

Filing a motion to reopen or reconsider does not stop a removal. Before an immigration judge, 8 CFR 1003.23(b)(1)(v) provides that "except in cases involving in absentia orders," such a motion "shall not stay the execution of any decision," and execution proceeds unless a stay is specifically granted. 8 CFR 1003.2(f) says the same, and carries the same exception, for the Board.

The exception is narrow and valuable. Under 8 CFR 1003.23(b)(4)(ii), a motion to reopen an order of removal entered in absentia under INA 240(b)(5) "shall stay the removal of the noncitizen pending disposition of the motion by the immigration judge." Both in absentia theories sit in that paragraph with different deadlines: exceptional circumstances under INA 240(e)(1) must be raised within 180 days of the order, while lack of notice under INA 239(a)(1) or (2), or custody with no fault, may be raised at any time. Only one such motion is allowed. A changed country conditions motion under 8 CFR 1003.23(b)(4)(i) escapes the time and number limits but gets no automatic stay. Our post on the motion to reopen an in absentia removal order covers the evidence each theory needs.

Two limits get missed. The automatic stay runs only to the judge's decision: under 8 CFR 1003.6(b), the rule that a decision is not executed while an appeal is pending does not apply to an order denying a motion to reopen, so when the judge denies, protection ends and a stay must be sought from the Board with the appeal. See our post on appealing to the BIA. And under INA 240(b)(5)(B), no written notice of a new hearing time or place is required if the person never gave the court the address required by INA 239(a)(1)(F).

Stays From the Third Circuit: The Nken Factors

A petition for review does not stop a removal either: under 8 USC 1252(b)(3)(B), service of the petition "does not stay the removal of an alien pending the court's decision on the petition, unless the court orders otherwise." A separate stay motion is required.

The governing case is Nken v. Holder, 556 U.S. 418 (2009), the one people state backwards. Congress provided in 8 USC 1252(f)(2) that no court shall enjoin the removal of a person under a final order "unless the alien shows by clear and convincing evidence that the entry or execution of such order is prohibited as a matter of law." The government argued a stay is a form of injunction governed by that standard. The Supreme Court held otherwise: the traditional stay factors govern a court of appeals' authority to stay a removal pending review. Clear and convincing evidence is the standard for an injunction, not for a stay.

The four factors, from Hilton v. Braunskill, 481 U.S. 770, 776 (1987), are a strong showing of likely success on the merits, irreparable injury absent a stay, substantial injury to other parties, and the public interest. The first two are "the most critical." "Better than negligible" is not enough, and more than a mere possibility of relief is required. The Court also held removal is not categorically irreparable, because a removed person may continue the petition and, if successful, be returned. The last two merge when the government opposes, and "there is always a public interest in prompt execution of removal orders."

The Third Circuit applied that in 2026. In Aristy-Rosa v. Attorney General, No. 25-1490 (3d Cir. Aug. 14, 2026), a precedential opinion, the court vacated a stay it had already granted, because a person keeps one "only for as long as he can demonstrate that the Executive Branch intrusion is appropriate." The merits showing must be "significantly better than negligible but not necessarily more likely than not," Holland v. Rosen, 895 F.3d 272, 286 (3d Cir. 2018), and must address jurisdiction as well as substance. Because likelihood of success is the product of the likelihood on each issue, ignoring one obstacle such as a time bar can sink it. And family separation arguments in an unsworn brief "will rarely suffice."

What a Stay Does Not Do

A stay does not vacate, cancel, or reopen the order, which survives fully enforceable unless a judge or the Board reopens it. A stay also does not create status: it is not an admission or parole, it does not stop unlawful presence accruing, it does not cure inadmissibility, and it opens no path to a green card.

A stay does not guarantee release either. Custody under a final order runs through INA 241(a): detention is mandatory during the 90 day removal period under 8 USC 1231(a)(2) and may continue beyond it under 1231(a)(6). Review happens inside the agency, under 8 CFR 241.4 and, where removal looks unlikely, 241.13. The backstop is Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678 (2001), which read an implicit reasonable time limitation into the statute and set six months as the presumptively reasonable period; after that, once the person gives good reason to believe there is no significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future, the government must rebut it. That is habeas corpus, not bond.

A 2026 Third Circuit decision that helped many local families does not help here. In Buele Morocho v. Warden Philadelphia FDC, Nos. 26-1150 and 26-1454 (3d Cir. Aug. 28, 2026), the court affirmed habeas relief for two men who entered without inspection years earlier, were arrested in the interior, and were held without a bond hearing under 8 USC 1225(b)(2)(A), returning people in that posture to 8 USC 1226(a), where bond is available; see the Third Circuit bond decision. It does not reach a final order case: both statutes govern detention during proceedings. Once an order is final, authority shifts to INA 241(a), and an immigration judge has no bond jurisdiction.

When a Stay Is the Wrong Tool

If the order itself is defective, the stay is a companion filing, not the case. The case is a motion to reopen or reconsider, the sequence 8 CFR 241.6(b) describes. Those motion fees changed this fall. Under 8 CFR 1103.7(b)(2), as adjusted by "Inflation Adjustment for EOIR OBBBA Fees; Fiscal Year 2027," 91 FR 54211 (Aug. 21, 2026), effective October 1, 2026, a motion to reopen or reconsider before an immigration judge carries a $145 fee under INA 286(m) plus a One Big Beautiful Bill Act fee rising from $920 to $950, a total going from $1,065 to $1,095. Before the Board the 286(m) piece is $110, so the total goes from $1,030 to $1,060. Two exceptions matter: under 8 CFR 1003.24(b)(2) and 1003.8(a)(2) a motion asking only for a stay carries no fee, and before the immigration judge neither does an in absentia motion to reopen under INA 240(b)(5)(C)(ii), the route with no deadline, though the exceptional circumstances route does carry the fee. EOIR otherwise rejects a motion filed without proof of payment or a fee waiver request, by declaration to the judge under 8 CFR 1003.24(d) or on Form EOIR-26A to the Board under 8 CFR 1003.8(a)(3).

If the person has become newly eligible for something real, a granted stay buys time for that filing: a U visa petition, a VAWA self petition, a family petition supporting a waiver. If proceedings are still open and no order is final, a stay is unnecessary; the tools are the hearing itself and, in the right case, a motion to terminate the removal case. If the person left and came back, INA 241(a)(5) reinstates the old order "from its original date" and bars reopening or review. That is the threshold problem, so read our post on options after an old deportation order first.

One word on prosecutorial discretion. A request that ICE decline to enforce an order, by whatever name, is one the agency may or may not entertain, with no enforceable standard and no right to a decision. Treat a promise of it as a warning about the person making it.

What This Means in the Lehigh Valley

For families in Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, and Reading, the office with jurisdiction is the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Philadelphia Field Office, 114 North 8th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, telephone (215) 656-7164, covering Delaware, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. That is where an I-246 for a Lehigh Valley resident ordinarily goes.

One local warning, because people get this wrong and lose a day: ICE's own field office page says the offices listed there are not check-in locations, and directs people to the ICE Check-in page to find a location or change an appointment. Do not go to 114 North 8th Street for a check-in. ICE also will not discuss a case with anyone but the person without a signed privacy waiver or a Form G-28 on file, and its Detention Reporting and Information Line is 1-888-351-4024.

Most Lehigh Valley cases run through the Philadelphia Immigration Court, and a motion to reopen goes to the court with administrative control over the record, served on the ICE Office of the Principal Legal Advisor for the location where the case was completed; OPLA's Northeast Region includes Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and York. Our Lehigh Valley removal defense practice handles the custody side and the stay side, starting with the order itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does filing Form I-246 stop ICE from deporting me?

No. Under 8 CFR 241.6(a), neither the request nor a failure to receive notice of how it was decided delays removal or relieves a person from strict compliance with an outstanding notice to surrender. Unless a judge, the Board, or a court has ordered a stay, comply with your reporting date.

How much does a stay of removal cost in 2026?

As of September 2026 the Form I-246 fee is $155. ICE published a proposed rule at 91 FR 24739 (May 7, 2026) that would raise it to $755, but no final rule has issued as of the date of this post, so $155 is the operative amount. Confirm it with ICE before filing.

Can I get a work permit if ICE grants my stay?

Not automatically, and not because of the stay. Under INA 241(a)(7) no person ordered removed is eligible for work authorization unless a specific finding is made that every designated country has refused to receive them or that removal is otherwise impracticable or contrary to the public interest. 8 CFR 274a.12(c)(18) ties that category to an order of supervision and makes it discretionary.

ICE denied my stay request. Can I appeal?

Not to ICE. 8 CFR 241.6(b) states that a denial is not appealable. The same provision preserves a different route: a denial does not preclude an immigration judge or the Board from granting a stay in connection with a previously filed motion to reopen or reconsider. If there is a legal basis to attack the order, that motion, with a stay request attached, is the path.

My relative is detained under a final order. Can we ask for a bond hearing?

No. An immigration judge has no bond jurisdiction once an order is final, because custody then runs under INA 241(a) rather than the provisions that apply during proceedings. The 2026 Third Circuit bond decision addressed people still in proceedings. The routes here are custody review under 8 CFR 241.4, 8 CFR 241.13, and habeas corpus under Zadvydas v. Davis.

Get Help With a Final Order of Removal

A final order is not the end of the analysis, but it changes every deadline and narrows every option, so the order of filings matters more than anywhere else. Lehigh Valley Immigration Law LLC prepares stay requests, motions to reopen before the Philadelphia Immigration Court and the Board, stay motions in the Third Circuit, and custody filings across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. We offer a free bilingual consultation to read the order, identify which clock is running, and say whether a stay, a motion, or both is right. Call (484) 763-4984 or contact us online. No outcome can be guaranteed in any immigration case, but filing the right thing in the right order is the part your family controls.