Without a green card · Permanent residents · VAWA special rule
Cancellation of removal is won on the record built before the judge.
Cancellation of removal for people in immigration court: the 10-year rule for people without a green card, the 7-year rule for permanent residents, and the special rule for survivors of abuse, with the presence, character, and hardship evidence each one requires.
There is no “ten-year law” you can apply for on your own. Cancellation is decided only by an immigration judge in removal proceedings, and anyone offering to file it with USCIS is selling something that does not exist.
Three kinds of cancellation
Your status decides which cancellation you can seek.
Cancellation of removal is a defense raised in immigration court. The statute creates three versions, each with its own time requirement, criminal bars, and hardship standard, and some people are excluded from all of them.
The 10-year rule
For people without permanent residence: ten years of continuous physical presence, good moral character, no disqualifying conviction, and exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to a U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse, parent, or child. A grant comes with a green card.
See the four requirementsThe 7-year rule
For permanent residents charged as removable: at least five years as a permanent resident, seven years of continuous residence after any lawful admission, and no aggravated felony conviction. There is no hardship requirement, but the judge weighs the whole record before letting you keep the green card.
Compare the three pathsThe VAWA special rule
For people battered or subjected to extreme cruelty by a U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse or parent: three years of presence, good moral character, and extreme hardship to the survivor, a child, or a parent. A Notice to Appear does not stop this clock, and absences connected to the abuse do not break it.
Humanitarian reliefNo case, no application
The application can be filed only with an immigration court after a case has been opened there, so there is nothing to file at USCIS. Being placed in removal proceedings to seek it is a serious step that needs a full review of every other option first.
Read the ten-year-law questionWho cannot use it
The statute excludes, among others, anyone whose removal was already cancelled or whose deportation was suspended, anyone granted a former section 212(c) waiver, certain J-1 exchange visitors, crew members who entered after June 30, 1964, and people subject to the security or persecutor bars.
Use the private guideA final order changes the question
Once an order is final, cancellation can be reached only by reopening the case, with the application filed with the motion, on time or under an exception. The first step is the order itself: its date, the court, and whether you were present.
Motions to reopenThree facts decide the path: your immigration status today, the date and content of your Notice to Appear, and your criminal record, if any. Together they decide which kind of cancellation is possible and whether the clock stopped before you reached the years you need.
The 10-year rule
Four requirements, and each one has to be proven.
For someone without a green card, the statute requires all four. The applicant carries the burden on each one, and a judge who finds all four can still deny cancellation as a matter of discretion.
Ten years of continuous physical presence
Counted back from the date of the application, and cut off by service of a complete Notice to Appear or by certain offenses. A single trip abroad of more than 90 days, or trips adding up to more than 180, breaks it.
Good moral character
Required for the full ten years, measured back from the judge's final decision. Some conduct bars it outright, including knowingly helping someone enter the United States illegally; in 2026 the Board applied that bar to a parent who worked with a smuggler to bring his child.
No disqualifying conviction
A conviction for an offense described in the criminal grounds of inadmissibility or deportability, or in the document-fraud and registration ground, bars this form of cancellation even if it is not the ground you were charged under. How a state statute is read can decide the question, so certified court records matter.
Exceptional and extremely unusual hardship
Hardship to a U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse, parent, or child, meaning an unmarried child under 21. Hardship to you does not count, and it must go well beyond what any family experiences when a close relative is removed.
Discretion is a fifth hurdle. In 2025 and 2026 the Board denied cancellation on discretion in a series of published decisions, weighing factors such as the use of a false Social Security number or false information on tax returns. Positive factors have to be documented as carefully as the requirements.
The 10-year clock
Two rules stop the clock. Two more break it.
Most cancellation cases are won or lost on dates. The years have to be continuous, they have to be reached before the clock stopped, and the government's own paperwork often decides when that was.
What stops the clock
- A complete Notice to Appear. The clock stops when you are served with a Notice to Appear that states the time and place of the hearing in a single document. Under Pereira v. Sessions (2018) and Niz-Chavez v. Garland (2021), a notice missing that information does not stop it, and a later hearing notice does not fix it.
- Certain offenses. Committing an offense under the criminal grounds that makes you inadmissible or removable stops the clock on the date the offense was committed, not the date of conviction.
- Whichever comes first. The earlier event controls, and time after the clock stops does not count toward the years you need.
- The VAWA special rule is different. For survivors applying under it, a Notice to Appear does not stop the three-year clock.
What breaks the clock
- Any single trip over 90 days breaks continuous physical presence.
- Trips adding up to more than 180 days also break it, even if no single trip was over 90. Four trips of 60 days each total 240 days and fail the second test.
- Proof must cover every year. Tax returns, leases, pay records, and school, medical, and church records should place you in the United States across the whole period, with no unexplained gaps.
- Absences tied to abuse do not count against survivors applying under the VAWA special rule.
The Notice to Appear is the first document we read. Whether it stated a hearing time and place, and when it was served, can decide whether you have the ten years at all. Keep every paper the government has given you, including the envelopes.
Hardship
Hardship is measured against what every family suffers.
The standard asks for hardship to a qualifying relative substantially beyond what would ordinarily be expected when a close family member is removed. Economic loss, fewer educational opportunities, and emotional pain are common to every such case, so the evidence has to show what makes this family different.
A child who turns 21 stops counting. In 2026 the Board held that children who reach 21 are no longer qualifying relatives, even if they qualified when the case was filed and aged out during an appeal. If your only qualifying relative is a teenager, timing matters now.
- Health conditions need medical proof. Since a 2026 Board decision, testimony about a medical or mental health condition is generally not enough when testimony from a qualified professional, reports, or medical evidence could reasonably have been obtained.
- All factors are weighed together. Age, health, family ties here and abroad, and conditions in the country of removal are considered in the aggregate, so each one has to be documented, not just described.
- Leaving a child behind is not enough on its own. The Board held in 2026 that a parent's decision to leave a U.S. citizen child here without parental care does not, by itself, create the required hardship.
- Hardship to you does not count. Your own suffering matters only through its effect on a qualifying relative, so the record is built around each relative's needs.
- The hearing is the main chance. After Wilkinson v. Garland (2024), federal courts can review the hardship ruling, but in the Third Circuit that review is highly deferential, so the evidence presented to the immigration judge carries the case.
Side by side
Three paths, three different sets of rules.
The paths share a name but little else. The differences that usually decide a case are the years required, what stops the clock, the criminal bars, and whose hardship counts.
| Without a green card · § 240A(b)(1) | Permanent resident · § 240A(a) | VAWA special rule · § 240A(b)(2) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time required | 10 years of continuous physical presence. | 5 years as a permanent resident, and 7 years of continuous residence after any lawful admission. | 3 years of continuous physical presence. |
| What stops the clock | A complete Notice to Appear, or certain offenses, whichever is first. | A complete Notice to Appear, or certain offenses, whichever is first. | Certain offenses only. The Notice to Appear does not stop it. |
| Criminal bar | A conviction for an offense described in the criminal inadmissibility or deportability grounds, or the document-fraud and registration ground. | An aggravated felony conviction. | Inadmissibility or deportability on criminal, security, and certain other grounds, or an aggravated felony conviction. |
| Hardship | Exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to a U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse, parent, or child. | Not required, but weighed in the judge's discretion. | Extreme hardship to you, your child, or your parent. |
| Annual cap | Yes. No more than 4,000 grants a year nationwide. | No. | Yes, within the same 4,000. |
| Form | EOIR-42B, filed with the immigration court. | EOIR-42A, filed with the immigration court. | EOIR-42B, filed with the immigration court. |
| If granted | Permanent residence. | You keep your permanent residence. | Permanent residence. |
General comparison only. Anyone who already received cancellation, suspension of deportation, or a former section 212(c) waiver cannot receive it again; people who served at least two years on active duty in the U.S. armed forces have a special rule on continuity; and each path is decided on its own record.
From the Notice to Appear to the decision
The case is built before the hearing, not at it.
A cancellation hearing is a trial. The judge decides each requirement on the evidence filed in advance and the testimony given that day, so the work is finding the dates, proving every year, and documenting the hardship before the court asks for it.
- 01
Read the Notice to Appear and the dates
We confirm the charges, whether the notice stated a hearing time and place, when it was served, and every entry and departure since you arrived. Those dates decide whether the years are there.
- 02
Pull the records
Certified court dispositions for any arrest, and, when needed, the immigration file from USCIS and ICE through the Freedom of Information Act. Anything the government can raise at the hearing should be known first.
- 03
Prove presence year by year
Tax returns, leases, pay stubs, bank statements, and school, medical, and church records, organized by year so the judge can see the whole period without gaps.
- 04
Build the hardship case
Medical and psychological evaluations, school and treatment records, and evidence about conditions in the country of removal, focused on each qualifying relative.
- 05
File with the court
The application goes to the immigration court with the filing fee or a fee waiver request, and the fingerprinting step is completed so the judge can decide. EOIR fees changed on October 1, 2026, so the amount is confirmed on the day of filing.
- 06
The individual hearing
You and your witnesses testify, the government's attorney cross-examines, and the judge decides each requirement and then discretion. Preparing your testimony is part of the work.
- 07
After the decision
If the judge grants cancellation after the year's 4,000 numbers are used, the decision is reserved until a number becomes available. If the judge denies it, an appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals has a short, strict deadline that runs from the decision. Appeals are a separate stage of the case.
Private two-minute guide
Which cancellation path could fit?
Answer three general questions. The guide suggests where a first review should start; it does not decide eligibility, count your years, or send your answers to the firm.
Official starting points
Confirm the rules with the official text.
Forms, fees, and Board precedent change. Confirm the current rule for your court before relying on any summary, including this one.
Common questions
Questions about cancellation of removal.
General answers help you prepare. They cannot tell you whether you qualify or how a judge will rule.
Can I apply for the “ten-year law” if I am not in immigration court?
No. Under 8 C.F.R. § 1240.20, the application may be filed only with the immigration court after a case has been opened there. USCIS does not accept it, and there is no office where someone outside proceedings can file it. Anyone offering to file it for a fee is selling something that does not exist, and the information you hand over can surface later in court.
Does hardship to me count?
Not for the 10-year rule. In Matter of Monreal-Aguinaga (2001), the Board held that only hardship to a qualifying relative counts: a U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse, parent, or unmarried child under 21. Your own hardship matters only through its effect on that relative. Under the VAWA special rule, hardship to the survivor does count.
I traveled outside the country. Did that break my ten years?
It depends on two separate tests. Any single absence longer than 90 days breaks continuous physical presence, and absences adding up to more than 180 days also break it. Both apply independently, so four trips of 60 days each break presence even though no single trip was over 90 days.
My Notice to Appear had no hearing date. Does that matter?
It can. Under Pereira v. Sessions and Niz-Chavez v. Garland, a Notice to Appear that does not state the time and place of the hearing in a single document does not stop the 10-year clock, and a later hearing notice does not cure it. That can mean years kept counting after the case began. Campos-Chaves v. Garland (2024) is a different rule about in absentia orders and did not change this.
My child turns 21 soon. Does that affect my case?
Yes, and urgently. In Matter of Arevalo-Vargas (2026), the Board held that children who turn 21 stop being qualifying relatives, even when they qualified at filing and aged out while an appeal was pending. If your only qualifying relative is approaching 21, timing can decide the case.
I have a green card and a conviction. Can cancellation help?
Possibly. A permanent resident needs five years as a resident and seven years of continuous residence after a lawful admission, and is barred only by an aggravated felony conviction. But the seven years can stop on the date an offense was committed, before any conviction, so the dates of every offense and the exact statute of conviction decide eligibility.
What is the annual cap?
The statute allows no more than 4,000 grants of cancellation for people without a green card in each fiscal year, nationwide. When the year's numbers are used, a judge who decides to grant must reserve the decision until a number becomes available, so a case can be won while the green card waits.
What does it cost?
The EOIR filing fee for cancellation rose sharply in 2026 and changed again on October 1, 2026, and fingerprinting carries its own fee, so the amount is confirmed on the day of filing; our EOIR fee update has the current figures. A fee waiver can be requested. Our legal fee is quoted as a flat fee after we review the case, and payment plans are available.
What happens if the judge denies cancellation?
The decision can be appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals on a short, strict deadline, and a Board decision can be taken to the Third Circuit by petition for review. Since Wilkinson v. Garland (2024), the hardship ruling can be reviewed, but the Third Circuit defers heavily to the agency, so the record built for the hearing is what an appeal works with.
Cancellation of removal at a glance
- Who we represent
- People in removal proceedings and their families, detained or not, in Allentown and across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.
- Languages
- English and Spanish.
- 10-year rule
- 10 years of presence, good moral character, no disqualifying conviction, and exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to a U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse, parent, or child.
- Permanent residents
- 5 years as a resident, 7 years of continuous residence after admission, no aggravated felony.
- Annual cap
- 4,000 grants per fiscal year for people without a green card.
- Key authority
- INA § 240A; 8 C.F.R. §§ 1240.20–1240.21.
- Office
- 609 W. Hamilton Street, No. 102, Allentown, PA 18101 · (484) 763-4984
Information reviewed against official sources, including the Immigration and Nationality Act, EOIR regulations, and published Board and Third Circuit decisions, on October 1, 2026. General information, not legal advice; it does not decide whether you qualify, count your years, predict how a judge will rule, or create an attorney-client relationship. Fees and Board precedent change, sometimes within weeks.
Reviewed and updated
The notice · The dates · The family
Send the Notice to Appear and every paper you have. We will review them and explain which path fits.
Start with the A-number, the Notice to Appear and how it reached you, every trip outside the country, any arrests and court papers, and the immigration status and date of birth of each close family member.
English and Spanish · Allentown · Pennsylvania · New Jersey · New York · Representation where permitted