Pleas for asylees and refugees
For a person granted asylum or admitted as a refugee, the concept that matters most is the particularly serious crime. An aggravated felony is per se a particularly serious crime for asylum. For withholding of removal, an aggravated felony with an aggregate sentence of five years or more is per se serious and everything else is weighed case by case. The step from protection to a green card tests admissibility, where a drug conviction has no marijuana exception. And deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture has no criminal bar at all, which is why it is the floor under everything else.
Current as of October 2026. We re-check this page regularly and after any rule change.
Protection from persecution and protection from a criminal record are different things, and the statute keeps them apart. A conviction does not change what happened to you in your country. It can change whether the United States will keep protecting you from it. This page goes through the one concept that decides that question, the particularly serious crime; the list that applies to the conviction itself; the admissibility test at the green card step; and the protection that no conviction reaches. The categories are explained on the crimes and removal page, and the pleas that avoid the worst of them on the plea strategy pages.
Which list applies to the conviction
Whether the deportability grounds in INA 237(a)(2) or the inadmissibility grounds in INA 212(a)(2) apply to a conviction turns on whether you were admitted. A refugee who was inspected and admitted at a port of entry was admitted, and the deportability grounds apply to a later conviction, with the burden on DHS to prove the ground by clear and convincing evidence. INA 240(c)(3)(A); Woodby v. INS, 385 U.S. 276 (1966). For an asylee, whether the grant of asylum is itself an admission for this purpose is a question to ask us about your case, because the answer changes which list applies and who carries the burden. What does not change, whichever list applies, is the particularly serious crime concept, and what does not change at the green card step is the admissibility test.
| Ground | Deportability, INA 237(a)(2) | Inadmissibility, INA 212(a)(2) |
|---|---|---|
| One crime involving moral turpitude | Committed within five years of admission, and a sentence of a year or more may be imposed. The five-year clock runs from the admission by virtue of which you were present when the crime was committed, and an adjustment can be that admission under Matter of Alyazji, 25 I&N Dec. 397 (BIA 2011) | Any time, any sentence, by conviction or admission; one offense excepted under the petty offense exception |
| Two or more CIMTs | Any time after admission, not a single scheme | Each one counts on its own |
| Aggravated felony | Any time after admission | Not a ground by that name, but almost every aggravated felony is also a CIMT, a drug offense or a multiple-conviction case |
| Controlled substance | Excepts a single possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana for your own use | No exception; conviction or admission |
| Firearms | A ground | No parallel ground |
| Domestic violence, stalking, child abuse; protection-order violation | A ground; the order violation needs no conviction | No parallel ground by that name |
| Reason to believe drug trafficker | No parallel ground by that name | A ground; no conviction required |
The deportability versus inadmissibility page sets the two lists out in full. Several grounds on the first list also take away the bond hearing under INA 236(c)(1)(B) and (C), and inadmissibility under 212(a)(2) does the same under 236(c)(1)(A). See the mandatory detention page.
The particularly serious crime
Asylum is barred for a person who, having been convicted by a final judgment of a particularly serious crime, constitutes a danger to the community, and an aggravated felony is per se a particularly serious crime for asylum. INA 208(b)(2)(A)(ii), (B)(i). Withholding of removal is barred for a particularly serious crime, and for withholding an aggravated felony or felonies with an aggregate term of imprisonment of at least five years is per se serious; other offenses are decided case by case. INA 241(b)(3)(B)(ii) and flush text. Deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture is not barred by any criminal conviction. 8 C.F.R. 1208.17(a).
| Protection | Per se bar | Otherwise | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asylum | Any aggravated felony | Case by case under Frentescu and N-A-M- | INA 208(b)(2)(A)(ii), (B)(i) |
| Withholding of removal | An aggravated felony or felonies with an aggregate sentence of five years or more | Case by case under Frentescu and N-A-M- | INA 241(b)(3)(B)(ii) and flush text |
| Deferral under CAT | None | No criminal bar | 8 C.F.R. 1208.17(a) |
Outside the per se rules, the question is decided under Matter of Frentescu, 18 I&N Dec. 244 (BIA 1982), and Matter of N-A-M-, 24 I&N Dec. 336 (BIA 2007): the nature of the conviction, the sentence imposed, the circumstances and underlying facts, and whether the type and circumstances of the crime indicate that the person is a danger to the community. Two of those four factors are things a plea negotiation can shape. The sentence is a factor, so a shorter one helps. The circumstances and underlying facts are read from the record, so a plea to a count that does not carry the aggravating facts, and an allocution that does not recite them, matters. There is no list of offenses that are always particularly serious and no list of offenses that never are, so we look at your offense and your record together.
An aggravated felony is the plea to refuse
For a person whose protection is asylum, an aggravated felony plea ends the analysis by statute. The entries most likely to be on the table in a plea negotiation are the sentence entries: a theft, a crime of violence, forgery or obstruction with a term of imprisonment of at least one year, where under INA 101(a)(48)(B) a suspended year is a year; and the fraud entry, where the loss to the victim exceeds $10,000, a statutory threshold decided from the record under Nijhawan v. Holder, 557 U.S. 29 (2009). A sentence of 364 days, and a count whose loss is below the threshold, keep the plea off the list. The aggravated felonies page has the whole list, and the 364-day page explains the single day.
Terminating a grant of asylum or refugee status already made is a different question. The bars described above are bars to granting the protection, and termination has its own separate provisions. If that is your worry, ask us; that side of the case lives on our site asylumadvocate.com.
Bars to asylum: the particularly serious crime bar, the aggravated felony rule, and what a conviction does to asylum, withholding and protection under the Convention Against Torture.
Bars to asylum →
asylumadvocate.comWithholding of removal: the standard, the particularly serious crime bar as it is litigated, and how withholding differs from asylum in what it gives.
Withholding of removal →
The green card step tests admissibility
Adjustment to permanent residence tests you against the inadmissibility grounds. For a plea, that means the criminal grounds in INA 212(a)(2): a CIMT by conviction or by admission of the essential elements, with the petty offense exception for a single offense whose maximum did not exceed one year and whose sentence did not exceed six months; any controlled-substance conviction or admission, with no marijuana exception; two or more convictions with aggregate sentences of five years or more; and the reason-to-believe trafficking ground, which needs no conviction. A false claim to citizenship is a separate ground under INA 212(a)(6)(C)(ii).
We would want to check the waiver framework for refugee and asylee adjustment against its primary source and your record before telling you which grounds can be waived at that step, or on what showing. The 212(h) waiver described elsewhere on this site is the waiver for adjustment under INA 245, so ask us rather than assume it carries over. What we can say is that the admissibility test is applied, that a drug conviction is the ground with the fewest exits on any list, and that the record should be read against 212(a)(2) before the application is filed, not after. That reading is the consultation.
An admission is enough. INA 212(a)(2)(A)(i) reaches a person who admits committing a CIMT or a drug offense, or admits its essential elements, without a conviction. A plea colloquy in a case that is later dismissed, a factual basis read into the record, or a statement in a diversion agreement can be that admission. The record of conviction page explains which documents will be read at the green card step.
After the green card, and what to ask for now
Once you are a permanent resident, the green card holder page applies. The deportability grounds apply to any later conviction, with the five-year clock on a single CIMT running from the admission by virtue of which you were present, and the adjustment can be that admission under Alyazji. Naturalization then requires good moral character for the statutory period and through the oath, INA 316(a)(3), 319(a), with an aggravated felony on or after November 29, 1990 a permanent bar and a CIMT, a drug offense or 180 days of confinement inside the period a conditional one. 8 C.F.R. 316.10(b). The naturalization page goes through it.
At the plea, the questions are the same as for everyone else on this site, in a different order.
1Is it an aggravated felony?
Can a sentence of 364 days or a lower count keep the offered plea off the list?
2Is it a drug offense?
Is there a non-drug alternative?
3What will the sentence and the record say?
Both are read under Frentescu.
4Is it a crime involving moral turpitude?
Can the maximum and the sentence be kept inside the petty offense exception for the green card step?
The immigration-safer pleas page works through the alternatives, and after a plea covers what can still be done if the plea has already been entered.
Read next: aggravated felonies, pleas with a pending application, drug offenses, or pleas for green card holders.
Common questions
What is a particularly serious crime?
For asylum, an aggravated felony is per se a particularly serious crime under INA 208(b)(2)(B)(i). For withholding of removal, an aggravated felony or felonies with an aggregate term of imprisonment of at least five years is per se serious under INA 241(b)(3)(B). Any other conviction is weighed under Matter of Frentescu and Matter of N-A-M-: the nature of the conviction, the sentence, the circumstances and underlying facts, and whether they show the person is a danger to the community. There is no fixed list of offenses.
Can I be deported after being granted asylum?
A grant of asylum is not a green card, and the asylum bars and the deportability grounds are separate rules. This page covers the criminal bar to asylum and withholding, the deportability and inadmissibility grounds, and the admissibility test at the green card step. Terminating a grant of asylum already made is a separate question, so ask us about your case. The asylumadvocate.com pages cover the protection side.
Does a drug conviction stop my green card as an asylee or refugee?
The step to permanent residence tests admissibility, and a conviction of, or an admission of, a violation of any law relating to a federally controlled substance is an inadmissibility ground with no marijuana exception. INA 212(a)(2)(A)(i)(II). Which waiver terms apply at the refugee and asylee adjustment step is a question for the consultation, so bring the record before filing.
Is there anything a conviction cannot take away?
Deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture. Under 8 C.F.R. 1208.17(a) it is not barred by any criminal conviction, and under Nasrallah v. Barr a court of appeals can review a CAT order even where the criminal-ground bar limits review of the removal order. It is protection from being sent to the country of torture, not a status, and it is the floor rather than the goal.
Tell us about the charge before you take the plea. Not after.
You get a free conversation with an immigration attorney, in your language. We speak English, Russian, Spanish and Uzbek in-house, and we bring in a live interpreter for anything else. We will read the charge against the immigration statute, tell you what the offered plea does to your status and to every form of relief, and tell you what to ask your criminal lawyer to negotiate instead. If the plea has already been entered, we will tell you what can still be done.