Pleas for green card holders
A permanent resident is tested against the deportability grounds in INA 237(a)(2), and the government has to prove them. Most of those grounds do not care about the sentence or the date. One of them, the single crime involving moral turpitude, turns on a five-year clock that runs from an admission. The relief that matters most, cancellation of removal for permanent residents, is barred by an aggravated felony and stops accruing on the day you commit a qualifying offense, not the day you plead. Three dates decide almost everything: when you were first admitted, when you became a resident, and when the offense was committed.
Current as of October 2026. We re-check this page regularly and after any rule change.
You were admitted, so the list that applies to the conviction itself is the deportability list in INA 237(a)(2), and DHS has to prove the ground. A resident also has more to lose than anyone else on this site. Cancellation of removal, the 212(h) waiver, the right to come home from a trip, and naturalization each carry a criminal bar, and several of those bars turn on dates rather than labels. This page goes through the grounds, the dates and the relief, in that order. The grounds are explained category by category on the crimes and removal page, and what to ask for instead is on the plea strategy pages.
Your list: the deportability grounds
Most of the grounds below have no sentence test and no date test. A conviction that fits the category is enough. The exception is the ground for one crime involving moral turpitude, and that is where the dates come in.
| Ground | What triggers it | Sentence or date test | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|
| One crime involving moral turpitude | A CIMT committed within five years after the date of admission | A sentence of one year or longer may be imposed, and the five-year clock | INA 237(a)(2)(A)(i) |
| Two or more CIMTs | Any time after admission, unless they arose out of a single scheme of criminal misconduct | None | INA 237(a)(2)(A)(ii); Matter of Adetiba, 20 I&N Dec. 506 (BIA 1992) |
| Aggravated felony | Any offense on the list in INA 101(a)(43), any time after admission | None for the ground itself; several list entries turn on a term of imprisonment of at least one year or a loss above a statutory threshold | INA 237(a)(2)(A)(iii) |
| Controlled substance | A conviction under any law relating to a federally controlled substance, other than a single offense of possession for your own use of 30 grams or less of marijuana | None | INA 237(a)(2)(B)(i) |
| Drug abuser or addict | No conviction required | None | INA 237(a)(2)(B)(ii) |
| Firearms | Buying, selling, using, owning, possessing or carrying a firearm or destructive device, or attempting or conspiring to | None | INA 237(a)(2)(C) |
| Domestic violence, stalking, child abuse, neglect or abandonment | A conviction; a crime of domestic violence is a crime of violence against a spouse, former spouse, co-parent, cohabitant or a person protected by domestic-violence law | None | INA 237(a)(2)(E)(i); Matter of H. Estrada, 26 I&N Dec. 749 (BIA 2016) |
| Protection order | A court finding that you violated the protective part of an order; no conviction required | None | INA 237(a)(2)(E)(ii); Matter of Obshatko, 27 I&N Dec. 173 (BIA 2017) |
| Failure to register as a sex offender | A conviction under 18 U.S.C. 2250 | None | INA 237(a)(2)(A)(v) |
| Document fraud, false claim to citizenship, unlawful voting | Separate grounds outside 237(a)(2) | None | INA 237(a)(3)(B)(iii), 237(a)(3)(D), 237(a)(6) |
The burden is on the government
DHS must prove deportability by clear and convincing evidence. INA 240(c)(3)(A); 8 C.F.R. 1240.8(a); Woodby v. INS, 385 U.S. 276 (1966). A resident should never concede a charge in immigration court before the record has been read.
The five-year clock runs from an admission, and adjustment can be that admission
A single CIMT makes a resident deportable only if it was committed within five years after "the date of admission" and a sentence of a year or more may be imposed for it. Under Matter of Alyazji, 25 I&N Dec. 397 (BIA 2011), the admission that counts is the one by virtue of which you were present when the crime was committed, and an adjustment of status can be that admission. If you adjusted, do not assume the clock started at your first entry. The test is the sentence that may be imposed, not the sentence you got; in New York the maximum for a class A misdemeanor is 364 days, which on the text of the statute is below the line (that is our reading of the text, so ask us before relying on it). After five years a single CIMT is off this list, though it stays on the inadmissibility list for travel and applications, and a second CIMT at any time brings the two-CIMT ground, which has no clock.
The three dates, and what each one decides
Write down three dates before you look at the plea offer: your first admission in any status, the date you became a permanent resident, and the date the offense was committed. Not the arrest date, not the plea date. The offense date.
Cancellation of removal for permanent residents under INA 240A(a) requires five years as a lawful permanent resident, seven years of continuous residence after an admission in any status, and no aggravated felony conviction. The seven years end under INA 240A(d)(1) on service of a Notice to Appear or on the date you commit an offense referred to in 212(a)(2) that renders you inadmissible under 212(a)(2) or removable under 237(a)(2) or (a)(4), whichever is earlier. Under Matter of Perez, 22 I&N Dec. 689 (BIA 1999), commission stops the clock, not conviction. Under Barton v. Barr, 590 U.S. 222 (2020), an offense "renders" a resident inadmissible for this purpose even though a resident is not seeking admission. A plea entered later cannot move the stop date. What it can change is whether the offense of conviction is a 212(a)(2) offense at all.
Take one resident: first admitted on a work visa in October 2013, adjusted to permanent resident inside the country in June 2017. Run two offense dates through the rules.
| Question | Offense committed February 2024 | Offense committed April 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| Single CIMT, the five-year clock | Five years from October 2013 ended in 2018; five years from June 2017 ended in 2022. Under either reading of Alyazji, a single CIMT committed in 2024 is outside the clock. | Five years from October 2013 ended in October 2018, so a single CIMT is outside the clock if that admission counts. Five years from June 2017 runs to June 2022, so it is inside if the adjustment counts. Which admission counts is the Alyazji question. |
| LPR cancellation, seven years of continuous residence | October 2013 to February 2024 is more than ten years. The clock stops at commission, after the seven years were complete. | October 2013 to April 2019 is five years and six months. If the offense is a 212(a)(2) offense, the clock stops there under Perez and Barton, short of seven. Cancellation is gone whatever the plea is called. |
| LPR cancellation, five years as a resident | June 2017 to June 2022. Met. | The seven-year answer already decides the case. |
| LPR cancellation, the aggravated felony bar | If the plea is an aggravated felony, cancellation is barred regardless of the dates. INA 240A(a)(3). The negotiation then has to keep the plea off the list: 364 days rather than a year on a theft or a crime of violence, a loss below the statutory threshold on a fraud count, or an offense whose elements do not match the entry. | |
| The 212(h) waiver | This resident adjusted inside the country. Under Matter of J-H-J-, 26 I&N Dec. 563 (BIA 2015), the 212(h) bar for residents reaches only a person who entered at a port of entry as a permanent resident, so neither of its prongs applies here. | |
Whether the five years as a resident can keep accruing after the offense date is a question to raise with us; the seven-year clock and the aggravated felony bar decide most cases first. Bring the three dates to the consultation. The stop-time page goes through the clock.
The two waivers a resident may still have
The 212(h) waiver
INA 212(h) waives inadmissibility for a crime involving moral turpitude, for a single offense of simple possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana, for multiple convictions with aggregate sentences of five years or more, and for prostitution, on one of three routes: 15 years plus rehabilitation, extreme hardship to a citizen or resident spouse, parent, son or daughter, or a VAWA self-petition. It does not reach murder or torture, and it does not reach any other drug conviction. For a violent or dangerous crime it is granted only in extraordinary circumstances or on a showing of exceptional and extremely unusual hardship. 8 C.F.R. 1212.7(d); Matter of Jean, 23 I&N Dec. 373 (A.G. 2002).
The statute adds a bar for residents: no waiver for a person "previously admitted to the United States as an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence" who has since been convicted of an aggravated felony, or who has not lawfully resided continuously for seven years before proceedings began. Under J-H-J-, that bar reaches only the resident who entered at a port of entry with an immigrant visa, not one who adjusted inside the country. The difference is how the green card was obtained.
Former 212(c)
If the plea was entered before April 1, 1997, the repealed 212(c) waiver may still be available under INS v. St. Cyr, 533 U.S. 289 (2001). It requires seven consecutive years of lawful unrelinquished domicile, and it is barred for an aggravated felony only where you served five years or more. Former INA 212(c); 8 C.F.R. 1212.3(f). If your plea is that old, say so early.
Cancellation of removal for permanent residents as it is tried before the judge: the elements, the stop-time fight, and discretion.
LPR cancellation in court →
immigrationtrial.comThe 212(h) waiver in removal proceedings: the three routes, the resident bar, and the violent-or-dangerous standard.
The 212(h) waiver →
Travel, naturalization and detention
Travel
A resident returning from abroad is not treated as seeking admission unless one of six things listed in INA 101(a)(13)(C) is true. The fifth is having committed an offense identified in 212(a)(2), unless 212(h) or cancellation has been granted since. A resident who has committed a CIMT or a drug offense and then leaves comes back as an applicant for admission, tested against the inadmissibility list, with the burden reversed and no marijuana exception. Under Vartelas v. Holder, 566 U.S. 257 (2012), this does not apply to a conviction from before April 1, 1997. The travel page goes through it. Until the record has been read, a resident with a plea on it should not leave.
Naturalization
Good moral character is required for the statutory period, five years or three for the spouse of a citizen, and through the oath. INA 316(a)(3), 319(a). Murder and an aggravated felony on or after November 29, 1990 are permanent bars. A CIMT outside the petty offense exception, a drug offense other than a single small marijuana possession, or 180 days of confinement inside the period is a conditional bar, and nothing is approved while probation is running. 8 C.F.R. 316.10(b), (c)(1). Under INA 318 no application can be decided while removal proceedings are pending, so the record is read against 237(a)(2) before the N-400 is filed. The naturalization page covers this.
Detention
Under INA 236(c)(1) there is no bond hearing for a resident deportable for two CIMTs, an aggravated felony, a drug offense or a firearms offense, or for a single CIMT with a sentence of at least one year. A green card does not change that. See the mandatory detention page, the waivers page, and after a plea for a plea already entered.
Read next: travel after a plea, naturalization and a criminal record, the stop-time rule, or waivers after a conviction.
Common questions
I have had my green card for years. Can one misdemeanor really make me deportable?
One crime involving moral turpitude makes a resident deportable only if it was committed within five years after the date of admission and a sentence of a year or more may be imposed for it. Under Matter of Alyazji the admission that counts is the one by virtue of which you were present when the crime was committed, and an adjustment of status can be that admission. Outside the five years a single CIMT is off the deportability list, but an aggravated felony, a drug offense other than a single small marijuana possession, a firearms offense, a domestic violence offense or a second CIMT has no clock at all.
Does the plea date or the offense date stop the cancellation clock?
The offense date. Under INA 240A(d)(1) and Matter of Perez, the seven years of continuous residence required for cancellation of removal end when you commit an offense referred to in INA 212(a)(2) that makes you inadmissible or deportable, and under Barton v. Barr that is true for a resident even though a resident is not seeking admission. A plea entered later cannot move that date. What the plea can change is whether the offense of conviction is a 212(a)(2) offense at all.
Is the 212(h) waiver closed to green card holders?
Only to some. The statute bars the waiver for a person previously admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident who has since been convicted of an aggravated felony or who has not lawfully resided here continuously for seven years before proceedings began. Under Matter of J-H-J- that bar applies only to a resident who entered at a port of entry with an immigrant visa. A resident who adjusted status inside the country is not subject to it.
I pleaded guilty in 1995. Does any of this apply to me?
Two old-plea rules can help. Under INS v. St. Cyr, a resident who pleaded guilty before April 1, 1997 may still apply for the repealed 212(c) waiver, which is barred for an aggravated felony only where you served five years or more. And under Vartelas v. Holder, the rule that treats a resident who committed a 212(a)(2) offense as seeking admission on return from travel does not apply to a conviction from before April 1, 1997. The deportability grounds themselves still apply.
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.