Plea strategy
A plea has five moving parts, and each one can change the immigration result: the offense you plead to, the sentence, the type of disposition, what the record says, and when it happens. Prosecutors negotiate all five every day for other reasons. The work is knowing which one matters for your case, and asking for it before the plea, because afterward the only tool left is a motion to undo it.
Current as of October 2026. We re-check this page regularly and after any rule change.
Everything on this page assumes the analysis on the crimes and removal pages has been done: you know which list applies to you, which grounds the charged offense could fit, and which forms of relief you need to protect. The strategy follows from that. The plea tool ends every result with the negotiating points for the category entered, which is where this conversation with your criminal lawyer starts.
Five moving parts, and the right that makes them enforceable
In rough order of how often each one decides a case.
The offense
Which statute, and which subsection. An offense whose elements do not require intent to permanently deprive, violent force, a federally controlled substance, a firearm, or a protected victim is outside the corresponding ground. A plea to a different count, a lesser included offense, or an attempt can change the category.
The sentence
364 days instead of one year keeps a theft, assault, forgery or obstruction plea out of the aggravated felony entries. Six months or less keeps a single CIMT inside the petty offense exception. Under 180 days of confinement avoids a good moral character bar. Suspended time counts in full.
The disposition
A plea with any penalty is a conviction. A dismissal after diversion with no plea is not. Youthful offender and juvenile dispositions are not. Whether the court can offer one of these, and what you have to say to get it, is often the most important question in the case.
The record
The charging document, the plea colloquy, the judgment and any stipulation are what the immigration judge reads. A plea to a divisible statute that does not identify the subsection, a loss amount kept below $10,000 (a statutory threshold), a factual basis that does not name the substance or the relationship: these are drafted, not discovered.
The timing
The stop-time rule runs from the date of commission. The five-year CIMT rule runs from admission. A naturalization statutory period, a pending adjustment, a planned trip: each can be protected or lost by when the plea is entered and when the sentence finishes.
The advice
Under Padilla v. Kentucky, your defense lawyer must tell you the immigration consequences before you plead. That right is what makes the rest of this page enforceable, and it is what makes a plea entered without it vulnerable later.
The strategy pages
One page for each of the moving parts, and the tool that runs them together.
Your right to immigration advice before a plea
Padilla v. Kentucky, what the advice has to cover, the court advisals in New York and Florida, and what to do if you never got it.
Read →Immigration-safer pleas
Category by category: what to ask for instead, and why. Not a list of statute numbers.
Read →The 364-day sentence
Why one day matters, how New York wrote it into law, and how it works in New Jersey, Florida and federal court.
Read →Deferred and withheld adjudication
Why a plea with probation is a conviction, which diversions are not, and what to ask the court for.
Read →Youthful offender and juvenile cases
The dispositions that are not convictions, and the limits of that rule.
Read →The record of conviction
Which documents the immigration judge may read, and how a plea is drafted so they say only what they have to.
Read →Expungement and sealing
Why a sealed or expunged record still counts, and what you have to disclose on an immigration form.
Read →The plea tool
Enter the status, the court, the category and the sentence. The result ends with the negotiating points for that plea.
Open the tool →How we work with your criminal lawyer
Most of the time we are the second lawyer in the room. Your criminal defense lawyer handles the case; we read the charge against the immigration statute, tell you both what the offered plea does, and say specifically what to ask for instead: which count, what sentence, what the factual basis should and should not say, and whether the disposition on offer is a conviction. We put that in writing, which also documents that the Padilla advice was given. Where the firm's own criminal defense practice can take the case, it does, and the two lawyers work from one file.
The one rule that applies to every plea
Do not plead until someone has read the charge against the immigration statute. Not the criminal lawyer's general impression, not a friend's case, not this site alone. The categorical approach is statute-specific, the thresholds are exact, and the difference between a case that can be defended and one that cannot is frequently a single word in the plea or a single day in the sentence.
Read next: your right to advice before a plea, immigration-safer pleas, the 364-day sentence, or what can be done after a plea.
Common questions
Is there a list of safe pleas?
No, and any list you find should be treated with suspicion. Whether a plea is a ground of removal is decided by comparing the elements of the statute to the federal definition, statute by statute and circuit by circuit, and a plea that is safer for a green card holder can end the case of a person with a pending application. This site explains what makes a category of plea safer and what to ask for. You will not find a statute number here held out as a safe harbor.
My criminal lawyer says the plea is a misdemeanor so immigration will not care. Is that right?
Not necessarily. The immigration statute does not use the words felony and misdemeanor. A misdemeanor theft with a one-year suspended sentence is an aggravated felony. A misdemeanor drug possession is a controlled-substance ground. A misdemeanor assault against a spouse can be a crime of domestic violence. Ask what the elements are, what the sentence will be, and what the record will say, not what the state calls it.
Does the prosecutor have to agree to an immigration-safer plea?
No. But prosecutors negotiate pleas to different counts and different sentences constantly, for reasons that have nothing to do with immigration, and a request for a specific count, a 364-day cap or a particular factual basis is an ordinary request. Under Padilla v. Kentucky your defense lawyer must advise you of the immigration consequences, and a lawyer who knows what to ask for can often get it.
What if I already took the plea?
Then the question is what the plea actually is under the categorical approach, what the record establishes, and whether the plea can be vacated for a defect, most often a Padilla violation. That is the after-a-plea section of this site. The earlier the review happens after sentencing, the more options there are.
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.