The plea consequences tool
Seven short steps: who you are, what is pending, which court, the offense, the disposition and sentence, any priors, and a review. The tool applies the criminal grounds of removal, the relief bars and the detention rules to what you enter, adds the verified sentencing and procedure notes for your state or for federal court, and says where the answer depends on the statute or the record. It runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere or stored.
Current as of October 2026. We re-check this page regularly and after any rule change.
The tool needs JavaScript
Your browser has scripts turned off, so the tool cannot run. The rules it applies are written out on the crimes and removal pages, and you can request a free plea review instead.
How to read the result
The result has five parts, in the order a lawyer would work through them.
- Is it a conviction? The immigration definition in INA 101(a)(48) is wider than most state definitions. A plea with probation and no judgment is a conviction. A dismissal after diversion with no plea is not.
- Which grounds does it trigger? Deportability under INA 237(a)(2) if you were admitted; inadmissibility under INA 212(a)(2) if you were not, or if you are applying for anything, or if you are a permanent resident who travels. Each ground is marked triggers, likely, depends, not triggered, or exception applies, with the reason and the rule behind it.
- Detention. Whether INA 236(c) would take away the bond hearing.
- Relief and status. Cancellation, the 212(h) waiver, adjustment, asylum, voluntary departure, naturalization, TPS, DACA and travel, each marked open, at risk, closed or not applicable, with the rule that decides it.
- Where the plea is entered. For every state, the District of Columbia and federal court: the sentencing ladder, whether the top misdemeanor is a full year or 364 days, which diversions need a plea and which do not, youthful offender treatment, the plea advisal the judge must give, the filing and deadline for undoing a plea, and marijuana status, each with its citation and a link to the source.
- What to ask for instead. If the plea is still an offer, the negotiating points for that category and that court: the sentence, the count, the record, the disposition type. If it has already been entered, what can still be done, with the post-conviction filing for your state.
Depends is not a hedge. It means the answer turns on the wording of the statute you are charged under or on what the record of conviction will say, and both of those can be found out and, before a plea, shaped. The categorical approach page explains why.
What the tool does not do
It does not read your statute. It does not read your record. It does not know your circuit. It does not give legal advice, and it does not tell you to take or refuse a plea. It applies general rules to the categories you select, and a real case can come out differently: a statute broader than the federal definition, a record that does not say which subsection you pleaded to, a circuit decision on the category, a fact the tool did not ask about. That is the reason the result ends with a summary to take to a lawyer rather than a verdict.
Three things it also does not do, on purpose. It does not name statute numbers as safe harbors. It does not predict what a judge or a prosecutor will do. And it does not keep anything: the site's privacy page describes the tool's handling of your answers, which is that there is none.
Every state, read from its own code
The federal immigration rules are the same in every courtroom. What differs is the state: whether a misdemeanor can carry a full year, whether a diversion program requires a plea, whether the judge must warn you before you plead, and how long you have to undo a plea afterward. For each of the fifty states, the District of Columbia and the federal courts, we read those provisions in the state code or court rules and recorded them with the citation and the link. What we could not confirm from a primary source is marked as not verified rather than filled in. The state notes appear in the result under "Where the plea is entered", and they feed the negotiating points.
How the rules are kept current
Every rule in the tool is checked against its primary source. The rules are current as of October 2026. When the statute, the regulations or published precedent change, the tool changes in the same update, and the change is logged on the changes in the law page.
Read next: which status are you in, the criminal grounds, immigration-safer pleas, or a free plea review.
Common questions
Is anything I enter saved or sent to you?
No. The tool is a script that runs in your browser. It has no server, no storage and no analytics. Reloading the page clears every answer. The copy button copies the result to your own clipboard and nothing else. If you want us to see it, you paste it into the plea review form or bring it to a call; that is your choice, not the page's.
Why does it ask for categories instead of the statute number?
Because whether a specific statute is a crime involving moral turpitude, an aggravated felony or a crime of violence is decided by comparing that statute's elements to the federal definition, statute by statute and circuit by circuit. A tool that pretended to know the answer for every statute would be wrong often enough to hurt someone. The tool applies the rules that are settled to the category, and marks the rest as depending on the statute or the record.
Can I use it for a conviction from years ago?
Yes. Choose already pleaded or convicted, enter the sentence the court imposed including any suspended part, and the date the offense was committed. The result shows what the conviction does now, including for travel and naturalization, and what can still be done about it.
What should I do with the result?
Take it to a lawyer before the plea. Copy the summary, paste it into our free plea review form or bring it to a call, and give it to your criminal defense lawyer. The negotiating points at the end are the questions to ask. Do not accept or reject a plea on the basis of the tool alone.
Can I compare two plea offers?
Yes. After a result, choose Compare with another plea. Your status, court, dates and priors carry over; you change only the offense and the sentence, and the tool shows the two pleas side by side, point by point, marking where the alternative is safer and where it is worse. Safer means a lower level on that line, never safe. It is built for the moment a prosecutor offers a choice between two counts, or between a year and 364 days.
What is the memo for my defense lawyer?
The same result written as a memorandum to counsel: the facts assumed, each ground with its level and reason, the effect on relief, what to ask for, the authorities relied on, and the limits of a category-level analysis. Print it or save it as a PDF and hand it to your criminal lawyer. It is not an opinion letter; our opinion letter reads the statute and the record and is signed.
How does the link to my answers work?
The link puts your answers after the # sign in the address. Browsers do not send that part of an address to any server, and this site has no server to send it to, so the answers stay in the link itself. Whoever opens it sees the review step with your answers filled in and can run the tool. Send it only to someone you trust, such as your lawyer.
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.