Categoria Z13 Green Card: Eligibility, Hardship Rule, and Evidence

Cancellation of removal for nonpermanent residents is a form of relief an immigration judge can grant to a noncitizen already in removal proceedings, stopping the deportation and adjusting the person’s status to lawful permanent resident. It is not a visa you apply for from the outside, and there is no standalone application filed with USCIS to start it. The request is made inside the removal case, and the judge decides it as a matter of discretion.

Who Qualifies

Federal law sets four requirements, and all of them must be met.¹

Continuous physical presence in the United States for at least ten years immediately before filing the application.
Good moral character throughout that entire ten-year period.²
Proof that removal would cause exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to a spouse, parent, or child who is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.
No disqualifying convictions.

The convictions that can bar relief include aggravated felonies, crimes involving moral turpitude, and controlled substance offenses.³

What the Hardship Requirement Actually Means

The hardship has to fall on the qualifying relative, not on the applicant. Difficulty to the person facing removal, on its own, does not satisfy this element.² And the qualifying relative must be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse, parent, or child. A relative outside those three categories, or one without status, does not count for this purpose.

“Exceptional and extremely unusual” is a high standard. It calls for hardship well beyond what family members of any deported person would ordinarily face, which is why the evidence supporting it tends to be the heart of the case.

How to Apply

The application is Form EOIR-42B, filed with the immigration court that has your removal case, not with USCIS. The court is part of the Executive Office for Immigration Review.²

You pay a filing fee and a biometric services fee when you submit the form. If you cannot afford them, you may be able to request a waiver. Applicants proceeding under the special rules for battered spouses or children, for example, can use Form I-912 to ask for a fee waiver based on inability to pay.⁴

Evidence to Gather

Two categories of proof carry most of the weight. For the ten years of physical presence, applicants typically pull together tax records, employment records, and lease or housing documents that place them in the country year after year. For hardship, the record often includes medical records for the qualifying relative, financial statements, and school reports.¹

Because the judge decides the case as a matter of discretion, a thorough, specific record of your time in the United States and your family ties matters as much as meeting the elements on paper.²