EOIR 42B Form: Cancellation of Removal Requirements

To win cancellation of removal and adjustment of status on Form EOIR-42B, you must satisfy four statutory requirements: ten years of continuous physical presence in the United States, good moral character throughout that period, no disqualifying criminal convictions, and proof that your removal would cause exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to a qualifying U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident relative. Meeting all four still is not enough on its own. The statute says the judge “may” grant relief, which leaves the final decision to discretion.¹ The form is filed with the immigration court during removal proceedings, not with USCIS, and the fee is $1,640 for fiscal year 2026.²

Ten Years of Continuous Physical Presence

You must show that you were physically present in the United States for at least ten continuous years immediately before you filed the application.¹ Two rules cut the count short.

The stop-time rule freezes your clock on the earlier of two events: service of a Notice to Appear in removal proceedings, or commission of certain criminal offenses that make you inadmissible or deportable. You need the full ten years in place before that date.

Travel also breaks continuity. Any single trip abroad longer than 90 days, or trips totaling more than 180 days across the ten-year window, disqualifies you.

There is an important exception on the stop-time side. The Supreme Court held in Niz-Chavez v. Garland that the Notice to Appear must be a single document containing all required information, including the time and place of the hearing, the charges, and notice of the right to counsel.³ If you received a bare NTA and a separate hearing notice arrived later, the stop-time rule may not have been properly triggered, and your ten-year clock may have kept running. This is worth checking with an attorney before assuming you fall short.

Good Moral Character for the Full Ten Years

You must demonstrate good moral character for the entire ten-year period. Federal law lists conduct that automatically forecloses a good-moral-character finding: convictions for crimes involving moral turpitude, drug offenses, two or more convictions with aggregate sentences of five years or more, fraud, illegal gambling income, habitual drunkenness, and a false claim to U.S. citizenship, among others.⁴

Even without a statutory bar, an immigration judge can find you lack good moral character based on the totality of your conduct. Tax compliance, honesty on prior immigration filings, and community involvement all feed into the assessment. It covers a decade of your life, not a single moment.

No Disqualifying Criminal Convictions

Separate from the moral character analysis, certain convictions independently disqualify you.⁵ The main categories:

Crimes involving moral turpitude, including fraud, theft, and many violent offenses. A narrow exception exists for a single offense committed under age 18, or one carrying a maximum penalty of a year or less with no sentence over six months.
Controlled substance offenses. The only carve-out is a single conviction for simple possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana.
Drug trafficking. A conviction is not required; a “reason to believe” finding by the government is enough.
Two or more convictions with combined sentences of five years or more, regardless of the underlying offense.
Security and terrorism-related grounds, including espionage, sabotage, and terrorist activity.

The moral character bars and the criminal inadmissibility bars overlap by design. An offense might miss one list but catch you on the other. Any criminal history at all calls for a careful charge-by-charge review before filing.

Exceptional and Extremely Unusual Hardship to a Qualifying Relative

You must prove that your removal would cause exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to a qualifying relative who is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. Under the statute, that relative can only be your spouse, parent, or child.¹ For immigration purposes, “child” means an unmarried person under 21, so a qualifying child must still be under 21 when the judge decides the case.⁴

This is where most cases are won or lost. The Board of Immigration Appeals reads the standard to require hardship “substantially different from, or beyond” what any family would normally experience when a relative is deported. Ordinary emotional pain, financial strain, and the disruption of relocating do not clear the bar. The BIA weighs factors including family ties, length of residence, the qualifying relative’s medical conditions, educational disruption for children, and conditions in the country of removal. The standard is reserved for truly exceptional situations.

Hardship to you does not count. The analysis is entirely about what your qualifying relative would suffer. A healthy adult spouse with a stable job and no obstacles to relocating makes for a difficult case, whatever your own circumstances look like.

Discretion Comes Last

Clearing the four requirements gets you eligible. The judge then decides whether to grant relief as a matter of discretion by weighing positive factors — long residence, family ties, steady employment, property, community involvement, rehabilitation — against negative ones like the seriousness of your immigration violations, criminal history, and how you ended up in proceedings. In practice, most applicants who clear the hardship bar receive a favorable exercise of discretion, but a serious criminal record or a history of immigration fraud can tip the balance the other way.

The 4,000 Annual Cap

Congress capped this relief at 4,000 grants nationwide per fiscal year across all nonpermanent-resident cancellation cases.¹ With backlogged immigration courts already stretching cases over years, the cap means some applicants who win on the merits still wait before the grant becomes effective.

Building the Evidence for Each Requirement

Judges see thin filings constantly, and they rarely succeed. Each of the four requirements needs its own body of proof.

Physical Presence

Tax returns are the backbone. Fill the gaps with utility bills, lease agreements, school transcripts, medical records, employment records, and bank statements. Organize the documents chronologically so the judge can trace your presence year by year without hunting through a disordered stack.

Good Moral Character

Get police clearance letters from every jurisdiction where you lived during the ten-year period. If you have any criminal history, include complete court records and proof that you satisfied every condition of your sentence. Affidavits from employers, neighbors, and religious or community leaders help, but they work best as supplements to official records, not substitutes.

The Qualifying Relationship

Include birth certificates, marriage certificates, and proof of your relative’s U.S. citizenship or LPR status. For a spouse, add evidence of a shared life together in case the government suspects a sham marriage. For a child qualifying relative, document the child’s age.

Exceptional and Extremely Unusual Hardship

This is where the case demands the most investment. Hardship claims resting on declarations and general assertions almost never win. Strong applications usually include:

A detailed psychological evaluation from a licensed mental health professional diagnosing conditions like anxiety, depression, or PTSD in your qualifying relative, with clinical findings tied to the potential removal. Evaluations for immigration cases typically run $1,500 to $3,000.⁶
Financial documentation — bank records, pay stubs, household budgets — showing your relative’s dependence on your income and what removal would do to the household.
Country condition evidence if the qualifying relative would follow you abroad, including State Department reports and expert declarations on medical infrastructure, education, and safety concerns for U.S. citizen children.
School and developmental records for children, including special education plans, therapy records, and teacher statements.

Every non-English document needs a certified English translation. Keep originals available for inspection at the hearing.

Filing Mechanics

The EOIR-42B filing fee is $1,640 for fiscal year 2026, plus $30 per person for biometrics.² That is a substantial increase over prior years.⁷ As of February 23, 2026, EOIR no longer accepts checks or money orders; all fees must be paid electronically through the EOIR Payment Portal. If you cannot afford the fee, you can request a waiver from the judge on Form EOIR-26A with documentation of your income, assets, expenses, and any public benefits.

File the completed EOIR-42B and all supporting evidence directly with the immigration court. Registered attorneys and accredited representatives can file electronically through ECAS. You must also serve a complete copy of the application package on the DHS/ICE Chief Counsel with a certificate of service. Missing that step can delay your case. Any false statement on the form itself can lead to denial and independently bar you from other relief.

Work Authorization While the Case Is Pending

Once your EOIR-42B is properly filed with the immigration court, you can apply to USCIS for a work permit on Form I-765 under eligibility category (c)(10). You must show that you are in removal proceedings, that the EOIR-42B was filed before the I-765, and that fees were paid or waived.⁸

Work permits issued under (c)(10) can now be valid for up to five years, a meaningful change from the previous one- or two-year maximum.⁹ Because cancellation cases often take years to resolve, the longer validity period means fewer renewal gaps. Renewals are filed on the same Form I-765.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1229b – Cancellation of Removal; Adjustment of Status
2
Executive Office for Immigration Review. Forms and Fees
3
Supreme Court of the United States. Niz-Chavez v. Garland – Opinion
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1101 – Definitions
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens
6
USCIS. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 9, Part B, Chapter 6 – Extreme Hardship Determinations
7
Federal Register. Inflation Adjustment for EOIR OBBBA Fees, Fiscal Year 2026
8
USCIS. Form I-765 Instructions for Application for Employment Authorization
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Some EADs Can be Valid for up to 5 Years