An immigration bond costs a statutory minimum of $1,500 for a delivery bond, but almost no one pays only the floor. Most bonds fall between $3,000 and $15,000, and cases involving criminal history or a serious flight-risk finding can run $25,000 or more.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1226 – Apprehension and Detention of Aliens If you can pay ICE the full amount in cash, you get it back at the end of the case. If you go through a bond company, you pay a non-refundable premium of roughly 15 to 20 percent of the bond and usually pledge collateral on top of that.
What People Actually Pay
Between fiscal year 2017 and early fiscal year 2024, the national median immigration bond ranged from $3,000 in FY 2022 to $8,000 in FY 2020, with an overall median of $6,000 across that period. The median dropped to $3,500 as of mid-2025.2TRAC. Immigrants Pay $2 Billion in ICE Bonds Since FY 20173TRAC. Increasing Success with Bond Motions in Immigration Court
Those are medians, so half of all bonds land below and half above. The spread is wide. Someone with strong community ties and no criminal record might see $3,000 to $5,000. A more complicated case can push past $20,000. Treat any published number as a rough benchmark, not a prediction for your specific situation.
The bond amount also depends on which type of bond is being set. A delivery bond, the most common type, guarantees that the detained person will appear at all future hearings and ICE check-ins; the minimum is $1,500.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1226 – Apprehension and Detention of Aliens A voluntary departure bond, which guarantees the person leaves the country by a set date, has a minimum of $500.4U.S. Department of Justice. Self-Help Guide – Information on Voluntary Departure An order of supervision bond covers someone released under supervised conditions after a final removal order.5U.S. Immigration and Customs Ice Enforcement. Post a Bond
What Drives the Amount Up or Down
ICE makes the initial custody decision when someone is detained. An officer either denies bond, sets a dollar amount, or releases the person on their own recognizance. Whatever number ICE picks reflects how much financial incentive the agency thinks is needed to secure compliance.6Executive Office for Immigration Review. OCIJ Immigration Court Practice Manual – Bond Proceedings
Two factors move the number more than any others. The first is criminal history, especially convictions that suggest a public safety concern. The second is flight risk. Someone with no stable address, no U.S. family, and a prior missed hearing will face a much higher bond than someone with a decade of continuous residence, steady employment, and children in local schools. Prior immigration violations and past deportation orders also push the amount higher.
There is no statutory maximum. While $1,500 is the legal floor for a delivery bond, the practical floor is much higher. Judges and ICE officers routinely set bonds at $5,000 to $15,000 for straightforward cases, and $25,000 or more is not unusual when the record is harder.
Cash Bond vs. Surety Bond
How you pay is often the biggest cost decision. There are two paths.
Cash Bond
A cash bond means paying the full amount directly to ICE. Only U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, law firms, and qualifying nonprofits can act as the obligor: the person who posts the bond and takes responsibility for the detained person’s compliance.7U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Post a Bond
The advantage is straightforward: the entire amount is refundable once the case concludes and all bond conditions have been met. You pay $8,000, and if the person shows up at every hearing, you get $8,000 back at the end. ICE now processes cash bond payments through an online system called CeBONDS, using Fedwire or ACH bank transfer. Credit cards, personal checks, and cash are not accepted through the online system.7U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Post a Bond
Surety Bond
When the amount is too high to pay in full, families often turn to an immigration bond company. The company posts the full bond with ICE in exchange for a non-refundable premium, typically around 15 to 20 percent of the bond. On a $10,000 bond, that is $1,500 to $2,000 you never get back, regardless of how the case ends.
Most surety companies also require collateral to secure the bond. Accepted collateral commonly includes real estate with equity exceeding the bond amount, cash deposits placed in an escrow-style account, credit card holds, or bank letters of credit. Vehicles generally are not accepted. If the detained person fails to comply with bond conditions, the surety company can pursue the obligor and seize the pledged collateral.
The surety route makes sense when the alternative is indefinite detention, but the premium is real money that stays gone. For bonds under about $5,000, it usually makes more financial sense to find a way to post the cash bond directly.
When There Is No Bond to Pay
Not everyone in immigration detention is eligible for a bond, and no dollar amount will secure release for someone the law requires to be held. Federal law mandates detention for people who are deportable or inadmissible based on certain criminal convictions, including crimes involving moral turpitude, controlled substance offenses, firearms violations, and aggravated felonies. A conviction that produced a sentence of at least one year also triggers mandatory detention, as do terrorism-related grounds and certain other listed offenses charged alongside inadmissibility grounds.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1226 – Apprehension and Detention of Aliens
If mandatory detention applies, a bond hearing will focus on whether the statute actually reaches your situation, not on the bond amount. Whether a particular conviction triggers mandatory detention is a genuinely complex legal question, and this is where having an attorney matters most.
Lowering the Amount at a Bond Hearing
If ICE denies bond or sets it unaffordably high, the detained person can request a bond redetermination hearing before an immigration judge. This is a separate proceeding from the removal case itself and can be requested at any time before a final removal order is entered.8eCFR. 8 CFR 1236.1 – Apprehension, Custody, and Detention
The judge is not bound by ICE’s initial number and can lower it. One caveat worth knowing: the judge can also raise it. Walking into a bond hearing unprepared carries real financial risk.
Under longstanding Board of Immigration Appeals precedent, the detained person carries the burden of proving they are neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community. Some federal circuits have shifted that burden to the government, but in most jurisdictions the detained person must make the affirmative case. Evidence that helps includes proof of U.S. citizen or permanent resident family members, employment records, tax returns, lease agreements, letters from community members, and a clean criminal record. A well-documented record at this stage does more to bring the number down than anything else.
After an initial bond redetermination, a second request generally requires a written motion showing changed circumstances. Disagreeing with the result is not enough on its own.
Getting the Money Back
Cash bond money is refundable once the immigration case concludes and all bond conditions have been satisfied. The refund goes to the obligor regardless of how the case ends, whether the person is granted status, departs voluntarily, or is deported.
When the bond is cancelled, ICE sends the obligor a Notice of Immigration Bond Cancelled (Form I-391). To claim the refund, the obligor mails that form along with the original bond receipt (Form I-305) to the Debt Management Center’s Bond Unit in Williston, Vermont.9Stanford Law School. The Right to Reclaim Your Immigration Bond Money If the original receipt has been lost, the obligor must submit a notarized Form I-395 (Affidavit in Lieu of Lost Receipt) with photo ID in its place. The Debt Management Center will not process a refund without either the original I-305 or a notarized I-395.
Expect the refund to take several months, and delays are common. Keep copies of everything you submit, and make sure the address ICE has on file for the obligor is current, because cancellation notices returned as undeliverable can hold things up significantly. If more than six months pass without a refund, contact the Debt Management Center directly.
One point catches people off guard: surety bond premiums are never refunded. Only cash paid directly to ICE is recoverable. The fee paid to a bond company is the cost of the service, and it stays with the company no matter what happens in the case.