How to Request Voluntary Departure and Get ICE Form I-210

ICE Form I-210, “Voluntary Departure and Verification of Departure,” is the document an ICE officer completes to grant a noncitizen permission to leave the United States at their own expense instead of going through formal removal, and to record the departure once it happens.¹ You do not fill it out yourself. You request voluntary departure from ICE, and if the officer agrees, the officer prepares the form, you sign it, and you receive the original as your record.

Who Qualifies for Voluntary Departure on Form I-210

The I-210 is used for administrative voluntary departure, meaning voluntary departure granted by an ICE officer rather than an immigration judge. The statute permits ICE to offer this option before removal proceedings start or while they are pending, as long as two categories of deportability do not apply: aggravated felony convictions and terrorist-related grounds.² The aggravated felony definition reaches beyond violent crime to include theft offenses, fraud over $10,000, drug trafficking, and many other categories.³

A separate statutory bar applies to anyone who previously received voluntary departure after being found inadmissible for being present without admission or parole. If you were caught before and given voluntary departure under those specific circumstances, you cannot receive it a second time.²

Even if you clear the statutory bars, the officer has discretion. Compliance history with prior check-ins, community ties, and flight risk all factor in. A person with missed appointments or an outstanding warrant is unlikely to be offered the option.

How to Request the Form

You can ask for voluntary departure at any ICE office. If removal proceedings have already begun, the request can go through the government’s attorney handling your case. When ICE agrees after proceedings have started, the agency may join a motion to terminate the proceedings and then grant voluntary departure, or join a motion asking the immigration judge to grant it.¹

The regulation specifies who inside ICE is authorized to grant it: district directors, chief patrol agents, and other supervisory-level officers within DHS.¹

Once the officer decides to grant it, the I-210 is completed at the office. The officer fills in the form, sets a departure deadline, and attaches your photograph and right-index-finger fingerprint. You sign to acknowledge the conditions, the serving officer signs, and you receive the original. A copy goes into your immigration file, and if you have counsel who has filed Form G-28, your attorney also gets a copy.⁴

Regulation also requires the form itself to inform you of the penalties for failing to depart on time.¹ Read that warning carefully before you sign.

Neither the grant nor the denial of administrative voluntary departure is appealable. A denial does not stop you from later asking an immigration judge for voluntary departure if your case goes into proceedings.¹

What You Need to Bring

Although ICE prepares the form, the officer will not sign until you supply certain information and documents.

A valid, unexpired passport or equivalent travel document showing you can lawfully enter your destination country. ICE may hold the passport briefly to verify authenticity.¹
Travel arrangements. Flight number, airline, date, and port of departure. Attach a copy of your ticket or itinerary and passport to the I-210 for your file.⁴
Proof you can pay for the trip. You are leaving at your own expense, so expect the officer to want to see a purchased ticket or bank statements.
Your Alien Registration Number, the nine-digit A-number DHS uses as the primary identifier on the form.⁵
A foreign address where you will live after arriving, so ICE has a point of contact.

If your route requires a transit visa for a layover in another country, secure it before the departure date. A rejected boarding at a connecting airport does not count as complying. Confirm your name and passport number on the form match your travel documents exactly.

The Departure Deadline and Conditions

For administrative voluntary departure on Form I-210, the maximum period is 120 days from the date the form is issued.² The officer sets the actual deadline, and it may be shorter. Extensions are possible by requesting one on a new I-210, but the total, including extensions, cannot exceed 120 days.¹

ICE can attach conditions. The regulation permits a bond, continued detention pending departure, or removal under safeguards where the officer finds any of those necessary.¹ A bond on the I-210 track is discretionary rather than automatic.² Where a bond is required, it is returned once you prove you left within the allowed time. If you are not detained, you remain responsible for keeping ICE informed of your address and complying with any check-in schedule.

Voluntary departure can also be revoked. An authorized officer may revoke the privilege in writing on a statutory basis, and that revocation is not appealable.¹

Verifying That You Left

Leaving is only half the obligation on Form I-210. You also need to prove you left, because without verified proof of departure your compliance may not be reflected in ICE’s records. There are three routes.

At the Port of Departure

At a U.S. airport, seaport, or land border, a CBP or ICE officer can verify your departure on the spot. The officer checks the photo and fingerprint on your I-210 against your identity and passport, executes the form, and returns it to the ICE field office listed in the upper-left corner.⁴ For air and sea departures, CBP also confirms the date through its own systems.⁶

Through the CBP Home Mobile App

DHS offers the CBP Home mobile app as an additional verification tool. Air and sea departures are recorded automatically by CBP, and you can also self-report through the app for a digital record on your device. For land departures by car, bus, or on foot, the app is the primary verification method. After crossing physically, you must be at least three miles outside the United States, enable location services, submit a new photo, and enter your personal and travel information, including your passport or A-number.⁶

At a U.S. Embassy or Consulate Abroad

Once you have arrived in your home country, you can verify your departure in person at a U.S. embassy or consulate. Bring the original I-210 with a copy, your passport showing entry and exit stamps, proof of your departing flight such as a boarding pass or ticket receipt, a recent passport-style photograph, and a photo ID.⁷ The embassy cannot verify electronically; you must appear. Appointments are typically arranged through the consular section by email, and practices vary by post, so contact the embassy or consulate nearest you first to confirm what they need.p>

Whichever route you use, keep copies of everything: the signed I-210, boarding pass, passport stamps, and any digital confirmation from CBP Home. Those records are your evidence of compliance if a question ever comes up.

What Happens If You Miss the Deadline

Failing to leave within the deadline on your I-210 triggers two automatic penalties under the statute:

A civil fine between $1,000 and $5,000.
A ten-year bar on receiving voluntary departure, cancellation of removal, adjustment of status, change of nonimmigrant classification, or registry.²

The ten-year bar blocks the most common paths people use to fix their status from inside the country. Adjustment of status is off the table for a decade, and so is cancellation of removal. Because no one physically escorts you out, voluntary departure sometimes gets treated casually. Missing the deadline turns a cooperative resolution into something worse than the removal order it was meant to avoid. If a bond was posted, it is forfeited on top of the statutory penalties.

What Voluntary Departure Does Not Fix

Departing on Form I-210 does not erase unlawful presence you already accrued. More than 180 days but less than one year of unlawful presence in a single stay triggers a three-year bar on admission after you leave. One year or more triggers a ten-year bar.⁸ Those bars apply whether you leave voluntarily or under a removal order. Voluntary departure keeps other options open, but it is not a waiver of unlawful-presence consequences.

One further boundary. Form I-210 is only for the administrative track. Voluntary departure ordered by an immigration judge is documented on Form G-146 and follows different rules, including a mandatory bond of at least $500 and a maximum departure period of 60 days at the conclusion of proceedings.⁹ If your case is already before a judge, that is the track that applies to you.

1
eCFR. 8 CFR 240.25 – Voluntary Departure — Authority of the Service
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1229c – Voluntary Departure
3
Legal Information Institute. 8 USC 1101 – Definitions
4
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Detention and Removal Operations Field Policy Manual
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Number
6
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. CBP HOME – Assistance to Voluntarily Self-Depart
7
U.S. Embassy in Peru. Voluntary Departure
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Unlawful Presence and Inadmissibility
9
eCFR. 8 CFR 1240.26 – Voluntary Departure — Authority of the Executive Office for Immigration Review