Cancellation of removal protects people with 10 years of continuous U.S. presence. Their removal must cause exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to a citizen or green card holder spouse, parent or child. Asylum protects people who fear persecution, and it generally requires filing within a year of arrival. A Houston deportation lawyer often requests both when the facts allow.
Faragalla Law is a Texas immigration firm headquartered at 5718 Westheimer Road, 1000-109, Houston, TX 77057. It defends people in removal proceedings across Texas, including cases set in Houston’s immigration courts. Founding attorney Sam Faragalla has been a member of the New York Bar since 1998. The team works with clients in English, Spanish and Arabic.
Holding a Notice to Appear or a hearing date in Houston? Call Faragalla Law at (800) 707-3038 for a free consultation, any hour of any day.
How Cancellation of Removal and Asylum Differ in Houston Immigration Court
Both are defenses you raise before an immigration judge, and Faragalla Law’s removal defense team looks at both when a Houston client gets a hearing notice. They protect different people for different reasons. Cancellation rewards a long life already built in the United States. Asylum protects a person from harm waiting in another country.
Federal law calls the case a removal proceeding under 8 U.S.C. 1229a, though most people still say deportation. The two defenses split on four points that decide most cases.
- Cancellation requires 10 years of continuous physical presence, good moral character, a clean record under the listed offenses and hardship to a qualifying relative.
- Asylum requires persecution, or a well-founded fear of it, because of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.
- Asylum carries a one-year filing deadline from your last arrival, while cancellation has no deadline tied to your arrival date.
- A cancellation grant makes you a permanent resident that day, while an asylee waits a year before applying for a green card.
Neither one is automatic. Under 8 U.S.C. 1158(b)(1)(A), a judge “may” grant asylum to a refugee. For cancellation, Wilkinson v. Garland (2024) describes two steps, legal eligibility first and then discretion. Which defense fits turns on dates, family and history a lawyer has to read in your own file.
Who Qualifies for Cancellation of Removal Under 8 U.S.C. 1229b(b)(1)?
A person without a green card qualifies only by proving all four elements of 8 U.S.C. 1229b(b)(1). You need 10 years of continuous physical presence right before you apply, and good moral character for those years. You also need a record free of convictions under the listed offense grounds. Last, removal must cause exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to a spouse, parent or child who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
Green card holders use a separate test in 8 U.S.C. 1229b(a). It asks for 5 years as a permanent resident, 7 years of continuous residence after admission and no aggravated felony conviction. The firm’s page on cancellation of removal defense in Texas covers both versions.
When Does the 10-Year Clock Stop Running?
Under 8 U.S.C. 1229b(d)(1), the clock stops on the earlier of two events. One is service of a notice to appear. The other is committing an offense that makes you inadmissible or removable under the criminal grounds. Your 10 years must be complete before whichever event comes first. A third rule, about time spent abroad, can break the clock even earlier. The date on your paperwork is the first thing to check.
A Notice to Appear Missing the Hearing Date or Time
A notice that leaves out the time or place of the hearing does not stop the clock. The Supreme Court said so in Pereira v. Sessions (2018). In Niz-Chavez v. Garland, decided April 29, 2021, it went further. In March 2013, the government charged Agusto Niz-Chavez and set his Detroit hearing for a time “to be set in the future.” A second notice two months later supplied the date. The Court held that a notice to appear must be a single document with all the required information.
Pull out your own notice and read the hearing date and time it lists. If those spaces were blank or left to be set later, your clock may have kept running. The answer depends on every document in your file, so bring all of them to a lawyer.
Criminal Offenses That End the Clock Early
The second trigger looks at the offense itself. Section 1229b(d)(1)(B) ends the period when you have committed an offense referred to in 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(2) that makes you inadmissible or removable. The statute ties the stop to the day the offense was committed. A conviction that comes later can still reach back to that day. A lawyer reads the charging papers to find the date that counts.
Trips Outside the United States
Travel can break presence before any notice arrives. Under 8 U.S.C. 1229b(d)(2), a single trip longer than 90 days breaks continuous physical presence. So do trips that add up to more than 180 days. A month in Monterrey for a parent’s surgery counts toward that 180-day total. Keep tickets, stamps and pay stubs that prove each departure and return.
Good Moral Character and Convictions That Disqualify
Two elements look at your record. Section 1229b(b)(1)(C) bars anyone convicted of an offense under 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(2), 1227(a)(2) or 1227(a)(3). Separately, 8 U.S.C. 1101(f) lists conduct that rules out good moral character during the 10 years. The list includes giving false testimony to obtain an immigration benefit. It also covers confinement for 180 days or more because of a conviction. Even outside those lists, a judge can still find that you lack good moral character.
Why Only 4,000 Cancellation Grants Issue Each Year
Congress capped this form of cancellation at 4,000 grants per fiscal year in 8 U.S.C. 1229b(e)(1). Under 8 CFR 1240.21(c), judges grant qualifying cases until the cap is reached. After that, decisions to grant must be reserved until a grant becomes available in a later fiscal year. The same regulation says courts no longer issue the old conditional grants, so pages that still describe them are out of date. A reserved case can wait a long time, and no lawyer can tell you when a grant will open up.
What Counts as Exceptional and Extremely Unusual Hardship?
The hardship must be substantially different from, or beyond, what normally follows when a close family member is removed. That standard comes from Matter of Monreal-Aguinaga, 23 I&N Dec. 56, which the Supreme Court quoted in Wilkinson v. Garland. The hardship that counts belongs to your qualifying relative, not to you. In Wilkinson, the father pointed to his 7-year-old U.S. citizen son’s serious medical condition. Whether a family’s facts clear the bar is a judgment no lawyer can promise.
Who Counts as a Qualifying Relative
Only a spouse, parent or child who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident counts under section 1229b(b)(1)(D). Brothers, sisters, grandparents and partners you never married do not. A child must meet the definition in 8 U.S.C. 1101(b)(1), which starts with an unmarried person under 21. Two details in that definition catch families off guard.
A Child Who Turns 21 Before the Merits Hearing
Age is measured when the judge decides, not when you file. In Matter of Isidro-Zamorano, 25 I&N Dec. 829 (BIA 2012), the son was under 21 when his father applied in 2005. He turned 21 in January 2006, before the judge ruled. The Board held that the father no longer had a qualifying relative. In a busy court, a 19-year-old’s birthday can take away your only qualifying relative.
Stepchildren and Married Children
Marriage ends child status here, because the definition requires an unmarried person. A stepchild counts only if the marriage that created the relationship took place before the child turned 18, under 8 U.S.C. 1101(b)(1)(B). A U.S. citizen daughter who marries at 20 stops being a qualifying child. A lawyer checks birth, marriage and divorce records for every relative before choosing whose hardship to prove.
How Judges Weigh the Hardship Evidence
The judge looks at all the hardship factors together. In Wilkinson, the Supreme Court held that a court of appeals can review whether the facts meet the hardship standard. It also held that the judge’s findings of fact, such as credibility or a child’s medical condition, stay unreviewable. So the hearing record is where the case is decided. Medical records, school records and testimony have to be in front of the immigration judge the first time.
How Does the One-Year Asylum Deadline Work for Houston Applicants?
You must prove by clear and convincing evidence that you filed within one year after arriving, under 8 U.S.C. 1158(a)(2)(B). Under 8 CFR 1208.4(a)(2)(ii), the year runs from your last arrival in the United States. In immigration court, the application counts as filed on the day the court receives it. A late filing bars asylum unless an exception applies.
Other rules shape the deadline too. It does not apply to an unaccompanied child under 8 U.S.C. 1158(a)(2)(E). Under 8 U.S.C. 1158(a)(3), no court can review the judge’s factual findings on the deadline, so any exception has to be proven at the hearing. Asylum itself still requires showing that a protected ground was or will be at least one central reason for the persecution.
Changed Circumstances After You Arrived
Under 8 CFR 1208.4(a)(4), changed circumstances are changes that materially affect your eligibility. They include new conditions in your home country. They also include changes in your own situation, such as activities here that put you at risk at home. Losing dependent status on a parent’s or spouse’s application through divorce, death or turning 21 counts too. You must then file within a reasonable period, and late awareness of the change is taken into account.
Extraordinary Circumstances That Delayed Your Filing
Extraordinary circumstances are events directly related to missing the deadline, under 8 CFR 1208.4(a)(5). You carry the burden to show you did not create them, that they caused the delay and that the delay was reasonable. The regulation gives examples, and they include these three.
- A serious illness or a mental or physical disability during the first year can qualify, including effects of past persecution.
- A legal disability during the first year can qualify, such as being an unaccompanied minor or having a mental impairment.
- Ineffective assistance of a prior lawyer can qualify, but only with a detailed affidavit and the other steps the regulation lists.
Each one still requires filing within a reasonable time given those circumstances. How long is reasonable depends on the facts, and the judge decides it case by case.
Withholding of Removal When the Asylum Deadline Has Passed
Withholding of removal under 8 U.S.C. 1231(b)(3) has no one-year deadline, because 8 CFR 1208.4(a) applies the filing bar to asylum only. The standard is harder. Under 8 CFR 1208.16(b)(2), you must show it is more likely than not that you would be persecuted on a protected ground. Withholding blocks removal to that country, but it is not asylum, so the green card route in 8 U.S.C. 1159(b) does not apply. Under 8 CFR 1103.7(b)(4)(ii), no fee applies to a Form I-589 filed only for withholding or Convention Against Torture protection. The firm’s asylum and withholding of removal page explains both.
Can a Houston Deportation Lawyer Ask for Cancellation and Asylum in the Same Case?
Yes. Under 8 CFR 1240.21(c)(2), the judge must decide every other form of relief you applied for at the same time. That holds even after the cancellation cap is reached. Each defense has its own form. Cancellation goes on Form EOIR-42B, which 8 CFR 1240.20 allows only in immigration court once your case is there. Asylum and withholding go on Form I-589.
Picture a Houston resident who crossed the border 12 years ago and now fears persecution back home. Her asylum deadline passed long ago, so asylum turns on an exception. Withholding and cancellation stay open if she meets their terms, and which one succeeds depends on proof a lawyer has to weigh.
Filing Fees for Each Application as of October 1, 2026
EOIR adjusted its fees for fiscal year 2027 in a rule published August 21, 2026, at 91 FR 54211. A notice at 91 FR 61447 listed the asylum fees for filings in immigration court. Both took effect October 1, 2026. Under 8 CFR 1103.7(a)(1), EOIR’s own fees are paid through the EOIR Payment Portal and are generally non-refundable. Here is what each application costs now, not counting any biometrics fee.
- Form EOIR-42B, cancellation for people without a green card, costs $1,690.
- Form EOIR-42A, cancellation for permanent residents, costs $730.
- Form I-589 costs $100 when it includes a request for asylum.
- An annual asylum fee of $105 is due for each calendar year the asylum application stays pending.
Under 8 CFR 1103.7(b)(4)(iii), the annual asylum fee cannot be waived or reduced.
What Each Grant Gives You
A cancellation grant adjusts you to permanent resident status. Under 8 U.S.C. 1229b(b)(3), your admission is recorded as of the date the judge cancels removal. An asylum grant makes you an asylee instead. Under 8 U.S.C. 1159(b), an asylee can apply for a green card after one year of physical presence following the grant. The order of rulings matters too. Under 8 CFR 1240.21(c)(2), a pending cancellation application is denied as a matter of discretion if the judge grants asylum.
Which Immigration Court Hears a Houston Removal Case?
EOIR runs three immigration courts inside Houston and one in Conroe for detained cases, and your hearing notice names the one with your case. EOIR’s administrative control list gives each court’s address and the detention centers it covers. Check the address on every new hearing notice before you plan the trip.
The three Houston courts sit at different addresses, so the street on your notice matters as much as the date. Each court lists its own email address and phone line for questions on its EOIR page. The Houston immigration attorneys at Faragalla Law handle other case types for Harris County residents as well.
Jefferson Street, Greenspoint Park and South Gessner
The Houston – Jefferson Street Immigration Court sits at 500 Jefferson Street, Suite 300, with an annex at 1919 Smith Street. The lobby at 500 Jefferson has two elevator banks, and only one of them goes to the 3rd floor. Public parking there costs a fee. The Greenspoint Park court is at 16800 Greenspoint Park Drive, 2nd Floor, where parking is free. The South Gessner court is at 8701 S. Gessner Road, 10th Floor.
Detained Cases and the Conroe Immigration Court
The Conroe Immigration Court is at 806 Hilbig Road, Suite 2-300, inside a detention facility that DHS controls, in Montgomery County. EOIR’s list gives Conroe administrative control over the records for several Houston-area detention centers. They include the Montgomery Processing Center, the Joe Corley Detention Center and the Houston Contract Detention Facility. The Houston Service Processing Center on Greens Road is on the same list.
No Bond Hearing for Many Detained Applicants in the Fifth Circuit
If you entered without inspection and ICE holds you, Fifth Circuit law now leaves you without a bond hearing. In Buenrostro-Mendez v. Bondi, 166 F.4th 494 (5th Cir. 2026), the court held that people living here who were never admitted are applicants for admission detained under 8 U.S.C. 1225(b)(2)(A). On October 23, 2026, the full court ruled in Sosnava Rodriguez v. Vergara that those detainees have no due process right to a bond hearing. It also held that the length of the three petitioners’ detention raised no constitutional issue.
That ruling binds the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, which covers Harris and Montgomery counties under 28 U.S.C. 124(b)(2). A cancellation or asylum case may be fought from detention start to finish. The firm’s Houston ICE detention and bond page explains how detention cases are handled.
What Happens if the Judge Denies Cancellation or Asylum in Houston?
You can appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals on Form EOIR-26, which costs $1,060 for fiscal year 2027. After the Board rules, you can file a petition for review within 30 days of the final order, under 8 U.S.C. 1252(b)(1). Venue lies in the circuit where the immigration judge completed the case. For Houston and Conroe, that is the Fifth Circuit under 8 U.S.C. 1252(b)(2).
Watch the Board deadline closely. An EOIR rule published February 6, 2026, at 91 FR 5267 tried to cut most appeal deadlines from 30 days to 10. On March 8, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia vacated that 10-day deadline in Amica Center for Immigrant Rights v. EOIR. The online Electronic Code of Federal Regulations still prints the 10-day text at 8 CFR 1003.38(b), so a printout of the regulation can mislead you.
Some findings stop at the Board. Under 8 U.S.C. 1158(a)(3), no court can review the facts behind a ruling on the one-year asylum deadline. Whether an appeal is worth filing depends on the record and the ground the judge used, and that call belongs to a lawyer who has read the decision.
Cancellation and Asylum Questions From Houston Families
These questions come up at the first consultation, usually with a hearing notice on the table. Each answer names its source so you can check it yourself. Your own dates and documents can change the answer, so treat each one as a starting point for a talk with a lawyer.
Can I Apply for Cancellation of Removal Without a Court Case?
No. Under 8 CFR 1240.20(b), the application can be filed only with the immigration court after the case is opened there. Cancellation is a defense, not an application you mail to USCIS.
Do I Have the Right to a Lawyer in Houston Immigration Court?
Yes, but not at government expense. Under 8 U.S.C. 1229a(b)(4)(A), you may be represented by counsel of your choosing at no expense to the government. Hiring counsel early leaves time to gather the proof each defense needs.
What if I Miss My Hearing at a Houston Court?
Under 8 U.S.C. 1229a(b)(5)(A), the judge orders you removed in absentia if DHS proves notice and removability. A motion to reopen filed within 180 days can rescind the order if exceptional circumstances caused the absence. Lack of proper notice can be raised at any time under 8 U.S.C. 1229a(b)(5)(C)(ii).
Can I Apply for Asylum Again After a Denial?
Usually not. Under 8 U.S.C. 1158(a)(2)(C), a prior asylum denial bars a new application unless changed circumstances apply. Under 8 CFR 1208.4(a)(3), only a denial by an immigration judge or the Board counts for this bar.
Talk to a Houston Deportation Lawyer at Faragalla Law
Cancellation and asylum ask different questions, and a Houston deportation lawyer at Faragalla Law looks at both before your next hearing. The review starts with your notice to appear, your travel dates and your family’s records. No lawyer can promise how a judge will rule, but a complete file gives each defense a fair look.
Call Faragalla Law at (800) 707-3038 for a free consultation. The firm is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The team works in English, Spanish and Arabic.
Prefer to write first? Send a short note with your hearing date through the firm’s contact page. The office is at 5718 Westheimer Road, 1000-109, Houston, TX 77057.