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Many immigrants who were victims of a serious crime in the United States don’t realize they may qualify for protection. Many of those who do realize it assume a pending deportation case closes that door. It doesn’t. You can file a U visa petition while you’re in removal proceedings, and even after a removal order. In 2026, however, a pending petition protects you far less than it did a few years ago, and that makes timing and strategy more important than ever.
Who Qualifies for a U Visa
The U visa is for victims of certain serious crimes, including domestic violence, sexual assault, felonious assault, trafficking, and kidnapping, who suffered substantial physical or mental harm. To qualify, you must:
- Have information about the crime and have been helpful, or be likely to be helpful, to police or prosecutors.
- Obtain a signed certification from a law enforcement agency, judge, or prosecutor on Form I-918 Supplement B.
- Show that the crime occurred in the United States or violated U.S. law.
Your immigration status at the time of the crime doesn’t matter. Many qualifying victims were undocumented when it happened.
Yes, You Can Apply While in Removal Proceedings
Only USCIS can approve a U visa. An immigration judge has no power to grant it. That means your petition goes to USCIS even while your deportation case continues in immigration court. If USCIS later approves the petition, your attorney can ask the court to terminate or reopen proceedings so the U status can take effect.
If you already have a final removal order, you can still file. You may also ask ICE for a stay of removal while USCIS reviews your case. Many applicants also need a waiver for past immigration violations or other grounds of inadmissibility, which is filed together with the petition.
The Problem Is the Wait
Congress caps U visas at 10,000 principal approvals per year, and demand far exceeds that number. When fiscal year 2026 began, USCIS was only reaching eligible petitions filed in April 2017 or earlier. A new petition can take many years to reach a final decision.
To ease that wait, USCIS conducts a bona fide determination review. If your petition is properly filed and passes background checks, you may receive a work permit and deferred action. That review currently takes about 20 months on average.
Why a Pending Petition Protects You Less in 2026
Two recent developments have changed how deportation cases with pending U visas play out:
- Immigration courts are less willing to pause cases. In Matter of Ibarra-Vega (February 2026), the Board of Immigration Appeals held that judges should not administratively close a case over DHS’s objection to wait for a U visa that won’t be available in the reasonably near future. Closures longer than six months are now presumed unreasonable.
- ICE enforcement policy shifted. In 2025, ICE rescinded its victim-centered guidance that had generally protected crime victims with pending petitions. In May 2026, a federal court in California temporarily blocked that rescission for covered petitioners and restored the earlier protections. The government has appealed, and the outcome may change again.
In practice, filing a U visa petition no longer guarantees that your removal case will be put on hold. You need a plan for both forums at once: one for USCIS and one for immigration court.
What to Do If You’re a Victim Facing Deportation
Move quickly. The law enforcement certification can take weeks or months to obtain, and filing a petition late in a removal case leaves little room to request a continuance, stay, or termination. Bring the details of the crime, any police reports, and every document from your immigration court case to your first consultation.
The U visa is one of several humanitarian paths available to people in removal proceedings. Our guide to the different types of U.S. visas explains how they compare.
Where This Leaves You
A removal case does not take the U visa off the table. It does mean that every decision, from when you file to what you ask the court for, has higher stakes. Our removal defense team can coordinate your U visa petition with your court strategy so one doesn’t undermine the other.
Contact CoxEsq, PC to schedule a consultation before your next hearing.