I-191, Application for Relief Under Former Section 212(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)
ALERT: On Jan. 30, 2024, USCIS announced a final rule, published in the Federal Register, that adjusts the fees required for most immigration applications and petitions. The new fees will be effective April 1, 2024.
Applications and petitions postmarked on or after April 1, 2024, must include the new fees or USCIS will not accept them.
What to Know About Sending Us Your Form
The new filing fee is effective for filings postmarked April 1, 2024, and later. If you are filing an acceptable prior form edition on or after April 1, 2024, you must include the new filing fee.
Use this form if you are a lawful permanent resident and wish to file for relief under former INA section 212(c).
Congress repealed former INA section 212(c) effective April 1, 1997. However, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 2001 that the repeal does not apply to lawful permanent residents who pleaded guilty to a crime before April 1, 1997 (INS v. St. Cyr, 533 U.S. 289). In Matter of Abdelghany, 26 I&N Dec. 254 (BIA 2014), the Board of Immigration Appeals held that relief under former INA section 212(c) is also available to otherwise eligible lawful permanent residents, even if they were convicted following a trial before April 1, 1997.
This form was previously titled, “Application for Advance Permission to Return to Unrelinquished Domicile.”
Form Details
Dates are listed in mm/dd/yy format.
If you complete and print this form to mail it, make sure that the form edition date and page numbers are visible at the bottom of all pages and that all pages are from the same form edition. If any of the form’s pages are missing or are from a different form edition, we may reject your form.
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U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and/or FedEx, UPS, and DHL deliveries:
USCIS TSC
Attn: I-191
6046 N Belt Line Rd. Suite 191
Irving, TX 75038-0016
You can pay the fee with a money order, personal check, cashier’s check, or pay by credit card using Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transactions. If you pay by check, you must make your check payable to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
When you send a payment, you agree to pay for a government service. Filing and biometric services fees are final and non-refundable, regardless of any action we take on your application, petition, or request, or if you withdraw your request.
Pay each filing fee separately. We are transitioning to electronically processing immigration benefit requests, which requires us to use multiple systems to process your package. We may reject your entire package if you submit a single, combined payment for multiple forms.
Filing Tips: Review our Tips for Filing Forms by Mail page for information on how to ensure we will accept your form.
Don’t forget to sign your form. We will reject and return any unsigned form.
