Unlawful Presence Calculator: Do the 3-Year or 10-Year Bars Apply to You?

Rules read: October 20, 2026, from INA 212(a)(9)(B), 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(9)(B), the USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 8, Part O, Chapter 6 (current as of October 2, 2026), the counting rules in Adjudicator's Field Manual chapter 40.9.2, and the Board of Immigration Appeals decision Matter of Delcarmen-Lara (August 13, 2026). When one of them changes, this page is re-read and the date changes.

If you stayed in the United States without permission for more than 180 days but less than a year, leaving triggers a 3-year bar on coming back. A year or more triggers a 10-year bar. The bar starts the day you leave, not before. This calculator counts your days the way the statute does and tells you which bar, if any, would apply.

What this does and what it does not. The tool counts days under INA 212(a)(9)(B) for one stay in the United States. It does not decide whether you are inadmissible for any other reason, and it cannot see your file. The permanent bar under INA 212(a)(9)(C) and the waivers are separate questions, covered further down. The calculator runs in your browser, needs no signup, and nothing you type leaves your device. Esta calculadora también está en español: calculadora de presencia ilegal.

Count your unlawful presence

How unlawful presence is counted

The statute defines it in INA 212(a)(9)(B)(ii): you are unlawfully present if you stay past the period of stay you were authorized, or if you are here without having been admitted or paroled. The calculator starts the clock in one of three ways, following AFM chapter 40.9.2:

• Admitted until a date. The clock starts the day after the date on your I-94. Falling out of status earlier (working without permission, dropping out of school) does not by itself start it.
• Entry without inspection. The clock starts the day you came in.
• Admitted for "duration of status" (D/S). Students and exchange visitors usually carry D/S instead of a date. For them, the clock starts only the day after USCIS denies a benefit request and finds a status violation, or the day after an immigration judge makes that finding. If neither has happened, no unlawful presence has built up.

Three more rules shape the number. Nothing before April 1, 1997, the date the bars took effect, counts. Days before your 18th birthday never count. And the count is per stay: AFM 40.9.2 says the 3-year and 10-year bars apply only to unlawful presence built up "during any single stay." Two separate stays of 150 days each do not add up to a 3-year bar, although they do add up for the permanent bar described below. The calculator handles one stay at a time.

Exceptions that stop the clock

INA 212(a)(9)(B)(iii) lists the time that does not count, and two situations where the bars do not apply at all:

• Minors. No time while you were under 18.
• Asylum applicants. No time while a bona fide asylum application was pending, unless you worked without authorization during that time. If you are still deciding whether to file, our guide to the one-year asylum filing deadline explains that separate clock.
• Family Unity. No time as a beneficiary of Family Unity protection under section 301 of the Immigration Act of 1990.
• Battered spouses and children. The bars do not apply to someone who qualifies under the VAWA provision of INA 212(a)(6)(A)(ii), where there is a substantial connection between the abuse and the immigration violation.
• Trafficking victims. The bars do not apply if a severe form of trafficking was at least one central reason for the unlawful presence.
• Extension or change of status. If you were lawfully admitted, filed a non-frivolous request to extend or change your status before your stay ran out, and did not work without permission, the statute stops the clock for up to 120 days while it is pending. USCIS policy in AFM 40.9.2 extends that to the whole time the request is pending.

AFM 40.9.2 adds periods USCIS treats as authorized stay, so no unlawful presence builds up during them. They include a properly filed adjustment of status application (Form I-485) while it is pending, a grant of deferred action such as DACA, and a grant of Temporary Protected Status. These periods stop the clock going forward. They do not erase days you had already built up before them.

The 3-year and 10-year bars compared

Two details in that table matter more than they look. First, the 3-year bar requires a departure before removal proceedings began, which AFM 40.9.2 dates to the filing of the Notice to Appear with the immigration court. Someone who leaves after that point is not caught by the 3-year bar, though leaving under a removal order brings its own bar, and nobody should leave mid-case without advice from a deportation defense lawyer. Second, the clock on either bar keeps running no matter where you spend it. The Policy Manual, Volume 8, Part O, Chapter 6, added in June 2022, says the period "continues to run, without interruption, regardless of whether or how" you returned. Once 3 or 10 years have passed since the departure, that unlawful presence no longer makes you inadmissible. Coming back without permission during the period can still create new problems, including new unlawful presence and the permanent bar.

Leaving the country, including on advance parole

The bars are triggered by a departure, so the real decision point is the trip. For years, a trip on advance parole was the exception. In Matter of Arrabally and Yerrabelly (2012), the Board of Immigration Appeals held that leaving on advance parole was not a "departure" for these bars. On August 13, 2026, the Board overruled that decision in Matter of Delcarmen-Lara, 29 I&N Dec. 830. A person with more than 180 days of unlawful presence who travels on advance parole now risks triggering the 3-year or 10-year bar, even with a pending green card application, DACA or TPS. If the calculator shows more than 180 days, do not travel on advance parole without talking to a lawyer first.

The same logic applies to consular processing. Someone who entered without inspection and is now the beneficiary of an approved family petition often has to leave for an immigrant visa interview abroad. That departure is what triggers the bar, which is why the provisional waiver exists.

Waivers: I-601 and I-601A

Both bars can be waived under INA 212(a)(9)(B)(v) if you are the spouse, son or daughter of a U.S. citizen or permanent resident and you show that being refused would cause extreme hardship to that citizen or resident spouse or parent. Hardship to your own children does not count toward the waiver, though it can matter to the hardship your spouse would suffer.

• Form I-601A, provisional waiver. Filed in the United States before you leave for an immigrant visa interview, by someone with an approved immigrant petition who has paid the State Department immigrant visa fee. It covers only the unlawful presence bars in INA 212(a)(9)(B). Getting it approved before the trip means you leave knowing the bar has already been waived.
• Form I-601. Filed after a consular officer or USCIS finds you inadmissible. It can cover the unlawful presence bars together with other grounds that the I-601A does not reach.

The government filing fee for each form is in our USCIS fee calculator, read from the current Form G-1055. For how the firm builds these cases, see our immigration waivers page.

The permanent bar is different. Under INA 212(a)(9)(C), someone who was unlawfully present for more than one year in total, across all stays, or who was ordered removed, and who then enters or tries to enter without being admitted, is permanently inadmissible. Neither waiver above covers it. The statute's main exception requires waiting outside the United States for more than 10 years since the last departure and getting permission to reapply. If your history includes a second entry without inspection, the calculator's answer is not the whole story.

When to talk to a lawyer

Before any trip abroad, if the calculator shows more than 180 days. Before a consular interview, if you entered without inspection or overstayed. If you ever entered without inspection more than once, if you have a removal order, or if you were in immigration court when you left. If your count lands within a week of the 180-day or one-year line, because the exact dates on your I-94, your filings and your travel records decide which side you are on. And if you are married to a U.S. citizen or permanent resident and want to know whether the marriage-based green card route runs through a waiver or through adjustment here.

Methodology and reuse

On October 20, 2026 we read INA 212(a)(9)(B) and (C) in the U.S. Code, the USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 8, Part O, Chapter 6 (current as of October 2, 2026; Chapters 1 to 5 of Part O are reserved), AFM chapter 40.9.2 for how USCIS starts, stops and adds up the count, the USCIS Form I-601A page (last updated June 1, 2026), and the Board's decision in Matter of Delcarmen-Lara. The calculator counts calendar days from the first day of unlawful presence up to the day you left (or today), after moving the start to your 18th birthday or April 1, 1997 if either is later, and subtracts the one excluded period you enter. More than 180 days returns the 3-year bar, 365 days or more the 10-year bar, and the bar's end date is the same calendar date 3 or 10 years after you left. Whether the day of departure itself counts is not spelled out in the sources we read, so any result within 7 days of either line is flagged. Nothing is estimated.

You may republish the rules on this page with attribution to Immigration Law Center and a link to this page. Every section heading carries a stable anchor id, for example #the-3-year-and-10-year-bars-compared.

Sources

• 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(9)(B) and (C) (INA 212(a)(9)(B) and (C)), via the Legal Information Institute. Read October 20, 2026.
• USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 8, Part O, Chapter 6, Effect of Seeking Admission Following Accrual of Unlawful Presence, current as of October 2, 2026.
• USCIS, Adjudicator's Field Manual, chapter 40.9.2, consolidated unlawful presence guidance. Where it conflicts with the Policy Manual, the Policy Manual controls.
• Board of Immigration Appeals, Matter of Delcarmen-Lara, 29 I&N Dec. 830 (BIA 2026), overruling Matter of Arrabally and Yerrabelly, 25 I&N Dec. 771 (BIA 2012).
• USCIS, I-601A, Application for Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver, and I-601, Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility.

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This page is general information about published immigration rules, not legal advice about your case. Whether a bar applies to you depends on facts specific to you.