BIA Ends U Visa Continuance Presumption in Removal Proceedings

What if you filed a U visa petition — the visa for crime victims — and your immigration court hearing is coming up before USCIS decides your case? Until October 2026, you had a legal safety net: a 2012 Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) ruling called Matter of Sanchez Sosa gave you a presumption that the judge should pause your removal case while USCIS reviewed your petition. That presumption is now gone.

What the BIA decided

In Matter of L. Ramirez, decided October 16, 2026, the BIA — the federal appeals body that reviews immigration court decisions — overruled Matter of Sanchez Sosa. The Board said that presumption was never consistent with a 2018 Attorney General directive (Matter of L-A-B-R-) requiring judges to weigh all relevant factors before granting a continuance (a delay in court proceedings). The BIA also reaffirmed a 1982 rule: you are not entitled to stall your removal case just because a visa might eventually become available.

Under the new standard, an immigration judge deciding whether to pause your removal case must run a balancing test. Two main questions: How likely are you to actually get the visa? And would getting it change the outcome of your case? But secondary factors matter too — and the BIA said they can outweigh even a strong visa petition. Those secondary factors include how long you are asking the judge to wait, whether DHS (the government) opposes the delay, how diligently you pursued your visa, and the full history of your case. In Ramirez, the respondent's U visa petition had been pending for over six years with no decision from USCIS, and he could not say when it would be resolved. The BIA said that open-ended wait was too remote to justify another delay.

The BIA pointed to a hard reality: when Sanchez Sosa was decided in 2012, USCIS typically processed U visa petitions within about a year. Today, because Congress caps U visas at 10,000 per year and demand far exceeds that cap, eligible petitioners can wait many years — sometimes decades — for a visa to become available. Giving every U visa petitioner an automatic presumption of delay, the Board said, conflicts with the public interest in resolving immigration cases promptly.

What to do if you are in removal proceedings with a pending U visa

• Talk to an immigration lawyer immediately. The balancing test now used by judges is fact-specific — your chances depend on the details of your case, including how long your petition has been pending and whether DHS is opposing a delay.
• Gather evidence that your U visa petition is likely to be approved and that approval would actually stop your removal. Judges still weigh these primary factors; a strong record helps.
• Document every step you have taken to move your case forward. Judges look at whether you acted with reasonable diligence — delays you caused yourself count against you.
• Do not assume your removal hearing will be postponed. Prepare for the possibility that the judge will proceed even if USCIS has not yet decided your petition.

What to do, step by step — see our guide “Immigration Court Rulings”.