A judge offers your brother 60 days to leave, and the room goes quiet. Nobody in that room explains what happens on day 61. That silence is where families get hurt.
Voluntary departure is a judge’s permission to leave the United States on your own, by a set date and at your own cost, instead of being deported. You give up the fight over your case. In exchange, you avoid the reentry bar that a deportation order carries.
The trade is real, and so is the risk. Voluntary departure protects your ability to come back legally, but only if you actually leave by the date written on the order. This page is general information about how the rules work. It is not legal advice, and an immigration attorney should read your family member’s file before anyone agrees to anything.
The Two Forms at a Glance
Two versions exist, and they are not interchangeable. Ask early, and you buy more time to leave, at the price of giving up the fight. Ask at the end, and you keep your options alive longer, but you have to prove much more.
| What changes | Pre-conclusion, INA 240B(a) | Post-conclusion, INA 240B(b) |
| When you ask | At or before the master calendar hearing | At the close of the case |
| Maximum time to leave | 120 days | 60 days |
| Bond | The judge may require one. | Required, at least $500, posted within 5 business days |
| Time in the country | Not a separate test | 1 year before the notice to appear was served |
| Good moral character | Not a separate test | 5 years |
| Proof you can go | The judge sets conditions. | Clear and convincing evidence, passport included |
| What you surrender | Other relief applications, removability, your appeal | The case is already decided against you. |
Key Takeaways (TL;DR)
- Two versions exist. Ask early, and up to 120 days is possible. Ask at the end, and 60 days is the ceiling.
- Post-conclusion applicants need a year of physical presence and five years of good moral character. Proof that you can pay for the trip counts too, plus a bond of at least $500.
- An aggravated felony conviction or a security ground closes the door on both versions.
- Leaving on time avoids the 5-, 10-, and 20-year reentry bars tied to a deportation order.
- Blowing the date costs $1,000 to $5,000 and blocks four kinds of relief for a decade.
- Unlawful presence bars run on a separate clock and can still apply.
- Cases like this rarely sit inside one country. Families keep passports, school records, and paychecks on two sides of a border, and that split shows up in ordinary culture writing too. Our piece on Anuja Joshi’s movies follows an actress whose credits run across British and American productions.
Why the Date Matters More Than the Grant
Start with the number that should shape the whole decision. Congress fixed a civil penalty for staying past the date. The text of INA 240B(d)(1), published by Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute, sets that penalty at no less than $1,000 and no more than $5,000. A Justice Department regulation, 8 CFR 1240.26(l), adds a rebuttable presumption of $3,000 unless the judge orders a different figure.
Voluntary departure money is the smaller half of it. That same statute blocks four kinds of relief for a full 10 years. They are the relief that cancels removal under INA 240A, adjustment of status, change of nonimmigrant status, and registry. Picture someone who would have qualified for a green card through marriage in year three. Now they wait until year eleven. Survivors covered by VAWA get a narrow exception when battery or extreme cruelty caused the overstay.
Who the statute shuts out
Sympathy is not the test. Four groups are barred before discretion ever enters the picture.
- Aggravated felony convictions. Anyone deportable under INA 237(a)(2)(A)(iii) is out, under both versions.
- Security and terrorism grounds. INA 237(a)(4) shuts the door in the same way.
- A prior grant. If a judge already let you leave this way after an INA 212(a)(6)(A) inadmissibility finding, you do not get a second one.
- People stopped on arrival. Arriving noncitizens cannot use the early version at all.
Clearing those bars only gets you to the door. The judge still weighs work history, family ties, tax filings, and any criminal record and can say no to someone who technically qualifies.
Voluntary Departure vs a Removal Order vs Expedited Removal
People discuss these three outcomes as if they sat on one scale. They don’t. One is a bargain, one is a judgment, and the third skips the courtroom entirely.
| Feature | Leaving by court order at your own cost | Removal order | Expedited removal |
| Who decides? | Immigration judge | Immigration judge | A DHS officer, no judge |
| Legal basis | INA 240B | INA 240 | INA 235(b)(1) |
| Full hearing | Yes. | Yes. | Usually none |
| Who pays for the flight? | You | The government | The government |
| Time to arrange it. | Up to 120 or 60 days | Often days in custody | Days |
| Reentry bar from the order | None | 10 years, 5 if ordered on arrival, 20 for a repeat | 5 years |
| Bond | At least $500, refundable | None | None |
| Review | Narrowing and filing carry consequences. | Appeal to the Board | Very limited |
That third column matters more now than it used to. In a notice published on January 24, 2025, DHS extended expedited removal to people encountered anywhere in the country who cannot show two years of continuous presence. No judge sits in that process. Nobody gets 60 days to pack.
The trade-off is the top results underplay.
Leaving on your own terms does dodge one specific penalty, and it is a big one. A deportation order triggers inadmissibility under INA 212(a)(9)(A). That means five years when the order comes on arrival and ten years in most other cases. Twenty years follow a second order. An aggravated felony conviction makes the bar permanent. None of that attaches when you leave on schedule under this grant.
Here is the part that gets left out of most explainers. Unlawful presence is a separate problem with its own clock, and departing starts it. Under INA 212(a)(9)(B), more than 180 days of unlawful presence triggers a three-year bar. A year or more triggers a ten-year bar. Both count from the day you leave, and this grant does not erase either. So a person who lived here without status for six years can leave perfectly on time and still face a decade outside.
A decade abroad is long, though it is not the end of a working life. Careers do get rebuilt in other countries, and Hansi Flick’s net worth tracks a coach whose jobs have moved between Germany and Spain.
What an appeal it is! Does it to your clock?
Appeals and this grant interact badly. Rules in this corner of the law are unforgiving, and they catch people who thought they were helping themselves.
- Appeal to the Board. Appeal an order that included the post-conclusion version, and you have 30 days from filing to send the Board proof that you posted the bond.
- Motion to reopen or reconsider. File one during the departure window, and the grant terminates automatically. The alternate deportation order takes effect immediately, and the motion does not toll, stay, or extend anything.
- Federal court petition for review. Same outcome. Under 8 CFR 1240.26(i), the grant ends the moment you file.
Read that middle bullet twice. A motion filed in good faith can quietly convert a clean exit into the exact order the family was trying to avoid.
The Checklist After the Judge Says Yes
- Post the bond fast. Post-conclusion grants need at least $500 from the ICE Field Office Director within five business days. Miss that window and the grant dies by operation of law.
- Produce a travel document. Regulations treat a valid passport as part of the clear and convincing proof that you can genuinely go.
- Book early, not in the final week. Flights get cancelled and consulates close for holidays. Build a cushion of two weeks or more.
- Keep proof you left. Save the boarding pass, the entry stamp in the destination country, and any exit record you can get.
- Send the proof in. The ICE Field Office Director cancels the bond once evidence of your exit arrives, and that is how the $500 comes back.
Extensions exist, barely. Only DHS can grant one, not the judge who signed the order. Even then, the total can never pass the 120-day or 60-day ceiling Congress wrote into the statute.
How common is this outcome?
Far less common than deportation. The Executive Office for Immigration Review published decision data on July 24, 2026. It counted 72,761 fiscal year 2026 decisions in the category covering this grant and withdrawals of an application for admission. Removal decisions over the same stretch reached 476,650.
What to do this week
Put the file in front of an immigration attorney before the next hearing, and bring three questions. Does the case have a genuine defense worth keeping alive? Does voluntary departure fit the calendar of the people who depend on your family member? Can the household actually fund a bond, a flight, and a landing? Those answers drive everything else, and they need a lawyer who has read the record.
When you need a break from statutes, our short profile of Anna Sawai’s age is a lighter read on a performer whose work spans Japan and Hollywood.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Self-deportation usually means leaving with no case, no judge, and no order on file. This is a court grant with a date, conditions, a bond, and a written alternate order that takes effect if you miss the deadline.
You can apply. Leaving on time does not make you inadmissible by itself. Unlawful presence, fraud findings, and criminal history all still count against you, so price out the real waiting period with an attorney before anyone buys a return ticket.
You do, and that is the core of the bargain. The government covers the cost when it deports someone. Judges ask for financial proof precisely because the burden shifts to you here.
Rarely, and only by DHS. Your judge cannot add time after signing the order, and no extension can push the total past 120 days or 60 days.
Not always. An aggravated felony conviction or a security ground does. Lesser convictions feed into the good moral character test and the judge’s discretion instead, which is a judgment call rather than a bright line.
