Can Administrative Closure help you stay in the United States?

If you’re facing removal proceedings, you may be able to benefit from a tool used by immigration judges called “Administrative Closure.” If argued correctly, Administrative Closure allows your case to be removed from the calendar at Immigration Court. It is not permanent, though: the government can ask the court to put a closed case back on the calendar.

A favorable ruling on Administrative Closure is not the same as a visa, and it doesn’t even mean that you’ve prevailed in your immigration case. But it could provide the time you need to hear back about an application for Asylum, Cancellation of Removal, or other things that are relevant to your case. Closure does not create a work permit on its own. But if you already have a work permit based on a pending application, a grant of closure can keep that application, and the work-permit eligibility tied to it, in place while the case is paused.

Administrative closure law has changed several times since Attorney General Garland's 2021 ruling in Matter of Cruz-Valdez restored it. Most recently, on June 22, 2026, a federal court in Texas v. DOJ, No. 7:26-cv-00070-O (N.D. Tex.), vacated the regulation that governed administrative closure and declared that no statute authorizes immigration judges to indefinitely administratively close cases. Outside groups denied permission to intervene have appealed that denial to the Fifth Circuit. Whether immigration judges currently have authority to grant administrative closure, and on what terms, is unsettled. The immigration attorneys at Novo Legal track this doctrine as it develops and can tell you where it stands for your specific case. 

Getting a current answer for your case

A grant of administrative closure pauses a case; it does not end it, and the government can move to put a closed case back on the calendar. 
Immigration law can be incredibly complicated. You need an immigration attorney who knows how to win. Reach out to our attorneys today at (888) 746-5245. 

No matter what type of immigration application or proceeding you are working through, the immigration attorneys at Novo Legal can help. 

Read our 2026 guide: Administrative Closure of Deportation Proceedings: A 2026 Guide for Defendants in Immigration Court