Plea Timing After Matter of A-V-O-: Why the Date of a Guilty Plea Now Matters

Most crimmigration rules turn on what a person was convicted of. After Matter of A-V-O-, decided September 17, 2026, one important rule also turns on when the person pleaded guilty or was found guilty.

The prospective rule

The Board held that an aggravated felony conviction makes a person inadmissible under section 212(a)(8)(A) as "ineligible to citizenship," and it overruled Matter of Kanga. Because that reversed long-standing precedent, the Board applied the retroactivity test from Matter of Cordero-Garcia, 27 I&N Dec. 652 (BIA 2019), weighing reliance on the old rule and the burden of the new one. It concluded that the new rule applies only to people seeking admission as immigrants who incur an aggravated felony conviction based on a plea of guilty or nolo contendere made, or a jury verdict entered, after the date of the decision. Our full analysis of A-V-O- explains the reasoning.

What the date means in practice

The trigger in the Board's wording is the plea or the verdict. It is not the date of arrest, the date of sentencing or the date DHS files charges. A person who pleaded guilty before September 17, 2026 but was sentenced afterward appears to fall under the old rule, because the plea was made before the decision. After a trial, the relevant date is the day the verdict was entered. DHS may test the edges of this line, so the exact date should be documented early.

Proving the date

• Obtain certified plea minutes or a transcript, the docket sheet and the judgment.
• Make sure the record shows the date of the plea itself, not only the sentencing date.
• Keep these documents with the immigration file; the definition of "conviction" in 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(48)(A) is applied together with them.

Vacaturs and new pleas

Post-conviction relief removes a conviction for immigration purposes only when it rests on a legal or constitutional defect, as explained in our Matter of Pickering guide. A vacatur followed by a new plea creates a new plea date. If the new plea is to an aggravated felony and is entered after September 17, 2026, DHS can be expected to argue that A-V-O- applies. That risk should be weighed before any re-plea, whether it follows a New Jersey PCR petition or a New York motion to vacate.

Defense counsel's duty

Since Padilla v. Kentucky, defense lawyers must advise noncitizen clients about the deportation consequences of a plea; see our Padilla guide. After A-V-O-, complete advice on an aggravated felony plea should cover two separate risks: deportability, and the loss of any future path to a green card through the new admissibility bar. Structures that avoid the aggravated felony definition altogether, described in our guide to immigration-safe pleas, now carry even more weight.

Key takeaways

• The decision date is September 17, 2026; pleas and verdicts after that date are covered.
• Sentencing dates do not control under the Board's wording.
• A re-plea after a vacatur restarts the clock.
• USCIS also weighs criminal history in discretion; the USCIS discretion memo for adjustment cases explains how that plays out in pending files.

Related Guides on This Site

See also New Jersey DUI Laws Understanding Dwi Penalties Defense Strategies and Legal Consultation. See also Strategies That Work Defending Clients in Criminal Immigration Cases. See also Expungement, Sealing and Sentence Modifications: What Immigration Law Recognizes.

Disclosure: Criminal Immigration Law collaborates with the law firm that publishes Mandamus.com and N600K.com; some articles link to their guides. General information only, not legal advice.