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name: circuit-petition-for-review

description: >

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# Immigration — Circuit Petition for Review (PFR)

> **NOT LEGAL ADVICE.** This skill produces drafting aids, checklists, and document

> scaffolds — **not legal advice**, and no attorney-client relationship is created.

> **The 30-day deadline to file a petition for review is JURISDICTIONAL — it cannot be

> tolled, extended, or excused, and missing it is uncurable.** A petition for review is

> federal appellate litigation on a closed administrative record; **strongly consider

> retaining a licensed attorney experienced in circuit immigration practice** before

> proceeding. Verify every date and citation against current law.

## What a petition for review is — and is not

A petition for review (PFR) is the **sole and exclusive means** of obtaining judicial review

of a **final order of removal** (8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(5)). It is filed in a **U.S. Court of

Appeals (a circuit court) — not with EOIR, the immigration court, or the BIA.** The "final

order" is almost always the **BIA's decision** dismissing the appeal (or the IJ's order if no

BIA appeal was taken and none is available).

The PFR document itself is **short**: a notice naming the petitioner, identifying the order

under review (with a copy of the order attached — § 1252(c)), and stating the court. The

**merits are argued later**, in an opening brief decided **only on the administrative record**

the agency already made (§ 1252(b)(4)(A)); the court does not take new evidence and reverses

fact findings only if "any reasonable adjudicator would be compelled" to the contrary

(§ 1252(b)(4)(B)).

## Deadline, venue, and exhaustion — the three jurisdictional gates

| Gate | Rule | Authority |

|---|---|---|

| **Deadline** | **File no later than 30 days after the date of the final order of removal** (usually the BIA decision). **Jurisdictional — no tolling, no extension, no good-cause cure.** | § 1252(b)(1) |

| **Venue** | File in the circuit covering the place where **the immigration judge completed the proceedings** — not where the petitioner now lives. | § 1252(b)(2) |

| **Exhaustion** | The court may review **only** if the petitioner **exhausted all administrative remedies available as of right** — i.e., raised the issue to the BIA. Issues not presented to the Board are generally unreviewable. | § 1252(d)(1) |

Compute the 30 days against the date stamped on the final order, count calendar days, and

confirm the circuit with `immigration-deadlines`. A motion to reopen or reconsider at the BIA

**does not** restart this clock; if a PFR and a reopen/reconsider motion are both pending, the

court consolidates them (§ 1252(b)(6)) — see `eoir-motions-to-reopen-reconsider`.

## Scope of review — the § 1252(a)(2) bars and the (a)(2)(D) exception

Congress stripped circuit jurisdiction over two large categories of removal orders:

- **Criminal-offense bar — § 1252(a)(2)(C).** No jurisdiction to review a final removal order

against a noncitizen removable for certain crimes (offenses under § 1182(a)(2) or

§ 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii), (B), (C), (D), and the stacked-CIMT clause).

- **Discretionary-decision bar — § 1252(a)(2)(B).** No jurisdiction to review judgments

granting or denying the listed discretionary relief (e.g., cancellation under § 1229b,

voluntary departure under § 1229c, adjustment under § 1255, certain § 1182 waivers), or

other decisions specified to be in the agency's discretion.

> **The key exception — § 1252(a)(2)(D).** Nothing in those bars precludes review of

> **constitutional claims or questions of law** raised in a petition for review to an

> appropriate court of appeals. A PFR that falls within a bar generally survives only if it is

> framed as a constitutional claim or a legal question (the application of law to settled

> facts can qualify). Frame the petition's issues accordingly and verify the controlling

> circuit construction via CourtListener (below) — do not rely on remembered case names.

## No automatic stay — you must MOVE for a stay of removal

> **Filing a petition for review does NOT stay removal.** Service of the petition does not stop

> the government from removing the petitioner while the case is pending **unless the court

> orders otherwise** (§ 1252(b)(3)(B)). To avoid removal during the appeal, the petitioner must

> file a **separate motion for a stay of removal** in the court of appeals and satisfy the

> stay standard (the *Nken*-type four-factor test — likelihood of success, irreparable harm,

> balance of equities, public interest). Some circuits operate a temporary administrative-stay

> practice on request; confirm the local rule and the government's forbearance policy. **Treat

> the stay motion as urgent and parallel to the PFR, not as something that happens later.**

## Artifacts this skill drafts

- **PFR caption / notice scaffold** — petitioner name(s) and A-number; respondent (the Attorney

General / United States); the order under review and its date; the circuit; a statement that

a copy of the order is attached (§ 1252(c)).

- **Filing checklist** — the 30-day deadline (computed and flagged jurisdictional); correct

venue (circuit of the IJ's completed proceedings); exhaustion confirmation; copy of the final

order attached; the certified **administrative record** (CAR) request/expectation; filing fee

or fee-waiver motion; service on the respondent.

- **Stay-of-removal motion outline** — the four stay factors mapped to the record, an urgency

banner, and a prompt to seek a temporary administrative stay where the circuit allows.

- **Exhaustion worksheet** — issue-by-issue: was it raised to the BIA? where in the record?

flagging any issue at risk of being deemed unexhausted under § 1252(d)(1).

## Related authority

- **INA § 242 / 8 U.S.C. § 1252** (judicial review of orders of removal) —

[`../../references/immigration-statutes/INA-II-immigration.md`](../../references/immigration-statutes/INA-II-immigration.md)

(§ 1252; the INA ↔ 8 U.S.C. crosswalk is in that corpus's

[README](../../references/immigration-statutes/README.md)).

- **Circuit immigration case law** (constructions of the (a)(2) bars, the (a)(2)(D) exception,

exhaustion, and the stay standard) is **on-demand via CourtListener** — see

[`../../references/legal-data-apis.md`](../../references/legal-data-apis.md) for the MCP

`search` workflow and the per-circuit `court` ids (`ca1`–`ca11`; the Ninth, `ca9`, carries the

largest immigration docket). **Do not invent case names** — pull and verify each cite, then

confirm with `immigration-fact-check`.

- Canonical filing URLs and the PFR framework pointer —

[`../../references/online-sources.md`](../../references/online-sources.md).

## Composition

- **`bia-appeals`** — establishes the final order that this PFR reviews; the BIA decision is the

trigger for the 30-day clock.

- **`eoir-motions-to-reopen-reconsider`** — a parallel reopen/reconsider motion does **not**

toll the PFR deadline; if both are pending the court consolidates (§ 1252(b)(6)).

- **`immigration-deadlines`** — compute and double-check the **jurisdictional 30-day** deadline

and identify the correct circuit/venue.

- **`immigration-fact-check`** — verify every statutory and case citation in the PFR and the

stay motion before filing.