The Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act of 1997 — NACARA — is a relic statute that still produces real results for a defined and shrinking population. Section 202 of NACARA gave Nicaraguans and Cubans direct adjustment to LPR. Section 203, the focus of this article, gave a procedurally favored form of cancellation of removal to Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and nationals of certain former Soviet bloc countries who were already in the United States in particular registration postures by specified dates in the 1990s. Section 203 is still active. The eligible pool is closed by statute and shrinking each year, but the relief itself is meaningfully more generous than ordinary INA §240A cancellation.
What changed
NACARA was enacted as Title II of the District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 1998 (Public Law 105-100, signed November 19, 1997). Section 203 amended INA §240A(b) to create a special suspension-of-deportation/cancellation-of-removal procedure for two classes of applicants:
- Class 1: Salvadorans who first entered the United States on or before September 19, 1990, and who registered for benefits under the ABC settlement (American Baptist Churches v. Thornburgh) on or before October 31, 1991, OR who applied for TPS on or before October 31, 1991, AND who were not apprehended at the time of entry after December 19, 1990.
- Class 1: Guatemalans who first entered the United States on or before October 1, 1990, and who registered for ABC benefits on or before December 31, 1991, AND who were not apprehended at time of entry after December 19, 1990.
- Class 1: Nationals of the former Soviet Union, Russia, any former Soviet republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Albania, Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, or any state of the former Yugoslavia who entered the United States on or before December 31, 1990, and who filed for asylum on or before December 31, 1991.
Section 203 also extends to certain qualifying relatives — spouses, unmarried children, and unmarried sons and daughters — of principal applicants.
The implementing rule was published May 21, 1999 (64 FR 27856) and codified at 8 CFR §§240.60–240.70. USCIS adjudicates NACARA §203 applications affirmatively for applicants not in removal proceedings, on Form I-881. EOIR adjudicates applications for applicants in removal proceedings, also on Form I-881 filed with the immigration court.
Why it matters
Section 203 cancellation diverges from ordinary INA §240A(b) non-LPR cancellation in three structurally important ways.
Continuous physical presence — seven years and no stop-time problem. Ordinary non-LPR cancellation requires ten years of continuous physical presence, and the time stops accruing the moment a Notice to Appear is served (the “stop-time rule” of INA §240A(d)(1)). NACARA §203 requires only seven years and is not subject to the stop-time rule for service of the NTA — the relevant statutory provision pre-dates IIRIRA’s stop-time architecture. This is the single most important practical advantage of §203.
Hardship standard — extreme, not exceptional and extremely unusual. Ordinary §240A(b) cancellation requires the applicant to show that removal would cause “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” to a qualifying U.S. citizen or LPR relative — a standard the BIA in Matter of Monreal-Aguinaga and Matter of Andazola-Rivas read narrowly. NACARA §203 borrows the pre-IIRIRA “extreme hardship” standard, which the BIA in Matter of L-O-G- and Matter of Anderson read as substantially more reachable. Hardship under §203 can run to the applicant themselves, not only to qualifying relatives.
Presumption of extreme hardship. Under 8 CFR §240.64(d), an ABC class member who establishes the underlying eligibility benefits from a rebuttable presumption that deportation would result in extreme hardship. The presumption can be overcome by the government, but in practice it shifts the burden of production and meaningfully increases approval rates.
The cap. INA §240A(e), which limits ordinary cancellation grants to 4,000 per fiscal year, does not apply to NACARA §203 grants. Section 203 grants do not count against the cap.
Way forward
The Form I-881 packet for a NACARA §203 application typically includes:
- Form I-881 with the appropriate principal or derivative classification box.
- Evidence of class membership — ABC registration documentation, TPS application receipts dated within the statutory window, asylum filings with the right priority date, or principal-relative documents for derivatives.
- Proof of seven years of continuous physical presence (lease agreements, employment records, tax returns, school records, medical records, declarations from witnesses).
- Proof of good moral character for the seven-year period.
- Personal declaration laying out the extreme-hardship facts — health, family ties, country conditions, economic dislocation, language, lack of family network in the country of removal, and any specific risk factors.
- Country-conditions evidence for the country of removal.
- Tax returns for the seven years and proof of timely filing.
- Evidence of any qualifying U.S. citizen or LPR family relationships, even though §203 does not strictly require a qualifying relative the way §240A(b) does.
Three practitioner notes worth flagging:
Derivatives must file separately. A spouse or unmarried son/daughter of an eligible NACARA principal must file their own Form I-881 to obtain derivative §203 relief. Filing is on the same form but with the derivative section completed and proof of the qualifying relationship attached.
Approval converts to LPR. A grant of NACARA §203 suspension or cancellation results in adjustment to LPR. Unlike ordinary §240A(b) cancellation, the §203 grantee does not need to compete for one of the 4,000 capped slots — there is no cap and the LPR card issues without delay.
The pool is closed. No new applicants can become eligible. A person who entered the United States in 2024 cannot be a §203 principal. The only growth in the pool comes from derivatives — a U.S.-born child of an eligible principal is not a derivative (citizenship is its own status), but an unmarried child who is themselves a class-eligible national may continue to be added until they marry or age out.
Twenty-eight years after enactment, NACARA §203 still produces green cards. The eligible population is shrinking. For practitioners with long-tenured Central American or former Soviet bloc clients, the seven-year presence and extreme-hardship standards remain a meaningfully better road to LPR than INA §240A(b) cancellation. Pull old client files. Check the ABC and TPS registration logs. The relief is still there.
Disclaimer
Fola Form is a software company, not a law firm. This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Consult a licensed immigration attorney about your specific situation. Always verify the primary source linked above.