T Visa for Victims of Human Trafficking: Eligibility and Process

If you are in immediate danger, call 911.

The National Human Trafficking Hotline is free, confidential, and available 24 hours a day in many languages: call 1-888-373-7888 or text 233733. It can connect you to shelter, legal help, and other services. See humantraffickinghotline.org.

T visa cases are complex. Before filing, talk to a licensed immigration lawyer or a Department of Justice (DOJ)-accredited representative at a recognized nonprofit. Many help trafficking survivors for free. Check representatives on the EOIR roster, and avoid notario fraud.

Federal law defines a "severe form of trafficking in persons" as:

• Sex trafficking: recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting a person for a commercial sex act that is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or where the person is under 18.
• Labor trafficking: recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for labor or services through force, fraud, or coercion, for involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

Signs of labor trafficking can include confiscated passports, debts to a recruiter that can never be paid off, threats against family, or being prevented from leaving a job. You don't need to have crossed a border to be trafficked.

You may qualify if you:

1. Are or were a victim of a severe form of trafficking.
2. Are physically present in the US, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, or at a US port of entry because of the trafficking.
3. Complied with any reasonable request from law enforcement to help detect, investigate, or prosecute the trafficking. You don't need to show this if you were under 18 during at least one act of trafficking, or if you can't cooperate because of physical or psychological trauma.
4. Would suffer extreme hardship involving unusual and severe harm if removed from the US.
5. Are admissible, or get a waiver on Form I-192.

You can submit Form I-914, Supplement B (a declaration from a law enforcement agency), but it is optional. You can use other evidence instead, such as police reports, court records, communication with law enforcement, or sworn statements. Federal law enforcement can also grant "Continued Presence," a separate temporary protection for trafficking victims.

Since August 28, 2024, USCIS uses an updated bona fide determination process for T applications filed by people in the US. USCIS generally treats an application as bona fide if it is complete and properly filed, includes a signed personal statement, and initial background checks are done and raise no national security concerns.

With a bona fide determination, you can get deferred action and a work permit while the case is pending. To be considered, file Form I-765 under category (c)(40), ideally at the same time as Form I-914. Family members get deferred action and work permits only after the principal does.

If T status is approved, the principal gets a work permit automatically. Family members in the US apply with Form I-765.

File Form I-914, Supplement A with your application, while it is pending, or while you hold T status.

At any age, you can also include your parents, unmarried siblings under 18, and the children of eligible family members, if they are in present danger of retaliation because you escaped or helped law enforcement.

Family members abroad get their visas through a US consulate. Travel ban. Proclamation 10998 took effect on January 1, 2026, and has no end date. It limits visas for nationals of 39 countries: for 19 countries it suspends almost all visas, and for the other 20 it suspends immigrant visas plus B, F, M, and J visas. USCIS is also holding many pending cases from these countries for extra review. Check Travel ban status before you pay fees or book travel.

• USCIS fees: T applicants and T nonimmigrants are fee exempt for all forms through the green card application, according to USCIS.
• Length of stay: up to 4 years. Extensions are possible in some cases, such as when law enforcement needs you or a green card application is pending.
• Benefits: T nonimmigrants can access certain federal and state benefits and services, similar to refugees.
• Cap: 5,000 principal T visas a year. Family members don't count.
• Confidentiality: federal law protects information in T cases, and USCIS won't deny a case based only on evidence from the trafficker. You can use a safe mailing address.

You can apply for a green card (Form I-485) while in T status if you have been physically present for a continuous period of either:

• At least 3 years since first getting T status, or
• The length of the trafficking investigation or prosecution, if the Attorney General confirms it is complete, whichever is shorter.

You must also show good moral character, continued compliance with reasonable law enforcement requests (or an exception), and hardship if removed. See adjustment of status. Other options may include the U visa, VAWA, or asylum, depending on your facts.

2026 policy change. A USCIS policy memo dated May 21, 2026 (PM-602-0199) says people in the US in temporary (nonimmigrant) status should get green cards through adjustment of status only in "extraordinary circumstances," and it applies to pending cases. Talk to a licensed immigration lawyer about how it affects you before you file.

• The facts don't meet the legal definition of trafficking (for example, poor working conditions without force, fraud, or coercion).
• No link between the trafficking and your presence in the US.
• Not enough evidence of cooperation with law enforcement, without an exception.
• Inadmissibility issues without a waiver.
• A weak personal statement.

If USCIS sends a request for evidence, answer fully. See RFEs and NOIDs.