How do I pay an immigration bond?
Someone who is a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident pays it to ICE on the detained person’s behalf, now mostly through an electronic system called CeBONDS. Paid that way, it is the full amount up front, and it comes back at the end of the case if the conditions were met.
Bond payment procedure has changed several times in recent years. Confirm the current process on ICE’s bond page or with the field office before you move any money.
First: is there a bond at all?
There is only something to pay once ICE or an immigration judge has actually set an amount. For a large number of detained people no bond is possible, because the law they are held under does not allow one. That is a different question, and it comes first — can a detained person ask for a bond hearing?
The law puts the minimum at $1,500 (8 U.S.C. § 1226(a)(2)). Amounts well above that are common.
Who is allowed to pay
The person who posts the bond is called the obligor. They take on a legal obligation, not just a payment.
- An obligor generally has to be a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident.
- Certain nonprofits and law firms can also act as obligor — which is how community bond funds work.
- The obligor has to prove who they are, with government identification and proof of status.
- The obligor does not have to be a relative.
The money is not a fee. The usual kind of bond, a delivery bond, is a promise: whenever ICE sends the obligor a written demand — Form I-340, a Notice to Obligor to Deliver Alien — the obligor makes sure the person reports to the place and time it names. Do that every time and the money comes back when the case ends. Fail to, and ICE can declare the bond breached and keep the whole amount.
That is worth saying plainly to whoever is considering paying: this is their money at risk, tied to someone else showing up whenever ICE asks, over a case that may last years. It also means ICE must always be able to reach the obligor at a current address.
How the payment actually happens
The instrument is Form I-352, Immigration Bond. For a cash bond, the obligor signs it and pays the full amount to ICE.
There is another way: a surety bond from a company certified by the Treasury Department, usually arranged through a bail bond agent (8 C.F.R. § 103.6). You pay the company a fee instead of the full amount — but the fee does not come back, and the company will often want collateral and can add conditions of its own. Read the contract before anyone signs it.
ICE has moved this onto an electronic system, CeBONDS, and has been phasing out in-person payment at field offices. In practice that means:
- The obligor registers in CeBONDS and verifies their identity.
- Documents are uploaded — identification, proof of citizenship or permanent residence.
- Funds are sent by bank transfer. Personal cheques and cash are not how this works.
- Form I-352 is signed electronically.
- How soon release follows after the bond is accepted varies by facility. Call the facility and confirm before anyone travels to pick them up.
Bond processing runs on business hours, not around the clock. Practitioner guidance has put the window at roughly Monday to Friday, mid-morning to mid-afternoon. A bond accepted late on a Friday can mean a weekend inside.
Some field offices still handle limited exceptions differently. If anything about CeBONDS is not working — and for families without a bank account or comfortable English it frequently is not — call the field office handling the case and ask what they will accept.
Keep the paperwork. All of it.
The refund at the end of the case depends on the obligor being findable and the paperwork being intact, sometimes years later.
- Keep the signed I-352 and the receipt.
- Keep the bond number with the A-number.
- Tell ICE in writing whenever the obligor moves. A refund cheque goes to the address on file. This is one of the most common ways families lose money they were entitled to get back.
If you cannot raise the amount
- Ask for a lower bond. A bond amount is not fixed forever. Where an immigration judge has jurisdiction, a further redetermination can be sought on materially changed circumstances, and in some places judges have been required to consider ability to pay and less restrictive alternatives.
- Community bond funds. Nonprofit funds post bonds for people who cannot afford them, and can act as obligor themselves. Each has its own eligibility rules and its own capacity. See bond funds.
- Ask the lawyer about alternatives to detention. Release on recognisance, or release on conditions such as check-ins or electronic monitoring, does not require money. These are increasingly common release postures and are worth raising explicitly.
The scam warning, because this is where it happens
Families are targeted within hours of an arrest by people who have watched exactly this situation many times.
- Immigration bond is paid to the government, through the process above. Not to a person. Not to an agent who will “handle it”.
- Nobody legitimate asks for gift cards, cryptocurrency, or a wire to an individual. Ever, for any reason.
- Nobody can promise a release date or a bond amount in advance. A judge or an ICE officer decides that.
- A notary public is not a lawyer. In much of Latin America a notario público is a legal professional; in the United States a notary is not, and cannot give legal advice.
- Ask anyone offering help whether they are a licensed attorney or a Department of Justice accredited representative — and check it independently.
After release
Keeping the bond means the person reports whenever ICE demands it. Keeping the case alive means more: attending every immigration court hearing without exception, complying with any check-in or monitoring condition, and keeping addresses current with both the immigration court and DHS — two separate notifications with two different deadlines, set out in the family preparedness plan.
A missed court hearing can produce a removal order in absentia — made without the person there. ICE may then demand the person, and if the obligor cannot produce them, the bond is lost.