The International Prisoner Transfer Program began in 1976 after Congress passed enabling legislation (18 U.S.C.§§ 4100 - 4115) and the Federal Government negotiated the first in a series of treaties permitting the transfer of prisoners from the countries in which they had been convicted to their home countries where they will serve the imposed sentence. The United States is now party to twelve bilateral transfer treaties and two multilateral transfer conventions giving it, as of October 2018, transfer treaty relationships with 83 countries and territories. See https://www.justice.gov/criminal-oia/list-participating-countries. These agreements allow the United States: (1) to transfer convicted foreign nationals in state or federal custody back to their home country, where the receiving country assumes responsibility for enforcing the sentence; and (2) to receive the transfer of Americans convicted abroad and to assume responsibility for enforcing the foreign sentence. Transfer can only occur if the pertinent statutory and treaty requirements are satisfied, including receiving the consent of the sentencing country, the receiving country and the prisoner. For information about the initial impetus for the program and its benefits, please contact the International Prisoner Transfer Unit.

Because the United States Attorneys’ Offices are primarily involved in the transfer of foreign nationals from the United States, the focus of this Chapter is on the handling of requests to transfer foreign national prisoners from the United States to foreign countries.

Additional information about the transfer program and its procedures may be found at the IPTU Web site: http://www.justice.gov/criminal/oeo/iptu/.

[updated January 2020]