The present invention provides a method and system to limit redirections by using a redirection counter contained within the mobile station (MS 132) registration request (663 or 667). Once the redirection counter has exceeded a certain value for a MS (132), the unlicensed network controller (UNC 142) will reject any registration request from that MS (132). More specifically, the present invention provides a method for limiting redirections of mobile stations (132) in an unlicensed radio access network (102) by initializing a redirection counter (1206), including the redirection counter in a registration request (1208), and incrementing the redirection counter each time a re-direct response is received in response to the registration request (1212).