Methods and apparatus are provided for inter-RAT bearer change for the 3GPP network. In one novel aspect, a bearer termination procedure is performed upon detecting one or more triggering events for the inter-RAT bearer modification. In one embodiment, the UE established the 4G EPS bearer. The UE successfully performs a bearer change from 4G to 3G. Subsequently, the UE detects missing mandatory parameters during inter-RAT bearer change from 3G to 2G in an idle state. The UE performs bearer termination by releasing the PDP context. In one embodiment, the PDP context is locally released. In other embodiments, the UE explicitly releases bearer using the PDP context deactivation procedure. The locally released procedure can be triggered by the UE, or by the network, or by both the UE and the network. The explicitly PDP context release procedure can be triggered by the UE, or by the network, or by both the UE and the network.