The master calendar hearing
A master calendar hearing is short, procedural and crowded. The judge takes your pleadings, identifies what relief you will seek, and sets deadlines. Almost nothing about the merits of your case is decided. Almost everything about how it will be decided is.
Current as of September 2026. We re-check this page every quarter and after any rule change.
People prepare for the wrong hearing. They arrive at a master calendar ready to tell their story and are given four minutes of procedural questions. Then they treat the individual hearing, which is the trial, as another formality. Understanding what each hearing is for is most of what preparation means, and how removal proceedings work lays the two out side by side.
What the judge does
At a master calendar hearing, under 8 C.F.R. 1240.10 and the EOIR Policy Manual, the immigration judge:
- Advises you of your right to counsel at no expense to the government, and of the list of free and low-cost providers.
- Advises you of the right to present evidence and to examine, object to, and cross-examine.
- Explains the charges and the factual allegations in plain language.
- Takes your pleadings.
- Identifies and narrows the issues.
- Sets filing deadlines.
- Schedules hearings on contested matters and applications for relief.
- Advises you of the consequences of failing to appear.
- Advises you of the right to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals.
What you do
- Concede or deny service of the Notice to Appear.
- Request or waive a formal reading of it.
- Raise any objection to the notice itself, before pleading.
- Admit or deny each factual allegation and each charge.
- Designate or decline to designate a country of removal.
- State what applications for relief you will file.
- Estimate the time the individual hearing will need.
- Request an interpreter for the individual hearing.
Two of those deserve thought in advance
Designating a country of removal. Declining to designate is a real option and it is not defiance of the court. Decide it with counsel before the hearing rather than answering reflexively.
Requesting the interpreter. Ask for the specific language and dialect now, for the individual hearing. The court provides the interpreter, and a mismatch discovered on the day of the merits hearing costs a continuance at best.
Pleadings: what to admit and what to deny
Under 8 C.F.R. 1240.10(c), the judge requires you to plead to each factual allegation and each charge in the Notice to Appear. The regulation does not require you to admit anything. An admission is evidence, and it travels with the case to the Board and the court of appeals.
The starting point is who bears the burden. For a person who was admitted, DHS must prove deportability by clear and convincing evidence under INA 240(c)(3)(A) and 8 C.F.R. 1240.8(a). For a person charged as an applicant for admission, INA 240(c)(2) puts the burden on the respondent. Whether you were "admitted" is itself a question: under Matter of Quilantan, 25 I&N Dec. 285 (BIA 2010), a procedurally regular inspection and admission counts, even a wave-through at a port of entry with no questions asked. A person who was waved through is in the first group, not the second.
From there the rules are simple to state and hard to apply. Admit what is true and what the government can easily prove. Deny what is not true. Deny what the government would have trouble proving, including the manner of entry where its only evidence is the Form I-213 and the statements in it. Never concede a charge based on a criminal conviction until the conviction has been run through the categorical approach, because the answer is often not the one the notice assumes. All of this is contesting removability.
The defective-notice objection is made now, or not at all
If the Notice to Appear omitted the time or place of the hearing, under Matter of Fernandes, 28 I&N Dec. 605 (BIA 2022), the objection is generally forfeited unless raised before pleadings close. It is made at this hearing, in writing, before you admit or deny anything. See defective Notices to Appear.
Identifying relief
The judge asks what applications you will file. The answer is every one you may qualify for, in the alternative; the judge rules on each. The list is on relief from removal. Two timing rules bite at this hearing. Under INA 240B(a) and 8 C.F.R. 1240.26(b)(1), voluntary departure before the conclusion of proceedings, up to 120 days, must be requested at or before the master calendar at which the case is first set for a merits hearing, with removability conceded and no other relief requested. And the deadline the judge sets for filing applications is a real deadline: an application not filed by it can be deemed abandoned.
Continuances
Under 8 C.F.R. 1003.29, a continuance requires good cause. In Matter of L-A-B-R-, 27 I&N Dec. 405 (A.G. 2018), the Attorney General held that where a continuance is sought to await collateral relief, such as a petition pending at USCIS, the primary factors are the likelihood that the collateral relief will be granted and whether it would materially affect the outcome of the removal case. A continuance to wait for something that would not change the result is not good cause.
Where the collateral matter is a family-based visa petition, Matter of Hashmi, 24 I&N Dec. 785 (BIA 2009), sets a five-factor test, and the judge cannot decide the petition, only wait for USCIS to. Where the wait is expected to be long, administrative closure may be the better vehicle. The petition itself is USCIS work; our family practice handles it at visa4love.com.
Do not count on a second continuance to find a lawyer
You have the right to counsel at no expense to the government, and a judge will normally give you time to use it. How much time got shorter in August 2026. In Matter of A-K-R-, 29 I&N Dec. 839 (BIA 2026), decided August 14, 2026, the Board held that the only fixed time protection for obtaining counsel is that the first hearing may not be set earlier than 10 days after service of the Notice to Appear under INA 239(b)(1), modifying Matter of C-B-, 25 I&N Dec. 888 (BIA 2012). Treat the first continuance as the one you get.
The deadlines that get set
In non-detained cases, the Immigration Court Practice Manual, chapter 2.1, puts filings due 15 days before a master calendar hearing and at least 30 days before an individual hearing, with responses due within 10 days. In detained cases the deadlines are whatever the judge specifies, often days rather than weeks. The judge may also set specific dates at this hearing, and those control.
Deadlines run in calendar days, and the court applies a receipt rule: a document is filed when the court has it, not when you sent it. Attorneys and accredited representatives must file electronically through ECAS under 8 C.F.R. 1003.31. The full list is on the deadlines page.
On the day
- Arrive early. Court buildings have security lines, and EOIR publishes public hours and filing-window hours for each court, which differ. See New York, Newark, and Miami.
- Bring the hearing notice, identification, and your file.
- Bring an interpreter only for talking to your lawyer. The court provides the interpreter for the hearing itself.
- Go even if you are not ready. Appearing unprepared is a continuance. Not appearing is a removal order.
- Do not bring children if you can avoid it. The wait is long.
If you are running late or cannot get there
Go anyway, and get word to the court. Under INA 240(b)(5)(A), a person who does not attend after written notice is ordered removed in absentia if DHS shows removability and notice by clear, unequivocal and convincing evidence. Rescission for exceptional circumstances under INA 240(b)(5)(C)(i) requires a motion within 180 days, and the exceptional circumstances defined in INA 240(e)(1) are a narrow list. Arriving late and being present is far better than being absent. See in absentia orders.
Read next: contesting removability, the individual hearing, the filing deadlines, or change of venue.
Common questions
How long does a master calendar hearing take?
Usually a few minutes on the record. Many cases are set for the same time slot, so the waiting is long and the hearing itself is short. Arrive early regardless of how brief your matter is expected to be.
What happens if I miss it?
Under INA 240(b)(5)(A), a person who does not attend after written notice was provided is ordered removed in absentia if DHS establishes removability and proper notice by clear, unequivocal and convincing evidence. The order can be rescinded on a motion filed within 180 days showing exceptional circumstances, or at any time for lack of notice or because you were in custody, and filing either motion stays removal automatically. But it is far better not to need one.
Do I have to admit the allegations?
No. Under 8 C.F.R. 1240.10(c), the judge requires you to plead to each factual allegation and each charge, but admissions are not required. What you admit becomes evidence, so pleadings should be prepared in advance rather than improvised. In many cases the right answer is to deny and require DHS to prove removability.
Will the judge decide my case that day?
No. The master calendar is where relief is identified and deadlines are set. The merits are heard at an individual hearing on a later date, and in non-detained cases the wait is usually long.
Tell us where your case is. We will tell you what is still possible.
You get a free case review with an attorney, in your language. We speak English, Russian, Spanish and Uzbek in-house, and we bring in a live interpreter for anything else. We will tell you what stage you are at, which forms of relief are open to you, what your deadlines are, and whether we can help. If we cannot, we will say so.