The Notice to Appear
A Notice to Appear is the charging document that starts a removal case under INA 240. INA 239(a)(1) lists seven things it must tell you. If you have one, two obligations start at once: keep your address current with the court on Form EOIR-33, and appear at every hearing. Everything else, including whether the notice itself is defective, comes after those two.
Current as of September 2026. We re-check this page every quarter and after any rule change.
A Notice to Appear is an accusation, not a decision. It says the Department of Homeland Security believes you are removable and states why. Nothing has been decided. Everything that follows, from the first hearing to any application for relief, happens inside the proceeding the notice opens, and how removal proceedings work is the map of that proceeding.
Two things are urgent on the day you receive one. Neither is finding a lawyer, though that is third. File your address with the court, and write the hearing date somewhere you cannot lose it.
What INA 239(a)(1) requires it to contain
The statute lists seven items. A notice that is missing one of them is the subject of its own page.
- (A) The nature of the proceedings against you.
- (B) The legal authority under which the proceedings are conducted.
- (C) The acts or conduct alleged to be in violation of law.
- (D) The charges against you and the statutory provisions alleged to have been violated.
- (E) That you may be represented by counsel, and that you will be given time to secure counsel.
- (F) The requirement to provide a written record of your address and telephone number, to provide written notice of any change, and the consequences of failing to do so.
- (G) The time and place at which the proceedings will be held, and the consequences under INA 240(b)(5) of failing to appear.
When the case actually begins
Being served is not the same as being in proceedings. Under 8 C.F.R. 1003.14(a), jurisdiction vests and proceedings commence when DHS files the charging document with the immigration court. People are served at the border, at a field office, or by mail, and the filing with the court can come weeks or months later. Until it is filed, there is no case on the docket, and the EOIR case status system will have nothing to report. Check it anyway, and keep checking.
The 10-day rule
INA 239(b)(1) provides that the first hearing may not be scheduled earlier than 10 days after service of the notice, unless you ask in writing for an earlier date. The ten days exist so that you can find counsel. The notice asks whether you want to give them up. Do not, unless you are detained and have made an advised decision that speed serves you.
Those ten days carry more weight than they used to. In Matter of A-K-R-, 29 I&N Dec. 839 (BIA 2026), decided August 14, 2026, the Board held that the 10-day minimum is the only fixed time protection for obtaining counsel, modifying Matter of C-B-, 25 I&N Dec. 888 (BIA 2012). Everything past the first setting is the judge's discretion. A second or third continuance to look for a lawyer is not something to count on.
What each part of the form means
Read it line by line, with a lawyer if you can. Each part does a different job.
- The alien registration number. The A-number at the top identifies you in every system the government runs. Every filing, every status check and every call to the court needs it. Keep it private; do not put it in a website contact form, including ours.
- The nature of the proceedings. The notice says which kind of case DHS believes this is: an arriving alien, a person present without having been admitted or paroled, or a person who was admitted and is now deportable. That choice decides who bears the burden of proof, which is the next section.
- The factual allegations. Numbered paragraphs stating what DHS says about you: nationality, date and manner of entry, status, any conviction. At the master calendar hearing you admit or deny each one, and an admission is evidence.
- The charges. The statutory provisions DHS says you violated, usually under INA 212(a) for inadmissibility or INA 237(a) for deportability. Which one matters, because the burden follows it.
- The date and manner of entry alleged. Compare it against your own records. It bears on the stop-time rule for cancellation, on the burden of proof, and on any asylum filing deadline.
- The court. If it is not near where you live, read change of venue now, because delay in asking is itself a factor against the motion.
- The time and place of the hearing. Note them, or note their absence.
Who has to prove what
For a person who was admitted, DHS must prove deportability by clear and convincing evidence under INA 240(c)(3)(A). For a person charged as an applicant for admission, including someone who entered without inspection, INA 240(c)(2) puts the burden on the respondent to show that they are entitled to be admitted or are lawfully present. The box DHS checked is its theory of which rule applies. It is not always right. Under Matter of Quilantan, 25 I&N Dec. 285 (BIA 2010), a person who was waved through a port of entry without questions was "admitted," even if the admission was not substantively lawful. The whole subject is contesting removability.
Your address obligation
8 C.F.R. 1003.15(d) requires written notice of your address and telephone number on Form EOIR-33 within five days of service if the address on the notice is missing or wrong, and a further EOIR-33 within five days of any change afterward. The form is filed with the immigration court that has your case.
Five days, and why it is the most consequential form in the case
Under INA 240(b)(5)(A), a person who does not attend a hearing after written notice was provided is ordered removed in absentia if DHS shows the notice and removability by clear, unequivocal and convincing evidence. Under 8 C.F.R. 1003.26(c)-(d), notice is sufficient if sent to the most recent address you provided, and no written notice is required at all where you never provided one. A hearing notice you never saw because it went to an old address is still notice.
Keep a copy of every EOIR-33 you file. File one with the court even if you told DHS, even if you told USCIS, and even if you told your lawyer. Neither agency updates the other.
If the time or place is missing
Many notices served in recent years said "to be determined" where the hearing date belonged. That defect has real consequences and real limits. Under Pereira v. Sessions, 585 U.S. 198 (2018), such a notice does not stop the clock for cancellation of removal, and under Niz-Chavez v. Garland, 593 U.S. 155 (2021), a later hearing notice does not cure it. But under Matter of Arambula-Bravo, 28 I&N Dec. 388 (BIA 2021), the court still has jurisdiction, and under Matter of Fernandes, 28 I&N Dec. 605 (BIA 2022), the objection must be made before pleadings close or it is generally forfeited. Campos-Chaves v. Garland, 602 U.S. 447 (2024), limits the defect as a route to rescinding an in absentia order where a proper notice of the missed hearing was received. The full analysis is on defective Notices to Appear. The short version: it is an argument, it is not a dismissal, and it has a deadline.
What to do in the first week
- Make copies of the notice and of everything served with it, including the envelope if it came by mail. The date and method of service matter.
- File Form EOIR-33 if the address on the notice is wrong, or the moment it changes.
- Check the docket. Call 1-800-898-7180 or use acis.eoir.justice.gov with the A-number. If the case is not there yet, it has not been filed. When it appears, the hearing notice you receive in writing is the official source, not the recording.
- Do not sign a request for an earlier hearing unless a lawyer has told you why.
- Gather what the allegations are about. Your passport, any document showing how and when you entered, any document showing status, and certified dispositions of every arrest, not only convictions.
- Write your own timeline of every entry and departure. The stop-time rule, the burden of proof, and any asylum deadline all turn on dates.
- Talk to a lawyer before the first hearing. What you admit at the master calendar is hard to take back, and the objection to a defective notice has to be made before you plead.
What comes next
- The master calendar hearing: pleadings, relief identified, deadlines set.
- Contesting removability, and every application you qualify for from the relief list, filed in the alternative.
- The filing deadlines, counted in calendar days under a receipt rule.
- The individual hearing, where the case is tried.
Read next: defective Notices to Appear, the master calendar hearing, checking your case status, or change of venue.
Common questions
Does receiving a Notice to Appear mean my case has started?
Not by itself. Under 8 C.F.R. 1003.14(a), jurisdiction vests and proceedings commence when DHS files the charging document with the immigration court. Service on you and filing with the court are two different events, and there can be a long gap between them. Until the notice is filed there is no case on the court's docket to check and no judge assigned.
My notice has no hearing date, or says to be determined. Is it invalid?
It is not void, and the case is not dismissed. Under Pereira v. Sessions, 585 U.S. 198 (2018), and Niz-Chavez v. Garland, 593 U.S. 155 (2021), a notice that omits the time or place is not a notice to appear under INA 239(a) for the stop-time rule, and a later hearing notice does not cure it. But under Matter of Arambula-Bravo, 28 I&N Dec. 388 (BIA 2021), the immigration court still has jurisdiction, and under Matter of Fernandes, 28 I&N Dec. 605 (BIA 2022), the objection must be raised before pleadings close or it is generally forfeited.
How soon can my first hearing be?
INA 239(b)(1) provides that the first hearing may not be scheduled earlier than 10 days after service of the notice, so that you can find a lawyer, unless you ask in writing for an earlier date. Non-detained first hearings are usually much further out than that. Detained cases move faster.
What do I have to do first?
Report your address. 8 C.F.R. 1003.15(d) requires Form EOIR-33 within five days if the address on the notice is missing or wrong, and within five days of any later change. Under 8 C.F.R. 1003.26, a hearing notice sent to the most recent address you gave counts as notice, and missing a hearing you were notified of leads to an in absentia removal order.
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.