Which stage is your case at?
The law is the same at every stage, but what can still be done, and how fast it has to be done, changes completely. Most people arrive not knowing. This page sorts it out in about two minutes.
Current as of September 2026. We re-check this page every quarter and after any rule change.
The fastest way to tell
Answer two questions. Has a judge already decided your case? If yes, you are after an order, and the clocks in that section are running. Is anyone in ICE custody? If yes, you are on the detained stage, and it overrides the others while the detention lasts.
If neither, look at your paperwork. A Notice to Appear with a first hearing date you have not yet attended puts you at the start. A hearing you have already attended, or a judge's scheduling order with filing deadlines, puts you in court.
You have a Notice to Appear
You are here if:
- You received a Notice to Appear.
- You have a first hearing date you have not yet attended.
- Nobody is in custody.
The first deadline. Form EOIR-33 within five days if your address is wrong or changes.
The first job. Read the notice against the statute, and decide what to admit and what to contest before the master calendar hearing.
This stageYour hearings are under way
You are here if:
- You have attended at least one hearing.
- The judge has set filing deadlines.
- You have, or need, an application for relief on file.
The deadlines. Generally 15 days before a master calendar and 30 days before an individual hearing, and the judge can set others.
The job. Motions, applications in the alternative, and a record built for appeal.
This stageYou or your relative is in custody
You are here if:
- ICE is holding the person right now.
- The hearing is at a detained facility or by video.
- There is, or may be, a bond hearing.
The deadlines. Set by the judge, often in days rather than weeks.
The two jobs. Release is a bond question. Defense is the removal case. They run at the same time.
This stageA judge decided the case
You are here if:
- The judge ordered removal, or denied your application.
- You were ordered removed for missing a hearing.
- The Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed your appeal.
The deadlines. 30 days to appeal to the Board. 30 days to reconsider. 90 days to reopen. 30 days for a petition for review.
The job. Pick the right vehicle, and ask for a stay.
This stageJust served, in one paragraph
The Department of Homeland Security has filed a Notice to Appear with the immigration court, and under 8 C.F.R. 1003.14 that filing is what starts the case. The notice has to state seven things under INA 239(a)(1), including the acts alleged, the charges, and the time and place of the hearing. The first hearing cannot be set earlier than 10 days after service unless you ask for it in writing. If the address on the notice is wrong, or you move, Form EOIR-33 is due within five days, because a hearing notice mailed to the last address you gave counts as notice even if you never saw it.
What happens at this stage decides a great deal. Whether the notice is defective matters for the stop-time rule in a cancellation case, and the objection to a defective notice generally has to be raised before pleadings close. Whether you concede the charge at the first hearing shapes everything after.
Read next: the Notice to Appear, defective notices, and the first hearing.
In court, in one paragraph
Removal proceedings run in two kinds of hearing. Master calendar hearings are short: pleadings, scheduling, identifying relief. The individual hearing is the trial: you testify, a government attorney cross-examines you, witnesses are called, and the judge decides. Between them, the judge sets filing deadlines, and the immigration court applies a receipt rule, so a document is filed when the court has it, not when you sent it.
Everything on the relief page happens at this stage: contesting removability, moving to terminate or administratively close, asking the government to dismiss, and filing every application you qualify for. In March 2026 the Supreme Court held in Urias-Orellana v. Bondi that the courts of appeals review the agency's findings deferentially, which means the record you build in front of the immigration judge is close to the last word.
Read next: contesting the charge, the individual hearing, and the deadlines.
Detained, in one paragraph
ICE is holding the person. Some people are eligible for a bond hearing under INA 236(a); some are subject to mandatory detention under INA 236(c), a category Congress widened in January 2025. In May 2026 the Eleventh Circuit held in a published decision that people arrested inside the country who were never admitted are detained under 236 and can get bond hearings, rejecting the Board's contrary reading. Which rule applies to your relative is the first question, and it is a legal question, not a matter of ICE's say-so.
The removal case itself runs on a detained docket where the judge sets deadlines in days. Every defense on this site is still available, but it has to be assembled fast, and the person in custody usually cannot gather documents themselves.
Two separate fights, both urgent
Release is a bond question, and it is handled at icebail.com, our detention and bond practice. Defense is the removal case, and that is this site. They run on separate tracks and neither one waits for the other.
Read detained removal defense, or if someone was picked up today, start with (718) 484-7510.
After an order, in one paragraph
The judge's decision becomes final unless it is appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals within 30 calendar days, and the Board applies a receipt rule. A timely appeal generally stays removal while it is pending. After the Board decides, a petition for review in the federal court of appeals is due within 30 days, and it does not stay removal by itself: a stay has to be requested. A motion to reconsider is due within 30 days and a motion to reopen within 90, and you generally get one of each, counted across both the judge and the Board.
If you were ordered removed for missing a hearing, the rules are different and in one way better: a motion to rescind an in absentia order stays removal automatically while it is pending.
The appeal deadline is 30 days, not 10
A 10-day BIA appeal deadline was published in early 2026. A federal court vacated it on March 8, 2026, the day before it would have taken effect, and the government dismissed its appeal on August 17, 2026. The regulation in the eCFR still prints the vacated text. Anyone who tells you the deadline is 10 days is reading a rule that never applied.
Read next: after a removal order, the BIA appeal, motions to reopen, and stays of removal.
Things that are true at every stage
- The government bears the burden on the charge for anyone who was admitted, by clear and convincing evidence under INA 240(c)(3)(A). You bear the burden on any application for relief.
- You have the right to counsel at no expense to the government, under INA 240(b)(4)(A). The court does not appoint one.
- The court provides the interpreter for your hearing.
- Your address on file controls. Notice sent to it is notice to you.
- Leaving the country after filing a motion to reopen or reconsider withdraws the motion, under 8 C.F.R. 1003.23(b)(1).
- Government fees are not legal fees. Appeals and motions at EOIR carry government filing fees paid through the EOIR Payment Portal, which no longer accepts checks. We say which fee is which every time money comes up.
Sorting yourself out
How removal proceedings work
The whole process, start to finish, on one page.
Read →Every form of relief
The full list, compared side by side.
Read →The relief screener
Eight questions, a reading list, nothing sent anywhere.
Read →Checking your case status
How to find your next hearing date and your judge's decision.
Read →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.