Resources Immigration and asylum
You missed a hearing or never got the notice
What to do if you missed an immigration court hearing or never got the notice.
This is general information, not legal advice: QARAVAN has no lawyers. QARAVAN does not help anyone enter the US and cannot arrange visas, invitations, sponsorship or evacuation. For your own case, talk to a licensed immigration attorney or a representative accredited by the U.S. Department of Justice.
If you miss a hearing, the judge can order your deportation without you (an order in absentia).
You can challenge it by asking the court to reopen the case (a motion to reopen). The deadline depends on why you missed it. If the notice never came, you were in custody or exceptional circumstances stopped you, then once you file such a motion you will not be deported while the judge decides. But you can file this kind of motion only once.
Start here
- Today, check your case on the court's website (EOIR) with your A-Number: is there a deportation order in absentia?
- Find a lawyer at once: you can usually ask to reopen within 180 days, and at any time if the notice never reached you.
- Keep envelopes, notices, medical notes and proof of past addresses: they explain why you missed the hearing.
Time is short. Start here, in this order.
Find out whether the judge has ruled
Check your case online at acis.eoir.justice.gov. Enter your A-Number, which is on letters from the court and USCIS. A new date shows up only once the court sets one.
Write down what happened
The date of the missed hearing, when and how you learned of it, and the address the court sent the notice to. If you moved, the moving date and the old and new addresses. With this timeline a lawyer sees faster which motion fits.
Collect proof
The postmarked envelope, any notice you got, medical notes and other papers that explain why you didn't come, and proof of the address you gave the court or USCIS.
Find a lawyer or accredited representative
Only a licensed attorney or an accredited representative may legally give advice on your case and file papers in court. You can ask to reopen over a missed hearing only once, so have a lawyer check the motion before it is filed. A motion based on changed conditions in your country (to apply for asylum or withholding of removal) has no deadline, but it does not stop removal: ask the judge for a stay separately. If you were told orally, in a language you understand, when the hearing was and what happens if you miss it, an order in absentia bars voluntary departure, cancellation of removal and getting a green card inside the US (adjustment of status) for 10 years.
Update your address with the court
File form EOIR-33/IC online in Respondent Access, your account on the EOIR website. The court counts a notice as delivered if it went to the last address you gave it. So if you moved without telling the court, "the notice never came" usually won't work.
If you were at the hearing and disagree with the final decision, a motion to reopen is usually due within 90 days.
Ways to ask the court to look at a decision again: deadlines and fees as of November 2026
| Reopen: no proper notice, or you were in custody | Reopen: exceptional circumstances | Reopen: changed conditions in your country (to apply for asylum or withholding of removal) | Reconsider (motion to reconsider) | Appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deadline | At any time | Within 180 days of the order made in your absence | No deadline | Within 30 days | The appeal form, Form EOIR-26, must reach the BIA within 30 calendar days of the decision |
| Filing fee | No fee for such a motion if you show you did not get proper notice or were in custody through no fault of your own | $1,095 ($950 if it rests only on an application that has no fee) | $1,095 ($950 only if the motion rests solely on an application that has no fee; ask a lawyer whether that fits an asylum application, which now has a $100 fee) | $1,095 ($950 if it rests only on an earlier application that has no fee) | $1,060, or ask for a waiver on the fee waiver form, Form EOIR-26A |
| Where it is filed | The immigration court that made the decision | The immigration court that made the decision | The immigration court that made the decision | The immigration court that made the decision | The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) |
| Does it stop removal while it is pending | Yes, until the judge decides, and you may file only one such motion | Yes, until the judge decides, and you may file only one such motion | No, so ask the judge for a stay of removal separately | A lawyer can tell you whether to ask the judge for a stay | Yes, during the 30 days for the appeal and while it is pending |
| What you must show | That you did not get proper notice of the hearing, or that you were in federal or state custody through no fault of your own | That exceptional circumstances kept you from coming | New facts about changed conditions in your country that were not available at the earlier hearing and could not have been presented then | A lawyer can explain on what grounds a judge may be asked to return to the same decision | A lawyer can explain what was wrong with the decision; tell the judge you intend to appeal before you file |
ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) can detain someone who has a deportation order. These programs give urgent help.
Rapid Response Legal Collaborative
NYC residentsFree
Urgent legal help for New Yorkers detained by ICE, and for people with a deportation order or ICE check-ins and no pending applications or appeals. Not open to people convicted of a serious or violent felony. Fill in the form on the program's website (a place is not guaranteed). Make the Road New York, NYLAG and UnLocal do the work; the city and the state fund it. Ask about the program on the City's MOIA line; to speak Russian, say "Russian".
The Legal Aid Society, lawyers for detained people
NYC residentsFree
If someone is detained by ICE and their case is in a New York immigration court (or they live in New York and the case is in New Jersey), the NYIFUP program (New York Immigrant Family Unity Project) may give them a free lawyer. Email nyifup@legal-aid.org. If you speak no English, first call the State's New Americans Hotline, 1-800-566-7636: it refers detained people to free lawyers; say "Russian" and a free interpreter joins. The Legal Aid line is in English.
Fee after an order in absentia and an arrest by ICE
Any status
Under federal law H.R. 1 (Public Law 119-21), a person with an order in absentia who is later arrested by ICE pays a fee: $5,000 from September 8, 2025, $5,130 from December 1, 2025 and $5,300 from October 16, 2026. DHS sends a notice with payment instructions. Before paying, ask a lawyer whether you can be exempted.
Free lawyers at your court
Any statusFree
EOIR publishes a list every quarter of organizations and attorneys who take cases for free at each immigration court. Find your court and contact them as early as you can.
- Order in absentia
- A removal order a judge makes when you do not come to your hearing.
- Motion to reopen
- A written request that the court take your case up again, for example because you never got the notice or exceptional circumstances kept you from coming.
- Motion to reconsider
- A written request that the same judge think again about the decision; it is due within 30 days.
- Exceptional circumstances
- The ground for asking to reopen within 180 days after an order in absentia; a lawyer can tell you whether your reason fits.
- Appeal
- A complaint to a higher body about a judge's decision; here it goes to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), a federal body inside the Department of Justice.
- A-Number
- Your Alien Registration Number; it is shown on letters from the court and USCIS.
- EOIR
- Executive Office for Immigration Review, the federal agency inside the US Department of Justice that operates the immigration courts.
- USCIS
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency that decides immigration applications (it is not a court).
- Stay of removal
- A decision by a judge or the Board that keeps you from being removed while your request or appeal is being decided.
All pages: Immigration and asylum