Immigration court terms
The words that come up in the hearing notice and in the courtroom: 35 terms in plain language. The letters and numbers in the same papers are a different thing, and a different page decodes them.
These explanations are ours and are written in plain language: they are not legal advice and do not replace it. What the law requires, and by when, changes; EOIR publishes the current rules and forms.
Who is who in the courtroom
Respondent
The person whose case the immigration court hears. Court papers call this side the respondent: removal proceedings are administrative, not criminal, and there is no defendant and no prosecutor in them.
Immigration judge (IJ)
An employee of EOIR, part of the Department of Justice, and not a judge of a federal court. The judge is not chosen: the court assigns the case, and the judge on it can change.
On the site: Judges
EOIR
The Executive Office for Immigration Review, the Department of Justice office the immigration courts and the BIA belong to. Its monthly case release is the only source of the numbers here.
On the site: About
DHS / ICE trial attorney
The government side in the courtroom: an attorney appearing for the Department of Homeland Security. DHS is a separate agency from the court, and either side can appeal what the judge decides.
Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA)
The appellate body inside EOIR that reviews immigration judges' decisions. It can dismiss an appeal, sustain it, or send the case back to the judge; one member decides, or a panel of three.
Codes: BIA decisionOn the site: Judges
Representative
A lawyer or a representative accredited by EOIR who appears for the respondent. The court appoints no one and pays for no one. The release records that a representative appeared, never who they are.
Codes: Which side the representative was on, Where the representative appearedOn the site: Representation
Papers and forms
Notice to Appear (Form I-862)
The charging document that opens a removal case: it sets out what the government alleges and calls the person before the court. The date it was filed with the court is one of the fields a case can be found by here.
A-number
The nine-digit registration number printed on court papers (A123-456-789). The public EOIR release holds no A-numbers and no names — they are stripped before publication, which is why a case cannot be looked up by number here.
On the site: Privacy
Form I-589
Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal. One form asks for three things at once: asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture.
Codes: Application type
Form EOIR-33/IC
The change of address form for the immigration court. The court sends hearing notices to the address in the file, and nobody updates that file on the person's behalf: an address change filed with another agency does not reach the court.
Form EOIR-28
The notice a lawyer or accredited representative files to enter a case. Until it is filed, the case is recorded as having no representative.
Record of Proceeding (ROP)
The court's own file on a case: everything filed, issued and recorded in it. EOIR draws its releases from those files; this site shows the release, not the file.
On the site: About
Hearings
Master calendar hearing
A short scheduling hearing: pleadings to the charges, filing deadlines, and what relief will be asked for. Several dozen cases can be set for the same slot.
Codes: Hearing type
Individual (merits) hearing
The hearing on the merits: testimony, evidence and, as a rule, the decision. One case has the courtroom for the whole slot.
Codes: Hearing type
Continuance
A hearing put off to a later date. The release records a reason code for each one, and those codes are what the adjournment breakdown on judge and court cards is built from.
Codes: Adjournment reasonOn the site: Judges
In absentia order
A decision made at a hearing the person did not attend. In a removal case it is normally an order of removal; the share of completions decided this way is on judge and court cards.
On the site: Judges
Change of venue
Moving a case from one immigration court to another, on a motion. Once it is granted the case goes on in a different court and, as a rule, before a different judge.
Codes: Motion type
Bond redetermination hearing
A separate hearing about release from detention and the amount of bond. It decides nothing about removal: the case goes on either way, and the release records the two separately.
On the site: Judges
Credible fear / reasonable fear review
A judge's short review of a DHS officer's negative credible fear or reasonable fear finding. In the release it is a case type of its own, not a stage of a removal case.
Codes: Case type
What is asked of the court
Asylum
Protection for someone who fears persecution in their country. A claim filed with USCIS before proceedings is called affirmative, one filed in court defensive; the release marks which is which in a field EOIR publishes no key for, so this site does not split the two.
Codes: Application typeOn the site: Nationalities
Withholding of removal
A separate protection: removal to the country of persecution is barred. It grants no status and no path to permanent residence, and it takes more to prove than asylum — which is why a case can end with asylum denied and withholding granted.
Codes: Application typeOn the site: Methodology
CAT protection
Protection under the Convention Against Torture, asked for on the same form as asylum. It comes in two shapes, withholding and deferral of removal, and like withholding it grants no status.
Codes: Application type
Cancellation of removal (EOIR-42A, EOIR-42B)
Relief in which the judge ends the removal of a person who meets the conditions set by statute. There are two forms: EOIR-42A for lawful permanent residents, EOIR-42B for everyone else.
Codes: Application type
Adjustment of status
Becoming a lawful permanent resident without leaving the country. In court it appears as an application under section 245 of the immigration act — one of the ways a case ends without an order of removal.
Codes: Application type
Voluntary departure
Permission to leave the United States by a set date and at one's own expense instead of being removed. In the data it is one of the recorded outcomes of a completed case.
Codes: Case outcome
Decisions and what follows
Order of removal
The judge's decision that the person is to be removed. It is one of several ways a case is completed; the outcome codes list the rest.
Codes: Case outcome
Appeal to the BIA
Either side can take an immigration judge's decision to the BIA. The deadlines are short and set by regulation — EOIR publishes them; the release records who appealed and how it ended.
Codes: Who filed the appeal, BIA decisionOn the site: Judges
Remand
The BIA sends the case back to the immigration judge instead of ending it. This site counts the second round separately, because it does not end the way the first one did.
Codes: BIA decisionOn the site: Judges
Motion to reopen
A request to reopen a completed case on new facts — including a request to rescind a decision made in absentia.
Codes: Motion type
Motion to reconsider
A request to look at the same decision again on the ground that it applied the law or the facts wrongly. Unlike a motion to reopen, it brings no new facts.
Codes: Motion type
Administrative closure
Taking a case off the active calendar without deciding it. The case is not completed: it can be put back on the calendar later, and while it is closed nothing is scheduled on it.
Codes: Motion type, BIA decision
Status and timing
Asylum clock
The count of days an asylum application has been pending, which governs when a work permit can be applied for. EOIR and USCIS keep the official counter; this site can only estimate it from the hearing history in the release.
On the site: Methodology
Pending case
A case with no completion recorded: it is still in the queue. How many such cases a court holds, and how long they have been waiting, is on the court cards.
On the site: Courts
Custody status
Whether the person is detained, was released, or was never detained. It changes almost everything measurable: which hearings are set, how soon they are heard, and how the case ends.
Docket / case tag
A label EOIR puts on a case to route it: a special program, a place of hearing, a class action. Programs such as the Dedicated Docket are labels of this kind, and they have a page of their own.
Codes: Program tagsOn the site: Special programs