Please subscribe to our US Citizenship and Family Immigration Podcast on Itunes. This is a transcript of Episode #3 in which we talk about immigration court and 2019 hearings.
“Hello and welcome to episode number 3 of the Lee and Garasia Immigration Podcast. This is Attorney Paris Lee.
Today we’re going to talk about Immigration Court and Immigration Court dates.
2019 Immigration Court Dates
Some of our clients in removal proceedings are getting court dates for 2019, and the obvious question is, is my Court Case really going to be heard in 2019? And the answer, unfortunately, is that it may very well be. The reality is that the courts are clogged and that there are more cases in the system than there are judges to hear them. So the court staff has come up with an administrative control date of 2019, and it’s basically just a place holder to ensure that the individual or “respondent” is in the court docket system. So there might be a chance, conceivably, that the court date could be scheduled earlier, but more realistically, the way things are going, the case will probably be heard in 2019 or even later possibly.
Any Way to Push My Court Date Earlier?
A lot of people ask, is there any way to expedite or accelerate the court date? Normally, no– but under the right circumstances, an Immigration Judge might be persuaded to hear a court case earlier. This would be done through a formal motion by the Respondent or the Respondent’s Attorney to file what is called a “Motion to Advance” or “Motion to Calendar.” And basically what the person would be doing would be explaining why an earlier court date is necessary and going into detail why, what the situation is: if there is a medical situation; if you’re applying for cancellation of removal, perhaps one of the qualifying relatives will age out. It could be for any number of reasons, but the point is that this is pretty rare. You definitely want to be judicious in considering whether to file it. You would only want to file it under extreme circumstances where it’s truly warranted. The last thing you would want to do is annoy a judge or a government attorney by filing a frivolous motion just because you’re frustrated that the case is going to take so long. You know, obviously, everyone’s in the same boat, and this just will not go well with the judge who has to hear everybody’s case that are similarly situated like yours. So only consider it if you clearly qualify for some sort of relief, immigration relief that would somehow be prejudiced or affected by the delay. What those grounds might be, that needs to be discussed in detail with an attorney who can hopefully, accurately and realistically gauge whether it makes sense, whether such a motion is viable.
Change of Address
An important tip to keep in mind is that you always have to keep the court advised of your latest address, especially with these 2019 Court dates because they are so far out, people will move and change addresses. It is very important, you’ve got to keep the Court updated because if the Court somehow schedules a hearing earlier for whatever reason, or even later, and you move and you forget to notify the Court of your latest address, you might be in danger of being ordered removed. What happens is, if you don’t show up for Court when you are scheduled, the Court can easily order you removed in absentia–what they call “in your absence.” Definitely, you do have a responsibility, and it would be to your benefit to keep the Court advised of your latest address. That’s done on Form EOIR-33.
Remember, this is not legal advice, nor intended to create an Attorney-Client relationship.
Thank you for listening, if you have any questions about what we have discussed today, you can always feel free to call our office for a consultation. The phone number is 732-516- 1717, or feel free to visit our Website www.njimmigrationattorney.com.
Thanks for listening.”