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Immigration Court Change of Address

When do I need to inform the Immigration Court of my new address? 

If you are in removal or deportation proceedings, you must always keep the Immigration Court informed of your address.  In fact, until you become a U.S. citizen, you must keep U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services – USCIS, informed of your address as well. 

What if I do not keep the court informed of my address? 

A recent case from a Federal Circuit Court reiterated the law on this subject by stating that an immigrant who fails to keep the court informed of his or her current address, and then fails to attend a hearing because of lack of notice of the hearing, cannot use the lack of notice as a defense if the immigrant did not keep the court informed of his current address. 

In this case, the immigrant was arrested by INS for being in the United States illegally (unlawful presence).  The INS served the immigrant personally with a Notice to Appear (NTA) but the notice didn’t have a particular hearing date set (this is quite common and the immigrant will usually receive a subsequent NTA by mail that states the hearing date). 

Before the hearing date was set, the immigrant moved and did not inform the court or INS of his new address, so, when the new NTA was mailed to inform him of the court date, it was returned by the Post Office as “attempted, unknown.” 

The deportation hearing was held on the scheduled date but the immigrant did not appear.  The immigration judge proceeded to issue a deportation order against the immigrant “in absentia,” in his absence.   

Approximately four years later the immigrant tried to get his case reopened with the immigration court and filed a Motion to Reopen.  The reason cited by the immigrant as justification to reopen the case was that he never received notice of the hearing. 

The immigration judge denied the request to reopen the case, as did the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.  All holding that since the law requires immigrants to keep the immigration court informed of their current address, when an immigrant fails to keep the court informed of his address and therefore, does not receive notice of a hearing, he cannot use this as a reason to reopen a deportation case. 

How do I inform the court of my new address? 

The immigration court form that you should use to inform the immigration court of any change of address is Form EOIR-33/IC.  You may get the form at any immigration court or download it at: http://www.usdoj.gov/eoir/formslist.htm . 

I informed the court of my new address but I still did not receive notice and missed my hearing? 

If you properly informed the court of your address and the court sent the notice of the hearing to the wrong address and then proceeded to issue an order of deportation against you, this would be grounds to reopen your case.  If this happened to you, contact an immigration attorney as soon as possible because the amount of time that you wait can be a factor in reopening your case. 

Minnesota Immigration Lawyers