What Immigration Court Actually Is
If you or someone in your family has received a Notice to Appear, what comes next isn’t a criminal trial, and it doesn’t work like anything you’ve seen on television. Adriana, who arrived at the southern border seeking asylum and is now waiting for her case to be heard, is navigating the same system thousands of people in California face each year, one that moves slowly, operates under its own rules, and can feel disorienting from the very first hearing.
Immigration court is run by the Executive Office for Immigration Review, known as EOIR, which is part of the U.S. Department of Justice. That distinction matters. This isn’t the same court system that handles criminal charges or traffic tickets. There’s no jury. There’s no public defender. The judge sitting at the front of the room is an administrative judge, an attorney appointed by the Attorney General to decide immigration cases. The government is represented by a lawyer from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, sometimes called a trial attorney. Whether you have a lawyer on your side is entirely up to you and your ability to find one, because unlike criminal court, the government isn’t required to provide one for you.
Understanding that difference early changes how you prepare for everything that follows.
Two Kinds of Hearings
Immigration court cases generally move through two stages, and they feel very different from each other. The first is called a master calendar hearing. The second is called an individual hearing. Knowing what each one is, and what’s expected of you at each, helps you avoid the kind of confusion that can cost you your case.
Master Calendar Hearings
A master calendar hearing is essentially a scheduling appearance. The judge may have dozens of cases on the calendar that day. You’ll be in a courtroom with many other people, each waiting for their case to be called. When your turn comes, it’s usually brief. The judge will confirm your identity, make sure you’ve received the Notice to Appear, and ask whether you have an attorney. If you don’t have one yet, you can ask for more time to find one. Judges generally grant at least one continuance for this purpose, though there’s no guarantee of how many chances you’ll get.
During a master calendar hearing, the judge will also ask whether you admit or deny the charges in the Notice to Appear, which are the factual claims the government is making about your immigration status. This isn’t a guilty-or-not-guilty question in the criminal sense. It’s about whether the facts the government has stated are accurate. If you have a lawyer, your lawyer will help you respond. If you don’t, this is one of the moments where not having representation can create real problems, because how you respond shapes the rest of your case.
You may also be asked to identify what form of relief you’re seeking, meaning what you’re asking the court to let you do. That might be asylum, cancellation of removal, adjustment of status, or something else. The judge needs to know what’s on the table before scheduling your individual hearing.
Individual Hearings
The individual hearing is where your case is actually decided. This is the one that matters most, and it can last anywhere from one hour to a full day depending on the complexity of what you’re presenting. Think of it as a small trial. You’ll present evidence, your attorney (if you have one) will make arguments, and the government’s attorney will have the chance to cross-examine you and challenge your claims. The judge may ask questions directly.
If you’re applying for asylum, for example, this is where you’d testify about why you left your home country and what you fear if you’re sent back. If you’re seeking cancellation of removal, this is where you’d present evidence of your ties to the United States and the hardship your family would face. The judge makes a decision either at the end of the hearing or in a written decision mailed later.
The gap between a master calendar hearing and an individual hearing can be months or, in many courts, years. California immigration courts, particularly those in Los Angeles and San Francisco, carry enormous caseloads. Waiting eighteen months or longer between your first appearance and your merits hearing is not unusual.
What to Expect at Your First Hearing
Your first appearance will almost certainly be a master calendar hearing, and the most practical thing you can do is arrive prepared for the reality of it. Courts typically schedule many cases at the same time, often with a single start time in the morning. That means you may spend hours waiting before your name is called. Bring identification, your Notice to Appear, and any paperwork you’ve received from the court or from ICE. If you’ve already retained an attorney, bring their contact information in case there’s a question about representation.
Dress as you would for any serious appointment. The courtroom is formal. The judge will address you directly or through an interpreter. If you need interpretation, you have the right to it, and the court is supposed to provide one. In practice, interpreter availability can vary. If the interpreter speaks a language you understand but not the one you’re most comfortable with, say so clearly. Getting this right at the beginning avoids confusion later.
When the judge asks if you have an attorney, answer honestly. If you’re still looking, say so and request time. Most judges understand that finding affordable immigration representation takes effort, especially for people who are detained or have limited English. That said, the court’s patience isn’t unlimited. If you’ve had multiple continuances and still don’t have a lawyer, the judge may proceed without one.
One thing that catches people off guard is how fast the master calendar hearing moves once your name is called. You might wait two hours for a three-minute interaction. That interaction still matters enormously. What the judge records at that hearing sets the direction for everything that follows.
Your Rights in Immigration Court
You have certain rights in immigration court, and you also don’t have some rights that people often assume exist. Being clear about both is important.
You have the right to be represented by an attorney. That right is real, but it comes with a significant limitation: the government doesn’t have to pay for one. In criminal court, if you can’t afford a lawyer, the court appoints one. In immigration court, that doesn’t happen. You’re responsible for finding and paying for your own representation, or for finding a free legal services organization willing to take your case. In California, free and low-cost immigration legal help does exist through organizations funded by the state and by nonprofits, but demand far exceeds supply, and not every case gets picked up. The difference between having a lawyer and not having one in immigration court is staggering. Studies have consistently found that people with legal representation are far more likely to win their cases than those who go it alone.
You have the right to present evidence and call witnesses on your behalf. You have the right to examine and object to evidence presented by the government. You have the right to an interpreter if you don’t speak English fluently. You have the right to appeal the judge’s decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals, which is a higher body within EOIR. Filing that appeal currently costs $1,030, a fee that can be waived in some cases but isn’t always (EOIR fee adjustment, Federal Register, as of June 2026). The appeal process itself has been in flux, with court challenges to changes in how these cases are handled. Confirm current appeal deadlines and procedures with an attorney before filing, because both could change. You also have the right to request specific forms of relief from removal, which your defense options page covers in detail.
What you do not have is the right to a jury. The judge alone decides your case. You also don’t have the same procedural protections that exist in criminal court, because immigration proceedings are classified as civil, not criminal. That classification has real consequences for how the system treats you, even when the stakes, deportation from the country where your family lives, feel anything but civil.
How Cases End
Immigration court cases resolve in several ways, and the outcome depends on the specific facts of your situation, what relief you applied for, and what the judge decides after hearing the evidence. No one can predict how a judge will rule, and anyone who tells you otherwise isn’t being honest with you.
If the judge grants the relief you requested, your case may end with an order granting asylum, cancellation of removal, adjustment of status, or another form of protection. In some cases, the judge may terminate proceedings entirely if the government’s case has legal defects. A granted case doesn’t always mean permanent safety, some forms of relief are conditional or time-limited, but it does mean the removal order the government sought was not issued.
If the judge denies your application for relief, the court will generally issue a removal order. That order directs the government to deport you from the United States. You have the right to appeal that decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals, and in some circumstances, to a federal court after that. The BIA appeal filing fee is currently $1,030, and fee waiver requests are available for some filers but aren’t granted automatically (EOIR fee adjustment, Federal Register, as of June 2026). Filing a timely appeal can, in most cases, pause the removal order while the appeal is pending, but the deadlines are strict. As of this writing, the standard deadline to file a BIA appeal is 30 calendar days from the judge’s decision (EOIR Policy Manual, Appeal Deadlines, as of June 2026). Appeal rules and timelines have been the subject of ongoing litigation, so the procedures could change. Missing it can mean losing the right to appeal entirely. Talk to a lawyer about current procedures before filing.
A third possibility is voluntary departure. In some cases, the judge may offer you the option to leave the United States on your own within a specified time, instead of being formally removed. Voluntary departure avoids certain penalties that come with a formal removal order, particularly bars on returning to the U.S. in the future. It’s not available in every case, and accepting it means you’re agreeing to leave. Whether it’s the right choice depends entirely on your circumstances, and it’s the kind of decision that should involve a lawyer.
One thing this article needs to be direct about: immigration court proceedings now involve significant fees that didn’t exist before July 2025. Filing an asylum application in immigration court costs $100, and that fee can’t be waived. If your asylum case stays pending into another calendar year, there’s an additional annual asylum fee of $102, also non-waivable. Appeals to the BIA cost $1,030. Motions to reopen or reconsider cost over $1,000 whether filed with the BIA or with the immigration judge. These fees took effect under federal legislation signed in July 2025 and were adjusted for inflation effective February 2026 (EOIR fee adjustment, Federal Register, as of June 2026). Fee waivers are still available for some filings, like appeals and motions, but not for asylum fees. EOIR filing fees must now be paid through the EOIR Payment Portal at epay.eoir.justice.gov. Check the EOIR fees page at justice.gov/eoir for current amounts before filing anything, because these numbers are subject to annual adjustment.
What Happens If You Miss a Hearing
This is the section that matters more than almost anything else on this page. If you don’t show up for a scheduled immigration court hearing, the judge can order you removed in absentia, meaning without you being present. That removal order is real, it’s enforceable, and it can follow you for years.
In absentia removal orders are one of the most common and most preventable disasters in immigration court. They happen when people don’t receive notice of their hearing date, when they move and don’t update their address with the court, when they confuse dates, or when they’re too afraid to show up. The consequences are severe. Once an in absentia order is entered, getting it reopened is possible but difficult. You generally have to show that you didn’t receive proper notice, or that extraordinary circumstances prevented you from attending. The burden is on you to prove it.
If you move, you must file a change of address with both the immigration court and with ICE. The immigration court uses its own change of address form, Form EOIR-33/IC, and it requires you to file the update within five working days of moving. Not updating your address is a common reason people miss hearings, because the court mails every hearing notice to the address on file, and missing a hearing can lead to a removal order entered in your absence, one you might not learn about until something else went wrong, a traffic stop, a benefits application, a new filing with USCIS that triggered a records check. The form and its instructions spell out that deadline and those consequences (EOIR change of address form, Form EOIR-33/IC, as of June 2026).
If you have a hearing scheduled and something genuinely prevents you from attending, a medical emergency, a natural disaster, contact the court or your attorney immediately. Documentation matters. The court’s willingness to excuse an absence depends on what you can show.
California Context
California has some of the busiest immigration courts in the country, with major courts in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento handling enormous dockets. Processing times vary widely by court and by judge. A case in one California court might move twice as fast as the same type of case in another, and there’s no way to choose which court hears your case, it’s determined by where you live or where you’re detained.
The state does invest in legal representation for people in removal proceedings who can’t afford it. California funds several programs that provide free attorneys to immigrants facing deportation, particularly those who are detained. These programs don’t cover everyone, and getting accepted often requires applying early and meeting specific criteria. But they exist, and they’re worth pursuing. The state’s investment in these programs reflects a recognition that the federal government’s refusal to provide appointed counsel in immigration court creates a gap that costs people their cases.
California courts also tend to have interpreter services for a wider range of languages than courts in smaller states, though availability for indigenous and less common languages can still be a challenge. If your primary language isn’t Spanish or English, flag this as early as possible so the court can arrange appropriate interpretation.
Next Steps
If you or someone you know has a case in immigration court, the single most important thing you can do is get legal help as early as possible. Representation changes outcomes in this system more than almost any other factor. California has free and low-cost immigration legal services, and you can find them through our Find Help page. If you’ve already received a Notice to Appear, bring it to any legal consultation, it’s the document that starts your case and contains the information a lawyer needs to advise you. If you’re trying to understand what forms of relief might apply to your situation, the defense options page walks through the most common ones. Keep every piece of paper the court or ICE sends you, update your address immediately if you move, and never miss a hearing date if there is any way to be there.
The information on this page is general. Your situation may be different. Before making any decisions, talk to a qualified immigration attorney or accredited representative. Free and low-cost legal help is available in California, find it here.
