Empowering Immigrants, Strengthening America
Yes, in many situations. A motion to reopen asks the immigration judge or the Board of Immigration Appeals to set aside your removal order and hear the case again. Most motions must be filed within 90 days of the final order. DeCosmo Law reviews removal orders for South Jersey families, helping them weigh their options after a deportation order.
What Reasons Will a Removal Case Be Reopened?
A motion has to point to something the judge never had a chance to consider. Reopening is granted most often in situations like these:
- You never received notice of the hearing
- Conditions in your home country have changed
- You became eligible for relief that you could not request before
- Your previous representative gave you ineffective assistance
- A family petition was approved after the order was entered
- Government counsel agrees to reopen the case
Not every new fact will support a motion. The evidence has to be material and genuinely unavailable at the original hearing, which is a much higher bar than simply disagreeing with the outcome.
What a Motion to Reopen Must Include
A motion is a complete filing package, not a letter asking for another chance. Three pieces have to arrive together:
- New Evidence: Documents that did not exist or could not have been presented earlier, paired with an explanation of why they were unavailable.
- Completed Applications: Every form for the relief you now seek, filled out and signed, so the judge can see precisely what you would be asking for.
- Detailed Proof: Affidavits, country condition reports, medical records, and certified translations backing up each factual claim in the motion.
Incomplete filings get denied regularly. A judge can reject a motion without any hearing when the paperwork fails to show, on its face, that you would qualify for the relief requested.
Time Limits and Rules to Know
Deadlines decide which motions a judge can even consider. Four rules cover most cases:
- The 90-Day Rule: Most motions must be filed within 90 days of the final administrative order of removal, and you generally get only one.
- The 180-Day Rule for Missed Court: An order entered because you failed to appear can be reopened within 180 days on a showing of exceptional circumstances.
- No Time Limit (Exceptions): Motions based on lack of notice, changed country conditions supporting asylum, or Violence Against Women Act claims can be filed at any point.
- Joint Motions: When the Department of Homeland Security agrees to reopen, neither the deadline nor the one-motion limit applies.
The filing procedures are set out in 8 C.F.R. § 1003.23, which governs motions before the immigration judge. Filing a motion does not stop your removal on its own, so a separate request for a stay has to go in alongside it, a detail many families learn only when officers show up at the door.
Camden County removal cases are decided at the Newark Immigration Court, and a motion goes back to the court that issued the order rather than the one nearest your current address. Denials travel to the Board of Immigration Appeals and from there to the Third Circuit.
Have DeCosmo Law Look at Your Removal Order
A deportation order is not always the last word, though the filing window is narrow and the standards are unforgiving. DeCosmo Law is a boutique immigration firm with bilingual attorneys and a combined 80 years of immigration practice.
Our immigration attorneys handle removal defense from motions to reopen through appeals. Call (856) 361-2122 or schedule a review of your removal order with our Camden-area office.