Checking Your EOIR Case Status Without Losing Your Mind
The EOIR Automated Case Information system is the official way to pull up your immigration court docket online. It lives at justice.gov/eoir/acis and it works, but it is not built with user experience as a priority. You need your 10-digit alien number, your name exactly as it appears on your notice to appear, and the individual case number printed on that same document. If any of those don't match what the system expects, you get nothing useful back. I spent three weeks last year trying to pull case files for a client whose hearing had been reset twice. The system showed the original hearing date even after the court sent a new notice. The workaround was pulling the raw docket report directly instead of relying on the summary screen, which actually reflects recent changes faster than the status line does. It took me about ten minutes per pull once I figured out the right sequence.
The Ultimate Guide To Decoding Eoir Case Status Stop Guessing Start Knowing
Step one: Go to the ACIS lookup page and enter your alien registration number and full legal name. The name field is case-sensitive in the way that matters here. If your name has a hyphen or an apostrophe, try both versions. The system sometimes drops special characters entirely on its end. Step two: Enter the case number from your Notice to Appear. It looks like XXX-XXXXXX. Do not substitute a priority number or an A-number here. They are different fields in different systems. Step three: Run the search and look at what comes back. The status line alone tells you almost nothing. A case marked as "Active" could mean anything from a continuance scheduled next month to a master calendar hearing that was supposed to happen two weeks ago. The docket report is where the real information lives. It lists every order, hearing date, motion filed, and decision issued. Sort by date descending and skim from the most recent entry backward until the picture becomes clear.
Here is something most people miss. The EOIR phone line and the online system do not pull from the same real-time feed. I have called the EOIR hotline and been told a hearing is scheduled for a date that does not appear anywhere in ACIS. The phone reps sometimes have access to a supplemental scheduling system that shows proposed dates before they are formally entered into the public docket. If the online status conflicts with what the courtroom deputy told you on the phone, the phone version is usually more current for pending motions and rescheduling notices. Common status codes you will see and what they actually mean: Active: The case is currently before the court. This is the default for almost everything that is moving.
Get the Full Details
Continued: A hearing was rescheduled. This does not tell you when the new date is. You have to check the docket entries for the continuance order to find it. Dismissed: The case is closed. Sometimes this is an administrative dismissal for failure to appear, sometimes it is a voluntary dismissal. The reason matters and it is not in the one-word status label. Remanded: The Board of Immigration Appeals sent the case back to the immigration judge. This usually means something significant happened upstream and the case is getting a fresh look.
Removed: The respondent has been ordered removed. The case may still show as active if there is an outstanding appeal or a stay of removal pending. The portal has real limitations. If your case was filed before the system migrated to the new cloud infrastructure around 2019, some older records may not display correctly in ACIS. You might see a blank docket or a date range that cuts off unexpectedly. In those situations, you need to file a FOIA request through the Department of Justice's website to get the full paper file, and that process takes roughly four to six weeks depending on the office handling it. I recommend starting the FOIA request the same day you discover the gap rather than waiting. Another thing that trips people up. Your case status will not update the same day a judge signs an order. There is typically a 48 to 72 hour lag between the court issuing a written decision and the system reflecting it. During major court backlogs, I have seen that window stretch to a full week. Do not refresh the page three times an hour expecting results.
If you are representing yourself, the most practical approach is to check ACIS every Monday morning and every Thursday afternoon. Those are the days most orders and hearing notices get entered. I set a recurring calendar reminder for myself and spend about five minutes running the lookup. It saves you from missing a rescheduled hearing by more than a few days, which is the single most expensive mistake you can make in these proceedings. The system does not send email alerts. There is no subscription feature. If you need notifications, you have to build your own tracking routine or hire someone who already has one. Third-party immigration software platforms exist, but they are just scraping the same ACIS data you can access for free, and they charge monthly fees for it. I have seen clients pay $30 to $60 a month for services that amounted to a weekly ACIS check. If the online lookup returns no results at all, verify that you are using the correct immigration court location. Cases get transferred between offices occasionally, and the older office will not show anything. You can cross-reference your case number against the EOIR court locator to confirm which office currently has jurisdiction before you spend time troubleshooting a search that is not going to work.
