A new phone number has been added to allow individuals to check the date for the next immigration court hearing. There is already an existing phone number that individuals can call at 1-800-898-7180 to obtain hearing information and future court dates, if applicable. The 800 # also explains any previous court history for each alien number provided. It is an automated phone number.
The new phone number is 1-240-314-1500. The main difference with the new phone number is that to obtain information through the new phone number, individuals will need more than just the alien number. The system will ask for the date that the Notice to Appear or other charging document was issued. More information on how to obtain the date that the charging document was filed can be found at www.justice.gov/eoir/HowToFindChargingDocumentDates.htm. This new phone system will be effective on August 30, 2010. The 800 # listed above will remain in working condition as well.
While a new phone number for individuals to check future court dates would usually be welcome, in this instance the new phone number may cause problems. The new phone number requires information that many applicants do not have and cannot obtain. For instance, we routinely check each client’s alien number to ensure that they are not in deportation / removal proceedings and also to check whether they have been in the past. Under the current 800 #, all we need is the alien number, which most clients have available.
On the other hand, many clients do NOT have their notices to appear (if they are in immigration proceedings) and may not even know that a Notice to Appear has been issued on their behalf. As a result, if a client is not aware that he is now in removal proceedings, then it would be impossible for the client and his immigration attorney to check his case status, as we would not have the information needed to access the court hotline information. This is a big deal, as that client would then not be alerted that he has a court date coming up and he would miss that court date, resulting in the client being ordered removed from the US.
While we applaud the efforts to update the system, we are concerned that the new requirement of having the Notice to Appear issuance date can cause many clients to miss their court hearings for lack of knowledge of the court date. It has been our experience that many clients do not have copies of their Notice to Appear and do not know where to obtain one or if they even have one issued on their behalf.