Glossary

Glossary: immigration court terms in plain English

Applies toJust served In court Detained After an order

Immigration court has its own vocabulary, and much of it is form numbers and statute sections. This page defines the words you will hear in the courtroom and read on your papers, in plain English, grouped by where they come up in a case. Each term links to the page that explains it in full.

Current as of September 2026. We re-check this page every quarter and after any rule change.

Terms are grouped by the part of the case where you meet them. The process is explained on removal proceedings, the applications on relief from removal, and the vehicles after an order on after a removal order.

The papers and the people

A-number: Your alien registration number, printed with an "A" on every immigration notice. Keep it private and never send it through a web form.
Notice to Appear (NTA): The charging document that starts a removal case: the government's allegations, the charge of removability, and the time and place of your first hearing.
Respondent: You. The person the government is trying to remove is called the respondent in immigration court.
DHS trial attorney: The government's lawyer in the courtroom, from ICE's Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, part of the Department of Homeland Security. The opposing party.
EOIR: The Executive Office for Immigration Review, the part of the Department of Justice that runs the immigration courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals.
BIA: The Board of Immigration Appeals, the body that reviews immigration judges' decisions. Its published decisions bind the courts.
Form I-213: The Record of Deportable/Inadmissible Alien, the officer's written account of your arrest and what you said. The government files it as evidence.
ECAS: EOIR's electronic filing system. Lawyers must file through it; it also holds the electronic record of your case.

The hearings

Master calendar hearing: The short scheduling hearing, usually your first. Pleadings are taken, relief is identified, and dates are set. No witnesses testify.
Pleadings: Your answer to the Notice to Appear: admitting or denying each allegation and conceding or contesting the charge. Admissions are not required.
Individual hearing: The trial on your application for relief, with testimony, evidence and a decision. Also called the merits hearing.
Change of venue: Moving the case to a different immigration court, on motion and for good cause. You appear where scheduled until it is granted.
In absentia order: A removal order entered because you did not attend a hearing after written notice. It is undone by a motion to rescind, not by an appeal.
Administrative closure: Taking a case off the court's active calendar without deciding it, usually to wait for something else, such as a petition at USCIS. It can be put back on.
Termination: Ending the case without a removal order, because the charge cannot be sustained, the notice was defective, or another reason in the regulations.
Prosecutorial discretion: DHS's choice not to pursue a case, usually by a motion to dismiss the Notice to Appear or a joint motion. Current priorities have to be asked for case by case.
Voluntary departure: Permission to leave the country at your own expense within a set period instead of under a removal order. Missing the departure date carries penalties.

Criminal-law words

Conviction: For immigration purposes, a formal judgment of guilt, or a plea or finding of guilt plus some punishment even where the court withheld judgment.
Aggravated felony: A list of offenses in INA 101(a)(43) that carries the harshest consequences, including bars to most relief. The label does not depend on whether the state called the crime a felony.
CIMT: Crime involving moral turpitude. A category of offenses, defined by case law rather than a list, that can make a person inadmissible or deportable.
Categorical approach: How judges decide whether a conviction fits an immigration category: by comparing the elements of the statute to the federal definition, not by what you actually did.
Stop-time rule: The rule that stops the clock on the years of presence or residence needed for cancellation, when a proper Notice to Appear is served or certain offenses are committed.

Forms of relief

Relief: Any application that lets you stay even though you are removable. The judge decides it at the individual hearing.
Cancellation of removal: A judge's power to cancel removal for a long-time resident. One version is for green card holders; the other, for people without status, leads to a green card.
Qualifying relative: The family member whose hardship counts for an application. For non-LPR cancellation, a United States citizen or permanent resident spouse, parent or child.
Exceptional and extremely unusual hardship: The standard for non-LPR cancellation: hardship to the qualifying relative substantially beyond what a family ordinarily suffers when a relative is deported.
Extreme hardship: The lower standard used for most waivers and for VAWA cancellation. Still more than the ordinary hardship of separation.
Good moral character: A requirement for cancellation, voluntary departure and other relief, measured over a set period. Certain convictions and conduct bar it outright.
Waiver: Forgiveness of a specific ground of inadmissibility or deportability, such as a crime or a misrepresentation, usually on a showing of hardship to a relative.
Adjustment of status: Getting a green card from inside the United States, usually through a family petition. A judge can grant it in proceedings.
Asylum: Protection for a person who fears persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. It leads to a green card.
Withholding of removal: A narrower protection against being sent to a specific country where your life or freedom would be threatened. Harder to win than asylum, with fewer benefits.
CAT: Protection under the Convention Against Torture for a person more likely than not to be tortured in the country of removal, regardless of criminal history.
VAWA cancellation: Cancellation for a person abused by a citizen or resident spouse or parent, with a shorter presence requirement and the extreme hardship standard.
212(c): A repealed waiver for long-time residents that still applies to people who pleaded guilty before April 1, 1997.

The forms

EOIR-28: A lawyer's notice of appearance before the immigration judge.
EOIR-33: The change of address form for the immigration court, due within five days of a move.
EOIR-26: The Notice of Appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals. Form EOIR-26A is the fee waiver request that can accompany it.
EOIR-42A: The application for cancellation of removal for permanent residents.
EOIR-42B: The application for cancellation of removal for non-permanent residents, also used for VAWA cancellation.
I-589: The application for asylum, withholding of removal and CAT protection.
I-485: The application for adjustment of status, the green card application.
I-130: The family petition a citizen or resident relative files with USCIS. The judge cannot decide it, but can wait for it.
I-751: The petition to remove the conditions on a two-year green card obtained through marriage, filed jointly or with a waiver.
I-601: The USCIS application for a waiver of inadmissibility.
I-246: The application to ICE itself for a stay of removal, filed in person at the ICE field office with a $155 ICE fee as of September 2026. Discretionary, and a pending request does not stop removal.

Custody and the border

Bond: Money posted so a detained person can be released while the case continues. An immigration judge can set it in a separate bond hearing where the law allows one.
Mandatory detention: Detention without a bond hearing, required by statute for certain criminal and security grounds.
Expedited removal: Removal by an immigration officer without a hearing before a judge, used at the border and in certain other cases.
Credible fear: The screening interview for a person in expedited removal who says they fear return. Passing it leads to a hearing before a judge.
Reinstatement: Putting an old removal order back into effect against a person who returned without permission, without a new hearing.
Reasonable fear: The screening interview for a person facing reinstatement who fears return. It leads only to withholding and CAT, not asylum.

After an order

Appeal: Asking the Board to review the judge's decision for error, within 30 days. A timely appeal stays removal while it is pending.
Motion to reopen: Asking the judge or the Board to reopen a decided case because of new facts or evidence that were not available before.
Motion to reconsider: Asking the judge or the Board to look again at a decision because it was wrong on the law or facts already in the record.
Ineffective assistance of counsel: A basis for reopening where your prior lawyer's failure caused the loss, with specific requirements for how the claim is presented.
Petition for review: Asking the federal court of appeals to review the Board's decision, within 30 days. It does not stop removal by itself.
Stay of removal: An order or grant that keeps you in the country while something is pending. Some filings carry one automatically; most require a request.

Common questions

What is the difference between deportation and removal?

They mean the same thing today. Since 1997 the law has used one word, removal, for the process that used to be split into deportation and exclusion. People, judges and this site still say deportation in conversation. The papers say removal.

Is the immigration judge part of ICE?

No. Immigration judges work for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, part of the Department of Justice. ICE, which arrests and detains people and whose trial attorneys prosecute the case, is part of the Department of Homeland Security. They are opposing sides of the same courtroom, not the same agency.

What does relief mean?

Relief is any application that, if granted, lets you stay in the United States even though the judge has found you removable. Cancellation of removal, adjustment of status, asylum, withholding, protection under the Convention Against Torture, and the waivers are all forms of relief. Removal proceedings usually turn on which relief you qualify for and whether you can prove it.

Reviewed by Mikhail Usher, Esq. Mr. Usher is the managing attorney of Usher Law Group, P.C. and is admitted in New York, New Jersey and Florida. He reviewed this page on September 17, 2026. This page explains the law in general terms and is not legal advice about your case.

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