How to File a Motion to Reopen and Terminate Removal Proceedings

To file a motion to reopen and terminate removal proceedings, you prepare a written motion identifying a recognized legal ground, attach the evidence and any underlying application for relief, pay the $1,065 fee (or request a waiver), file it with the court that issued the final order within the applicable deadline, and separately request a stay of removal — because filing the motion by itself does not stop your deportation.

The rules are unforgiving. One motion, ninety days from the final order, strict service requirements, and a fee that must now be paid electronically. Get any piece wrong and you can lose the only chance you have.

Grounds That Qualify

A motion to reopen has to rest on one of a handful of recognized bases. You cannot simply reargue what the judge already decided.

New and material evidence. Facts or documents that were not available and could not have been discovered or presented at the original hearing, and that are significant enough that the outcome would likely have been different. The motion has to describe the new facts and attach affidavits or other evidence proving them.¹

Changed country conditions. If conditions in your home country have deteriorated since the removal order — a new armed conflict, a government shift that now targets your group — you can seek asylum, withholding, or Convention Against Torture protection on that basis. This ground is exempt from both the 90-day deadline and the one-motion limit.²

Ineffective assistance of counsel. You have to show your former attorney’s performance was so deficient that it violated your right to a fair hearing and that the outcome would have been different. The BIA requires a specific set of showings under Matter of Lozada: a detailed affidavit explaining what the attorney agreed to do and what went wrong, notice to the attorney with an opportunity to respond, and either a state bar complaint or an explanation of why one was not filed.³

New eligibility for relief. The classic example is marrying a U.S. citizen who then files and receives approval of a Form I-130 petition on your behalf.⁴ The motion asks the court to reopen so you can pursue adjustment of status, and the completed application for that benefit must be included.⁵

Lack of jurisdiction. If the person ordered removed was actually a U.S. citizen, or the court otherwise had no authority over the case, the motion argues the original proceeding was fundamentally invalid.

Deadlines and How Many Motions You Get

The default rule is simple and harsh. You get one motion to reopen, and it must be filed within 90 days of the final removal order.⁵ Miss the window, or spend your one motion on a weak case, and you are essentially out of options.

Several exceptions matter:

Changed-country-conditions motions seeking asylum, withholding, or CAT protection have no time or number limit.¹
Battered spouses, children, and parents filing VAWA self-petitions or seeking cancellation of removal based on domestic violence generally have one year, and the Attorney General can waive even that in extraordinary circumstances.¹
Joint motions, where you and the DHS attorney both agree to reopen, carry no time or number limit.⁵
An immigration judge can reopen a case sua sponte at any time, but in practice this is exercised sparingly and is very difficult to compel.⁵
In absentia orders follow separate deadlines described below.

Special Rules for In Absentia Orders

A removal order issued because you were not at the hearing — an in absentia order — has its own rescission rules, and they are more forgiving.⁶

Exceptional circumstances beyond your control — serious illness, death of a close family member, domestic violence. Less compelling reasons do not qualify. Deadline: 180 days from the order.
Lack of proper notice of the hearing. No deadline.
You were in federal or state custody and missed the hearing through no fault of your own. No deadline.

Two other advantages set these motions apart. Filing one automatically pauses your removal while the judge decides it,¹ and no filing fee applies when the ground is lack of notice.⁷

What Goes in the Filing Package

There is no official form for a motion to reopen. EOIR states plainly that you do not use the Notice of Appeal form (EOIR-26) for motions.⁸ You or your attorney draft the motion itself. A complete package includes:

The written motion. A cover page labeled “MOTION TO REOPEN” and a brief that lays out the grounds, the new facts, and how the evidence supports them. The motion must state whether the removal order is the subject of any pending court proceedings and whether any criminal immigration proceedings are pending.⁵
Supporting evidence. Affidavits, country condition reports, expert declarations, marriage and I-130 approval documents for a marriage-based case, or the Lozada materials for an ineffective-assistance claim.
The underlying application. If you are reopening to pursue adjustment of status, asylum, or cancellation of removal, the completed application for that benefit must be filed with the motion.⁵
Form EOIR-28, the notice of appearance, if you are represented.²
Form EOIR-33/IC, the change-of-address form, so the court has your current contact information.
Filing fee. $1,065 before an immigration judge, $1,030 before the BIA. As of February 2026, EOIR requires electronic payment through its portal; checks and money orders are no longer accepted. A fee waiver is available on Form EOIR-26A with evidence of financial hardship.⁷⁸
Certificate of service, proving you sent a copy of the whole package to the opposing DHS attorney.

Everything must be in English or accompanied by a certified translation. Paper filings must be submitted in duplicate.

Where to File and Who to Serve

File with whichever body issued the final order. If an immigration judge entered the order and no appeal was taken, file with the immigration court that has administrative control over your case. If the BIA issued the final decision, file with the BIA. Once an appeal has been taken to the BIA, the immigration judge loses jurisdiction, so a motion should not be filed with the immigration court in that situation.²

Serve the full package on the ICE Office of the Principal Legal Advisor for the field location where the case was completed, and include the certificate of service showing you did.⁵

Filing Does Not Stop Your Removal

This catches people off guard. A motion to reopen does not, by itself, pause your deportation. Unless the motion falls into one of the narrow categories that trigger an automatic stay — rescission of an in absentia order, or certain motions by battered spouses — ICE can execute the removal order while the motion sits on a judge’s desk.⁵

To keep that from happening, file a separate request for a stay of removal. The immigration judge, the BIA, or an authorized DHS officer can grant one, but none of them is required to. A denied stay followed by deportation triggers a further obstacle: the departure bar. Federal regulations prohibit filing a motion to reopen on behalf of anyone who has departed the country after proceedings began, whether by voluntary departure or physical removal.⁵ Some federal courts have questioned how far the bar reaches, but the regulation stands, and leaving the country before the motion is decided can end the effort permanently.

The stay request is one of the most consequential pieces of the whole filing. Getting the motion right accomplishes nothing if you are removed before anyone reads it.

What Happens After You File

The court issues a receipt notice. The DHS attorney has an opportunity to file an opposing response. The immigration judge or BIA reviews the papers and issues a decision, sometimes without a hearing.

If the motion is granted, the removal order is withdrawn and the case is reopened. You are scheduled for a new hearing where you can present the new evidence or pursue the relief identified in your motion. If the court then terminates proceedings — because DHS agrees there is no basis for removal, or because you are granted relief — you are no longer subject to a removal order, and depending on the circumstances you may be able to pursue benefits through USCIS.

If the motion is denied, the final order of removal stays in effect.

If Your Motion Is Denied

A denied motion to reopen is itself a final decision that can be challenged in federal court through a petition for review, filed with the appropriate federal circuit court of appeals within 30 days of the BIA’s decision. That deadline is jurisdictional, meaning the court has no power to extend it.⁹ Filing the petition does not automatically stop removal; a stay must be requested separately from the circuit court. Each BIA decision requires its own petition, so a denied motion to reopen needs a separate petition even if you already filed one challenging the underlying removal order.

Given the deadlines and the consequences of a missed step, most people at this stage are working with an immigration attorney. The margin for error is essentially zero.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1229a – Removal Proceedings
2
Executive Office for Immigration Review. EOIR Policy Manual – 4.7 Motions to Reopen
3
Executive Office for Immigration Review. Matter of Lozada, Interim Decision 3059
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card for Immediate Relatives of U.S. Citizen
5
eCFR. 8 CFR 1003.23 – Reopening or Reconsideration Before the Immigration Court
6
Executive Office for Immigration Review. EOIR Policy Manual – 4.9 Motions to Reopen In Absentia Orders
7
Executive Office for Immigration Review. Types of Appeals, Motions, and Required Fees
8
Executive Office for Immigration Review. EOIR Forms
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1252 – Judicial Review of Orders of Removal