EOIR Reinstates 30-Day Filing Deadline, Reducing Time to Submit Evidence in Immigration Court

The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) has officially rescinded Director’s Memorandum 22-04, a directive that had shortened the default filing deadline in non-detained immigration cases from 30 days to 15 days before individual calendar hearings.

In a memo, Sirce E. Owen, Acting Director of EOIR, announced the cancellation of DM 22-04, citing the lack of a clear rationale for its implementation and its limited practical effect. The 2021 change had amended the EOIR Policy Manual and the Immigration Court Practice Manual to establish a 15-day deadline, replacing the previous 30-day rule.

“Many Immigration Judges preferred the thirty-day deadline because it gave them more time to prepare for the individual hearing and was not particularly burdensome for the parties given the significant amount of time for preparation—typically well over a year and not infrequently over two or three years, if not longer—already occurring between a master calendar hearing and an individual merits hearing,” the new memo states.

The memo further emphasized that Immigration Judges have always had discretion to set their own deadlines, making the 15-day rule unnecessary. With this decision, the previous 30-day default deadline is effectively reinstated.

Legal experts warn that this change may have significant implications for immigrants navigating removal proceedings.

New York-based immigration attorney Ramesh Shrestha stated, “This will pose a tremendous impact on the applicant’s ability to present evidence to the court if the documents are not timely available. In other words, any evidence filed less than 30 days before the hearing will be excluded from the evidentiary record of the proceeding. As corroboration is mandatory to sustain the burden of proof in any removal proceedings under the REAL ID Act of 2005, despite the respondent’s credible testimony, exclusion of the evidentiary documents due to late filing will be fatal to any removal case.”

Shrestha further noted that the reinstatement of the 30-day deadline could lead judges to set even earlier deadlines, potentially making it more difficult for applicants to submit critical evidence.

“Once the EOIR practice manual sets a default deadline of 30 days for filing evidence, immigration judges are more likely to set a deadline to file documents earlier than 30 days. As a result, unless the respondents or applicants are able to collect and submit documents prior to the deadline, it is very likely that vital evidentiary documents will be excluded due to untimely filing. Consequently, the outcome of the case would not be in favor of the non-citizens or applicants,” he added.