The process for filing an immigration appeal varies by country and case type. In the US, appeals are filed with the Office of Administrative Appeals or Board of Immigration Appeals, and in some cases, federal court. The immigration system is part of the executive branch, and appeals must be filed within 30 days of the decision. It’s best to have an immigration attorney review the case before filing an appeal. Other options include motions to reopen or reconsider.
The procedure for filing an immigration appeal varies from country to country and sometimes within a country, depending on the type of immigration case you are appealing. In the United States, you will typically need to file an immigration appeal with the Office of Administrative Appeals (AAO), the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), or, if those avenues fail, federal court. In other countries, the process will be slightly different.
In the United States, the immigration system is generally part of the executive branch of government, not the judicial branch. This means that proceedings are administrative and follow their own set of rules, which may or may not be similar to the rules in actual court proceedings. The AAO and the BIA are such executive entities.
The AAO generally handles immigration appeals from decisions made on petitions and applications at the various U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field offices throughout the country. When a denial is issued, you will receive a denial notice stating the reasons for the denial and the procedure for filing an appeal. Normally, in these cases, your immigration appeal must be presented, within 30 days from the date of the decision, on a special form, accompanied by the correct filing fee, to the office that took the decision. Your appeal will then be forwarded to the AAO for review and disposition.
In general, the BIA handles immigration appeals from cases that have been in the immigration justice system, usually involving removal proceedings. The immigration justice system is also part of the executive branch and is governed by its own set of regulations. You can appeal the decision to an immigration judge, or it can be done by the government.
Immigration appeals are initiated by filing an appeal, along with the relevant filing fee, directly with the BIA, within 30 days of the immigration judge’s decision. The BIA will then issue a schedule for each party to file a brief on the case. It is possible to request oral argument before the BIA, but almost all cases are decided only on the basis of the record of the proceeding and the pleadings.
In very specific circumstances, you can appeal a BIA decision or an AAO decision in federal court. This can only be done in cases where the federal court has not been deprived of jurisdiction over that type of decision by a statute passed by the United States Congress. It’s usually best to have an immigration attorney review your case before going through the time and expense of filing an appeal in federal court.
There are two other actions that, while not technically appeals, are similar to filing an immigration appeal. One is a motion to reopen, which sets forth new facts that weren’t available at the time of the decision and would change the outcome. The other is a motion for reconsideration and is filed when there has been a misapplication of federal law or regulation that makes denial of an immigration grant unfair. Both applications must be filed with the office that issued the decision and within 30 days of the date of the decision.
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