Received a Notice to Appear (NTA): Your First 5 Steps in Removal
If you have received an NTA, the first steps you take in the next few weeks can shape the entire outcome of your case. A Notice to Appear is the charging document the Department of Homeland Security uses to start removal proceedings against you in immigration court. It is frightening to hold in your hands, but it is not a deportation order. It is the opening of a legal process, and that process gives you rights, deadlines, and real chances to fight back. This guide walks through exactly what to do after you receive an NTA, written for families across Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, and the wider Lehigh Valley whose cases are heard at the Philadelphia Immigration Court.
What a Notice to Appear Actually Means
A Notice to Appear, sometimes called Form I-862, is governed by Section 239 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, found at 8 U.S.C. 1229. When DHS serves you with this document and files it with the court, it triggers removal proceedings under INA 240. The NTA lists who you are, the factual allegations the government is making about your immigration history, and the specific legal grounds it claims make you removable from the United States.
Receiving this notice does not mean your case is decided. Many people who are placed in removal proceedings are eligible for relief that lets them stay, including cancellation of removal, asylum, adjustment of status through a family member, and various waivers. The government has the burden of proving you are removable. You have the right to be represented by an attorney at no cost to the government, the right to present evidence, and the right to appeal an unfavorable decision. The worst outcomes in immigration court almost always come from missed deadlines and missed hearings, not from weak cases. That is why these first steps matter so much.
Step 1: Read the NTA Closely and Find Your A-Number
Sit down with the document somewhere quiet and read every line. Look first for your A-Number, the nine-digit Alien Registration Number printed in the top right corner and usually starting with the letter A. This number is the key to your entire case. You will use it to check your hearing schedule, to file documents, and to look up your status. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe.
Next, read the factual allegations and the charges of removability. The allegations are numbered statements about your identity, your country of citizenship, and how and when you entered or remained in the United States. The charges cite the parts of the INA the government says you violated. You do not have to admit or deny anything yet, and you should not sign or return anything agreeing to the allegations before you speak with a lawyer. Errors are common. The government sometimes lists the wrong entry date, the wrong manner of entry, or even the wrong person's information, and those errors can matter a great deal later.
Step 2: Confirm Your Hearing Date and Court
By law, the court cannot schedule your first hearing sooner than 10 days after you are served with the NTA, unless you choose to waive that waiting period. Sometimes the date and time of your first hearing are printed directly on the NTA. Often they are not, and a separate hearing notice arrives by mail weeks later. Do not assume that a blank or missing date means you have no hearing. The Supreme Court made clear in Pereira v. Sessions and again in Niz-Chavez v. Garland that a proper NTA should contain the time and place of the hearing, but in practice many notices still arrive incomplete, and the hearing information catches up to you later.
To confirm your hearing, call the EOIR automated case information line at 1-800-898-7180 and enter your A-Number, or check the same information through the EOIR online portal. The system will tell you whether a hearing has been scheduled, the date and time, and the court location. Check it regularly in the weeks after you receive your NTA, because a hearing can be set at any time. If you received NTA paperwork but cannot confirm a hearing date, that is a reason to consult an attorney sooner rather than later, not a reason to wait and hope.
Step 3: Update Your Address With Form EOIR-33
This step is the one people overlook, and it is the one that ends the most cases badly. The immigration court mails hearing notices to whatever address it has on file. If that address is old, if you have moved, or if mail does not reach you reliably, you can miss a hearing you never even knew about. Under INA 239(a)(1)(F), you are required to keep the court informed of your current address.
The form you use is the EOIR-33, the Change of Address form. You must file it with the specific immigration court handling your case, and if your case has not yet been filed with a court, you provide your address to DHS. Every time you move while your case is open, you file a new EOIR-33 within five days. Make a copy of every form you submit and keep proof that you sent it. An accurate address on file is the single cheapest insurance policy you have against an in absentia removal order.
Step 4: Do Not Miss Your Master Calendar Hearing
Your first court date will almost always be a Master Calendar Hearing. This is a short, procedural appearance, not your trial. The immigration judge will confirm your name and address, go over the allegations and charges in the NTA, ask whether you admit or deny them, ask what relief you intend to seek, and set deadlines for filing your applications and evidence. Several respondents are usually scheduled for the same block of time, so expect to wait.
Attendance is not optional. Under INA 240(b)(5), if you fail to appear at a scheduled hearing, the judge can order you removed in your absence, in what is called an in absentia order. An in absentia removal order is difficult to undo and can be entered even though you never had your day in court on the merits. If you appear at your first Master Calendar Hearing without a lawyer and ask the judge for time to find one, judges will generally grant a continuance so you can retain counsel. Showing up buys you that opportunity. Not showing up can end the case before it starts.
Step 5: Get an Immigration Attorney Before You Plead
The decisions you make at the very beginning of a removal case quietly set the ceiling on everything that comes later. How you respond to the allegations, which forms of relief you preserve, and whether you meet the early filing deadlines all flow from those first appearances. This is why retaining an experienced removal defense attorney early is the most important of these five steps.
There is also a practical reason to hire counsel before your Master Calendar Hearing. When an attorney files a Notice of Appearance, Form EOIR-28, well in advance of a non-detained Master Calendar Hearing, the court will often cancel that hearing under EOIR policy and instead issue a written scheduling order setting deadlines for written pleadings and applications. That means a lawyer engaged early can frequently spare you a court appearance entirely and convert it into a paper schedule, while making sure nothing is waived by accident. At our firm, the first thing we do for a new removal client is review the NTA line by line, confirm the hearing posture through EOIR, and map out which relief options the facts support.
Removal Proceedings in the Lehigh Valley
If you live in the Lehigh Valley, your case is almost certainly assigned to the Philadelphia Immigration Court, located in the Robert N. C. Nix Federal Building at 900 Market Street. Many hearings are now held by video, so you may appear from a different location even though your case belongs to the Philadelphia court. The landscape has shifted recently. The Executive Office for Immigration Review brought a large class of new immigration judges onto the bench during the 2026 fiscal year, and across the Philadelphia court we are seeing Master Calendar Hearings set sooner after an NTA is filed and continuance requests examined more strictly. For a closer look at what that judicial expansion means for cases from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, see our analysis of what 82 new immigration judges mean for the region. The short version is that the time you have to prepare is shrinking, which makes early action even more valuable.
What Comes After the First Hearing
Once the pleadings are taken and your relief is identified, your case moves toward an Individual Hearing, sometimes called the merits hearing. This is the trial stage, where you present testimony, documents, and witnesses, and where the judge decides whether you qualify for the relief you are seeking. Between the Master Calendar Hearing and the Individual Hearing, you and your attorney will gather evidence, prepare your application packet, and meet filing deadlines that the court sets and enforces. A removal case can take months or longer to reach that stage, and that time is an asset only if you use it to build the strongest possible record.
The thread running through all five steps is simple. Removal proceedings reward people who engage early, stay organized, keep their address current, and never miss a court date. They punish silence and delay. If you have received an NTA anywhere in the Lehigh Valley, treat it as urgent but not hopeless, because it is exactly that.
If you or a loved one has received a Notice to Appear, do not wait for the hearing notice to act. Contact Lehigh Valley Immigration Law today to schedule a consultation, and let us review your NTA and chart your defense before deadlines close in. You can also learn more about how we handle these cases on our removal defense page.
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every immigration case turns on its own facts, and you should consult a licensed immigration attorney about your specific situation.