Legal Updates/Reminders
Fee Waivers
Fees for most applications can be waived for certain low-income individuals. Your client may be eligible for a fee waiver if they receive a means-tested benefit (such as MassHealth) or if their household income falls at or below 150% FPL. If you believe your client may qualify for a fee waiver, or if you have any questions about fee waivers in general, please contact your PAIR mentor.
Boston Asylum Office: Short Notice List Interviews
The Boston Asylum Office is slowly beginning to work its way through its backlog by scheduling interviews for applicants on the short notice list. If your client has been on the short notice since 2017 or earlier, please contact your PAIR mentor!
Moving and Advancing of Massachusetts and Connecticut Immigration Court Hearings
On April 8, 2024 the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) will be opening a new immigration court in Chelmsford, Massachusetts (the “Lowell Immigration Court”). In the coming weeks and months, EOIR will be pulling cases of individuals who reside in certain zip codes from the Boston and Hartford Immigration Court dockets and transferring them to Lowell.
Because the Lowell court will have a complete slate of new cases, cases on the Lowell docket will likely proceed much more quickly than cases have in Boston and Hartford. When cases are transferred, the Boston/Hartford hearing dates will be canceled, and it is very likely that the rescheduled date will be significantly sooner. And because cases will be removed from the Boston and Hartford dockets, it is likely that cases which remain in those courts will also be advanced when hearing slots from transferred cases open up.
If you have a case pending in the Boston or Hartford courts, we strongly recommend that you check the EOIR online portal regularly to check your client’s next hearing date.
As always, if you have questions about anything, including how these changes will affect your clients’ cases, please contact your PAIR mentor.
|