This week, the Department of Justice issued an interim final rule that significantly changes appellate procedures before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). The rule is intended to reduce the Board's backlog and speed up adjudications by making merits review discretionary and allowing the BIA to summarily dismiss most appeals unless a majority of Board members vote to consider the case on the merits, with only two exceptions.
The rule also shortens the deadline to file many appeals from 30 days to 10 days, imposes a simultaneous 20-day briefing deadline for both detained and non-detained cases with limited extensions in cases accepted for review, and removes certain procedural steps in the record-forwarding process to accelerate decisions. It also removes and reserves 8 C.F.R. § 1003.1(e)(8)(iii), the rule that allowed the Chief Appellate Immigration Judge to delay decisions or pause cases while waiting for other legal developments that might affect the outcome.
This rule represents a fundamental shift in the immigration appellate system. By making merits review discretionary and defaulting most appeals to summary dismissal, many cases may never receive substantive review at the BIA, and respondents may be pushed more quickly into federal appellate court review.
The rule also shortens the appeal deadline from 30 days to 10 days in many cases. However, the 30-day deadline remains in place for asylum cases that are adjudicated on the merits. If an immigration judge considered and denied an asylum claim on the merits, the respondent still has 30 days to file an appeal, as required by statute.
The new 10-day deadline applies in the following situations:
- Asylum was denied because of a one-year filing deadline bar.
- Asylum was denied due to a safe third country or asylum cooperative agreement.
- Asylum was denied because of a prior asylum denial.
- The case involves withholding-only or CAT-only proceedings.
- The appeal involves any form of relief other than asylum, such as cancellation of removal, adjustment of status, waivers, bond, or other immigration judge decisions.
Importantly, the new procedures will take effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register and will apply only to immigration judge or DHS decisions issued on or after the effective date of March 9, 2026, not to appeals already pending.