What does case management software do in an immigration practice?

Case management software keeps a firm's clients, matters, documents, forms and deadlines in one record, so everyone on a case works from the same file and the same dates. In an immigration practice its hardest job is the deadlines: each notice from USCIS, an immigration court or the BIA starts a period set by regulation, and the software has to put that date on the docket before it can be missed.

What it holds

  • Clients and matters. Each person, each case and the identifiers the government uses for them: the A-number, and the 13-character receipt number USCIS gives every application or petition it receives.
  • Documents. Every notice received, every filing sent and the evidence behind it, attached to the matter it belongs to.
  • Forms. USCIS accepts only the current edition of a form, and pages missing or completed from a different edition can get the filing rejected (USCIS filing tips). Software that fills forms has to keep its editions current.
  • Deadlines. The response, appeal and motion dates each notice starts, on a calendar the whole firm can see.

The deadlines it has to get right

Notices go to the attorney or representative of record, not only to the client (8 CFR 292.5(a)), so the firm's own intake is where each period starts to run. The common ones:

  • Request for Evidence: the date printed on the notice, at most 12 weeks, plus 3 days if USCIS mailed it, with no extension (8 CFR 103.2(b)(8)(iv), 8 CFR 103.8(b)).
  • Notice of intent to deny: at most 30 days, plus 3 if mailed.
  • USCIS denial appealed on Form I-290B: 30 days after service of the decision (8 CFR 103.3(a)(2)(i)), 33 if it was mailed.
  • Appeal of an immigration judge's decision to the BIA: 30 calendar days, and the Board must receive the appeal by then (8 CFR 1003.38). A February 2026 rule would have cut this to 10 days; a federal court set that aside on 8 March 2026, before it took effect, and EOIR confirmed the 30 days in Policy Memorandum 26-02. The eCFR page still prints the 10-day text.
  • Motion to reopen or reconsider before an immigration judge: 90 days and 30 days from the final order (8 CFR 1003.23(b)(1)).

The BIA example is the reason a deadline should carry its citation. A date computed from a rule that is no longer in force looks exactly like a correct one.

Filing with EOIR

Since 11 February 2022, attorneys and accredited representatives must file everything electronically, through EOIR's ECAS, in every immigration court and Board case eligible for electronic filing, meaning any case with an electronic record of proceeding (8 CFR 1003.31(a); 86 FR 70708). Case management software does not replace ECAS, but the notices ECAS serves have to reach the same docket as the paper ones.

What to check before choosing one

  1. Show the arithmetic. Each deadline should name its regulation, the date it counted from, the days added for mail and any weekend or holiday roll, so an attorney can check it in a minute.
  2. Printed against computed. When a notice prints its own due date, see which date the software dockets and whether it flags a difference from the date the regulation gives.
  3. Rule changes. Ask what happens to deadlines already on the calendar when a regulation changes or a court sets one aside.
  4. Intake. Find out whether a notice is matched to its matter by receipt number or A-number, or keyed in by hand, and who confirms the match.
  5. Who confirms. A hard deadline should stay unconfirmed until an attorney confirms it, and the record should show who did and when.

Casehand covers the notice side of this: it reads each USCIS, EOIR and BIA notice, matches it to its client and matter, and dockets every deadline with its citation for an attorney to confirm. See how it works.

Sources

Related

How Casehand reads and dockets notices