Immigration, Asylum, & Refugee Resource Guide

Adjudicates individual immigration cases, primarily removal cases (that is, cases where the court determines whether aliens charged with violating immigration law should be removed from the U.S.), but also other types of cases, including certain exclusion and asylum cases.

• EOIR Immigration Court Directory

Image source: US GAO

Conducts appeals from immigration court decisions and appeals from some types of decisions made by DHS District Directors. There are three categories of BIA decisions:

• Precedent decisions: Precedent decisions are officially published by the BIA and are binding on DHS employees and immigration courts.
• Indexed decisions: Indexed decisions are those that the BIA selects as having "value as a general guide to particular areas of law or fact patterns." (EOIR Web-site) Indexed decisions aren't precedential in nature and aren't officially published by the BIA.
• Unpublished decisions: Unpublished decisions aren't precedential in nature and are considered "cumulative, factual, or self-evident." (Immigration Law & Procedure: Practice and Strategy)

• Annotated BIA Precedent Chart

  Browse by topic heading to locate precedent decisions on a particular issue. Last updated by Department of Justice in November 2018 so does NOT include more recent cases. Start here and if unable to locate decisions on your issue, try the EOIR's index below and use your browser's find option to search by keyword.

• Executive Office for Immigration Review (Precedent and Indexed Decisions)

  Use the Indexes to search for cases by topic, index is more extensive than the subject categories found in the Annotated BIA Precedent Chart above. 1958-present

Hears appeals of certain labor certification denials. 

• BALCA Decisions-Department of Labor Website This link opens in a new window
  • Search tips with links to databases for searching by keyword (full text search), case name or one of many other document management system filters.