Moved Since Filing for Asylum? A New Immigration Decision Puts You at Risk
Filed an I-589 asylum application years ago? Moved since then? You need to know about a major new immigration decision. This warning may be especially important for asylum seekers from Venezuela and Haiti who filed applications years ago and have moved while waiting for their cases. On September 3, 2026, the Board of Immigration Appeals issued Matter of DIJI. The decision makes an old address much more dangerous.
You Could Have an Immigration Court Case and Not Know It
Imagine you filed an I-589 asylum application or I-765 work permit application with US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS). You lived at one address when you filed. Then you moved. You have never been to an asylum interview at USCIS. Then, Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) mails you a Notice to Appear at immigration court, for deportation removal proceedings.
After Matter of DIJI, DHS may be able to send the Notice to Appear to an old address you previously gave the government even before your Immigration Court case existed. You never see it. You do not know where or when to appear. But the judge orders you removed from the United States in your absence because you did not go to the court hearing.
That danger is not hypothetical. Diji said he moved in January 2019. DHS mailed his Notice to Appear to his former address a few months later. He did not discover that he had been placed in removal proceedings until 2025, when he appeared at USCIS for a green card interview. By then, an immigration judge had already ordered him removed. He asked the appeals court, Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to reopen his case. The BIA said no.
Why Does Diji Change Asylum for Venezuelans and Haitians?
For about 25 years, an earlier decision called Matter of G-Y-R- protected immigrants who never received the Notice to Appear starting their court proceedings. Matter of DIJI overruled that decision. That makes keeping your address current even more important even if you do not think you have an Immigration Court case.
Thousands of people from Venezuela, Haiti, and other countries have filed I-589 asylum applications and waited years for interviews and decisions. During a long wait, people move. Leases end. Families relocate. Life changes. But your old address will now be used as an excuse to deport you.
Do not assume that because you have an asylum case with USCIS, you would know if the government later started a deportation case against you. You could discover years later that an immigration judge has already ordered you deported.
Blandon Law has been helping families get asylum, work permits, and green cards for 25 years. Call 954.385.0157 or click “Ask an Attorney” today if you need the best asylum attorney. Also click “Ask an Attorney” if you have a question for a future blog.
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All team members speak Spanish.
Disclaimer – These entries are based on real life events. Family member names, when used, are real. Client names are changed for privacy.
