Florida Immigration Courts: Where Your Hearing Is, What to Expect, and How Long Cases Are Taking (2026)

If you have a hearing coming up and you are not sure which building to walk into, this page is the short answer. Florida has three immigration courts, all run by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), and none of them are in the city most people search for. There is no immigration court in Venice, Gulfport, Sarasota, Bradenton, Kissimmee, Tampa, or Jacksonville. If you live in any of those places, your hearing is in Orlando or Miami.

Everything below about addresses, hours, parking, and screening comes from EOIR's own court pages. The backlog figures come from TRAC at Syracuse University. Collection dates are stated with each figure, and the methodology note at the bottom says exactly where each number came from.

How to find out which court is hearing your case

Read it off your Notice to Appear. The NTA is the charging document that starts a removal case, and the court address is printed on it. If a hearing has already been scheduled, the date, time, and location are on the notice of hearing EOIR mailed you separately.

The thing that surprises people: your court is not decided by where you live. It follows the Department of Homeland Security office that has your case. EOIR publishes this allocation in its administrative control list, and for Florida it works out like this.

So a person living in Venice or Gulfport is not in some Venice or Gulfport court docket that has gone missing. Their case sits with a DHS office, and the hearing is wherever that office's cases are heard. If you cannot find your paperwork, EOIR runs an automated case information line and an online portal where your A-number will pull up your next hearing date and location. Check it before you drive anywhere.

Orlando Immigration Court

500 N. Orange Ave, Suite 1100, Orlando, FL 32801. Public hours are 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The filing window closes earlier, at 4:00 p.m.

Parking and transit. There is a paid parking garage on site, and more paid parking within walking distance. Lynx Central Station is one block west, which matters more than it sounds: downtown Orlando parking near Orange Avenue fills up on heavy Master Calendar mornings, and a garage that is full at 8:15 is the single most common reason people walk into their own hearing late.

Getting in. The court entrance is on the front left corner of the building. You need government-issued identification to enter. Everyone goes through a metal detector and a bag screening, every visit, and you may be asked to take your shoes off. Food and drink are not allowed unless the immigration judge specifically permits it. Cameras and recording devices are prohibited in courtrooms and other EOIR space.

Our office is on Delaney Avenue, about two miles from this courthouse, and we appear here regularly.

Miami Immigration Court

One Riverview Square, 333 S. Miami Avenue, Suite 700, Miami, FL 33130. Public hours are 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with the filing window closing at 4:00 p.m.

Parking. Paid public parking is adjacent to the building.

Getting in. This is a commercial office building, not a dedicated courthouse, and the security arrangement reflects that. Screening happens on the courtroom floors rather than at the street door. Elevator access to the immigration courts runs from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and no visitors are allowed on those floors once security has left for the day. If your hearing runs late in the afternoon, do not send family members up after 4:30 expecting to wait with you.

Miami Krome Immigration Court (detained)

Krome North Processing Center, 18201 SW 12th Street, Miami, FL 33194. Public hours are 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., filing window until 4:00 p.m. Public parking is free.

Krome is different from the other two in a way that matters for planning. It is a court located inside a detention facility controlled by the Department of Homeland Security, so entry is governed by the facility's rules, not just the court's. Before traveling there to attend a hearing or visit, check the Krome Service Processing Center's own entry requirements. People do get turned away at Krome for identification and entry issues that would not stop them at Orange Avenue.

Master Calendar versus Individual hearing

Two different events, and people routinely prepare for the wrong one.

A Master Calendar hearing is procedural and short, often only a few minutes. Many respondents are scheduled for the same morning, so expect to wait a long time for a brief appearance. You confirm your identity and address, respond to the allegations and charges in the Notice to Appear, say what relief you intend to apply for, and receive filing deadlines and your next date. Almost nothing is decided.

An Individual hearing, also called a merits hearing, is the actual trial of your case. You testify. A government attorney from ICE cross-examines you. Witnesses are heard, evidence in the record is argued, and the judge either rules from the bench that day or reserves the decision. This runs for hours, not minutes.

The practical consequence is about deadlines. Evidence you meant to file for the Individual hearing but filed late can be refused. The deadlines set at the Master Calendar are real. For a fuller walk-through of what happens in the room, see our guide to what an immigration court hearing in Orlando involves, and in Spanish, qué esperar en la corte de inmigración de Orlando.

What the current backlog means for your timeline

At the end of June 2026, 3,195,137 cases were pending before the immigration courts nationally, according to TRAC at Syracuse University.

Florida carries an unusually heavy share of that. Residents of Miami-Dade County alone accounted for 137,373 pending removal cases at the end of June 2026, more than any other county in the United States, per the same TRAC data.

What that means for a person waiting: a non-detained case can sit for years between a Master Calendar hearing and an Individual hearing. That is frustrating, and it is also occasionally useful, because time in proceedings is time to assemble evidence, to become eligible for a form of relief you do not qualify for yet, or to wait out a priority date. Detained cases move on a completely different and much faster clock, which is why Krome dockets look nothing like Orlando's.

One caution about backlog numbers generally. The national figure moves in both directions and has been falling recently rather than climbing, so a statistic you read in an article from two years ago is unlikely to describe your wait. Ask about your specific court and your specific case type.

What to bring, and what happens if you miss a hearing

Bring government-issued identification, since you will not get through the door without it. Bring every piece of paper EOIR or DHS has sent you, especially the Notice to Appear and the hearing notice. Bring your A-number written down somewhere you can find it fast. If you need an interpreter, the court provides one, and you should not bring a family member to interpret for you.

Arrive early enough to clear screening, and plan for parking to take longer than it should.

If you miss a hearing, the judge can order you removed in your absence. That is an in absentia removal order under INA § 240(b)(5)(A), and it can be entered without you there provided DHS shows you were properly notified and are removable. It is not a slap on the wrist; it is a final order.

There is a path back, and it is time-sensitive. A motion to reopen based on exceptional circumstances, such as serious illness, generally has to be filed within 180 days of the order. If the problem was that you never actually received notice of the hearing, a motion to reopen on that ground can be filed at any time. Both are set out at INA § 240(b)(5)(C). If you have missed a hearing, the worst thing you can do is wait and hope, because the 180-day window is short and it starts running immediately.

When you need representation

There is no government-appointed lawyer in immigration court. Removal proceedings are civil, not criminal, so nobody is assigned to you, and the government always has an attorney. That asymmetry is the whole argument for getting your own.

You do not necessarily need counsel to appear at a first Master Calendar and ask for time to find a lawyer; judges routinely grant that once. You do need counsel before the Individual hearing if you are applying for any form of relief, because that hearing is a trial with evidentiary deadlines and cross-examination.

We handle removal defense in the Orlando court and at Krome. If you want the broader picture of what defense involves, see our pages on deportation and removal defense and immigration court representation.

Cite this page

You may republish these figures with attribution and a link to https://immlawcenter.com/articles/florida-immigration-courts-where-your-hearing-is-what-to-expect-and-how-long-cases-are-taking-2026/.

Plain-text citation:

Immigration Law Center. "Florida Immigration Courts: Where Your Hearing Is,
What to Expect, and How Long Cases Are Taking (2026)." Orlando, FL.
Accessed [date]. https://immlawcenter.com/articles/florida-immigration-courts-where-your-hearing-is-what-to-expect-and-how-long-cases-are-taking-2026/

HTML link:

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Individual figures and addresses on this page have their own anchors, so you can link straight to the one you are citing: #orlando-address, #miami-address, #krome-address, #backlog-national, #backlog-miami-dade.

Methodology and sources

• Court addresses, hours, parking, and screening rules. Read directly from EOIR's individual court pages for the Orlando Immigration Court, the Miami Immigration Court, and the Miami Krome Immigration Court. Collected 11 August 2026.
• Which court hears which cases. EOIR Immigration Court List (Administrative Control). Collected 11 August 2026.
• Backlog figures.TRAC Immigration, Syracuse University, reporting data through the end of June 2026. Collected 11 August 2026.
• In absentia orders and motions to reopen. INA § 240(b)(5)(A) and § 240(b)(5)(C).

Last verified: 11 August 2026. Court hours and security procedures change, and EOIR posts closures on its Operational Status page. Confirm before you travel. Backlog figures are updated monthly by TRAC and will have moved since this page was written.

This page is general information about court locations and procedure. It is not legal advice about your case, and reading it does not make us your lawyers. If you have a hearing scheduled, talk to an attorney about your own facts.