On September 11, 2017, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Chief Counsel (OCC) began using a new e-service filing system.  As of September 12, 2017, the previously used opla-chi-eservice@ice.dhs.gov and the chicagooccfilings@ice.dhs.gov email addresses will be discontinued.  Any filings sent to those addresses as of September 12, 2017 will receive an auto-response indicating that the filing was not successful.

Beginning September 12, 2017, documents can only be electronically served on or filed with OCC through their eService portal.  The ICE eService portal requires registration prior to use.  NIJC strongly encourages attorneys to register with the eService portal as soon as possible since there may be a delay between the registration date and account verification.  Please register at https://eserviceregistration.ice.gov.

Specific rules and requirements apply for filing through the eService portal.  Please review the eService instruction sheet for specific guidelines and requirements before attempting to use the eService portal.

Practice Tips:

• Anytime you serve any document on the immigration court, you must serve a copy on OCC.  Service can be perfected through the eService portal; mail to 525 W. Van Buren, Suite 701; the OCC dropbox on the ground floor of 525 W. Van Buren; or in open court during a respondent’s hearing.
   
• The ICE eService portal requires you to enter the A Numbers of respondents for whom you are or have been the attorney of record in order to help OCC verify your identity.  You do NOT need to enter the A Numbers of every person you represent.  If you have not previously filed an appearance for any respondents in immigration court, NIJC recommends that you serve a hard copy of your E-28 appearance form on OCC (after first filing your appearance with the immigration court) and then register with the eService portal once OCC has received your paper appearance form.
   
• The ICE eService portal is only for service of documents on ICE-OCC.  If your client is not in immigration court removal (deportation) proceedings, you do not need to utilize the eService portal.  Likewise, if your client is in removal proceedings, but you are filing a document with USCIS (such as a Form I-765, application for employment authorization), you do not need to utilize the eService portal to file the document.

 If you have any questions regarding the new eService portal, please reach out to your NIJC point-of-contact.