E-Filing in ACMS

E-Filing Main Page    |    Log in to ACMS    |    Log in to PACER

As of May 1, 2021, the court will process all new petitions for review in immigration cases through the court’s new Appellate Case Management System (ACMS). Filings in immigration petitions for review submitted on or before April 30, 2021 will be processed via CM/ECF unless the Court directs otherwise.

The Administrative Order adopted on 4/23/2021 provides additional information related to ACMS.

Use of the ACMS system is mandatory for all attorneys. Pro se immigration parties may not use the ACMS system and must file in paper.

For more information about CM/ECF, see E-Filing in CM/ECF.

The information below is only about ACMS. All immigration petitions for review filed submitted on or after May 1, 2021 will be processed in ACMS.

On this page:

• Logging In to File
• Equipment Needed to File
• Documentation and Training
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Known Issues
• Help

Logging In to File

You log into ACMS using your PACER credentials. If you are already registered to file in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, then no further action is needed to file in ACMS. Proceed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals E-Filer Portal and log in.

If you are not registered to e-file in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, follow the instructions in the PACER Registration Wizard.

Equipment Needed to File in ACMS

• Browser. ACMS has been successfully using Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Firefox and Safari as representative browsers. Browsers available from Opera Software (Opera), and AOL are not officially supported.
  The Court does not recommend using Microsoft Internet Explorer for ACMS.
• Email Account. The size of your email account must be sufficient to receive NDAs. This may exceed the size allocated for free email accounts. In general, an account with storage space of at least 100 megabytes is sufficient.
  You must ensure that the spam filter operation on the network and computer receiving the email are set to allow notices from  "acms at ca9 dot fedcourts dot us". Ideally, you want to allow email messages from the ca9.uscourts.gov domain to ensure that you will see messages sent to you by our help desk staff.
• Word Processing Software. You can use any word processing software that will allow you to convert text documents to searchable PDF.

Documentation and Training

• Submitting an Immigration Petition for Review
• Entering an Appearance for Petitioner in an Immigration Petition
• Entering an Appearance for Respondent in an Immigration Petition
• Filing a Streamlined Request to Extend Time to Submit a Brief in an Immigration Petition
• Submitting the Petitioner Opening Brief in an Immigration Petition
• Submitting the Respondent Answering Brief in an Immigration Petition
• Submitting the Petitioner Reply Brief in an Immigration Petition

Submit a request for in-person training using this form

Frequently Asked Questions

• I want to enter my appearance. How do I do that?
  Follow the instructions in Entering an Appearance for Petitioner in an Immigration Petition or Entering an Appearance for Respondent in an Immigration Petition.
  The Clerk's office will complete the steps required to enter you as an attorney and authorized filer in the case. When this work is completed, you will receive a Notice of Docket Activity confirming your entry. At that point, you can view case details in the ACMS portal and you can file pleadings in the case through ACMS. You must be an authorized ACMS user with a valid Ninth Circuit PACER login and password to file a notice of appearance.
• How do I view documents in a case?
  If you are a case participant, you can click on the Document links in the notice of docket activity you receive for each filing. After using your free look to access documents, you can view documents in a case by logging in to PACER.
  There are no links to documents in the Case Details page in the ACMS portal.

Known Issues

A recent update to the Mozilla Firefox browser has disabled the functionality of the date picker control that you can use to enter the decision date of the agency decision that you submit with a petition for review.
To resolve this issue:
In Mozilla Firefox, type the agency decision date in the Decision Date field instead of using the date picker control.
If you use Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge you will not encounter this problem.

Help

If you have a question about ACMS and you cannot find the answer on the Court's or PACER's websites, submit your question here. You can expect a reply from the Court during the Court's business hours, from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific Time.

Last Update: 22 July 2021

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