Wescley Fonseca Pereira, a native and citizen of Brazil, was lawfully admitted to the United States in December 2000 as a temporary non-immigrant visitor.

Even though Pereira demonstrated that he had not received the Immigration Court's 2007 notice which set out the specific date and time of his hearing, they re-opened the removal proceedings.

[3] The Immigration Court disagreed and instead stated that the law did not require that DHS put a certain date or time on the Notice to Appear to make it effective and trigger the stop-time rule.

"[6] This question about whether such a notice triggered the stop-time rule was crucial because Pereira sought cancellation of removal relief, which is only available to noncitizens who have had a continuous physical presence in the United States for 10 years.

[7] Authored by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the Court's opinion held that "a notice that does not inform a noncitizen when and where to appear for a removal proceedings" is not valid and does not trigger the stop-time rule.

[11] This case is also notable because the Supreme Court referred to individuals in removal proceedings as noncitizens and not aliens, except when quoting statues or regulations that use the term.