After three and a half years of delays, a hearing to decide whether Kim Dotcom will be shipped off to the US begins this morning.

Dotcom and three other men involved in file-sharing website Megaupload face a raft of charges laid by the FBI, including copyright violation, money laundering and wire fraud.

The US wants them extradited to face those charges.

They will appear in Auckland District Court today, where Judge Nevin Dawson will begin deciding their fate.

He must rule on whether there is enough evidence to warrant surrendering the men to the US, not on whether the law has been broken.

The hearing starts after a failed attempt by defence lawyers to have a stay in proceedings considered ahead of the hearing itself.