Even if having the right to have an audience with the shogun, a hatamoto actually could have an audience with the shogun only in the occasion of succession to family headship or Atoshiki-sozoku (inheriting the family head post because his father died), if he earned a small amount of rice crop or was provided with no post.
また、小禄や無役の旗本は将軍に拝謁の資格があったものの、実際に拝謁できたのは家督相続・跡式相続のときのみであった。