This can depend on things like how long you wore the piercing before you stopped, and how your body heals.

With ears it is most common to see them close up after some time without rings in, but you may still have a hole there. One contributing factor is how old you were when you had the piercing done. If you were an adult when you last wore ear rings it is more likely for the holes not to have closed. If you were still young then they most likely have by now.

Also, if you wore heavy ear rings which stretched out the holes that makes it more likely for them to still be there, same thing if you wore large guage rings.

With a normal sized ring that wasn't extremely heavy, especially if you were teenaged or younger when you stopped wearing them, its almost sure that you will have to have your ears repierced if you want to wear anything in them now. Even if you were an adult when you stopped, its unlikely there are still holes.

Squeeze your earlobe between your thumb and forefinger gently. If it feels like there is a lump, you may still have holes and you should try an ear ring. If you don't feel a lump I wouldn't go poking at your ear if I were you, just have it redone.