Courts → Chicago, IL

Immigration court · Chicago, IL

Chicago Immigration Court

According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: a 77.4 pp judge-level grant spread is the widest lottery stamp on Chicago's bench. Merits volume is heavy-corpus at 21,578 decisions FY2015–2025 (#7 of 77).

Data updated 2026-09-05

61.3%
Asylum grant rate
38.7%
Asylum denial rate
200,079
Pending cases
27 mo
Time to decision

Chicago in one line

Chicago's asylum grant rate is 61.3% (upper-third grant rate, above the 48.3% national average) across 21,578 FY2015-2025 merits decisions (heavy-corpus volume).

61.3%
Asylum grant rate · Upper-third grant rate
21,578
Merits decisions · Heavy-corpus volume
+13.0 pp
vs. national average
77.4 pp
Judge-level grant spread · wide
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What this court's record shows

Chicago Immigration Court sits in the upper third of tracked courts at 61.3% across 21,578 FY2015–2025 merits (13.0 pp above the 48.3% national average). Historical docket context only.

Wide judge lottery: 8.0% to 85.4% (77.4 pp) across 38 reported judges at Chicago. Case mix and assignment still shape the court aggregate.

Heavy-corpus court (#7 of 77): peer grids below match on grant rate and merits volume; methodology covers EOIR extract limits.

Court outlook score

C

Court outlook score

57/100

Chicago, weighted across 3 of 3 tracked dimensions

A weighted composite of asylum grant rate, time to decision, and backlog ratio against the full tracked-court corpus. It describes the historical docket, not the odds of any one case, and does not weigh legal representation, case type, or judge assignment.

  • Asylum grant rate A+ 61.3%

    Share of merits decisions granting relief, FY2015-2025

  • Time to decision D 27 mo

    Average recorded months from filing to decision

  • Backlog ratio F 31.1%

    Pending cases as a share of the court's own total caseload

EOIR bench spread roll

Grant-rate neighbourhood for Chicago

Upper-third grant-rate neighbors for Chicago (61.3%), with bench-spread stamps for the same-docket judge lottery.

SPREAD 77.4pp WIDE JUDGES 38 WAIT MID PEND 200,079 GRANT 61.3% RANK #7 of 77
Chicago61.3%Van Nuys, CA62.7%West Valley City, UT59.3%Honolulu, HI64.1%Philadelphia, PA55.2%
Asylum grant rate · Chicago highlighted · DOJ EOIR FY2015–2025

Chicago Immigration Court vs all courts by asylum merits caseload

Where this court's FY2015–2025 asylum merits-decision count sits among every tracked immigration court (inventory signal, not a quality ranking)

21,578 7th of 77 higher than 70 of 77 courts

Immigration courts, banded by asylum merits-decision count

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more courts. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source DOJ EOIR asylum merits decisions · FY2015–2025

Where Chicago sits: Fast & Favorable

Each dot is one of the 40 largest immigration courts by merits decisions, split at the MEDIAN grant rate (47.5%) and median average wait (31.2 months) across this set. Chicago's own grant rate is 61.3% and its average wait is 26.8 months.

Grant rate vs. average wait time, 40 largest courts by merits decisions (DOJ EOIR FY2015–2025). Chicago highlighted. 2×2 strategic matrix plotting 30 entities by Asylum grant rate (X) and Average wait (months) (Y), with a crosshair dividing the plot into four quadrants. Favorable but SlowSlow & ToughFast & FavorableFast but Tough 20%40%60%80% 10mo20mo30mo40mo50mo Asylum grant rate Average wait (months) Chicago Immigration Court: grant rate vs. average wait among the largest immigration courts
Grant rate vs. average wait time, 40 largest courts by merits decisions (DOJ EOIR FY2015–2025). Chicago highlighted.

How to read this

  • Fast & Favorable
  • Favorable but Slow
  • Fast but Tough
  • Slow & Tough
Statistical data only. Chicago's 61.3% upper-third grant history still mixes judges, case types, and counsel rates, not a forecast for a future merits hearing. Consult a licensed immigration attorney.
Granted13234Denied8344
Asylum Outcomes at Chicago Immigration Court - 21,578 merits decisions, FY2015–2025

Grant rate over time

Upper-third court Chicago: fiscal-year grant path across FY2015–2025 merits.

Fiscal year Decisions Grant rate
FY2015 313 49.2%
FY2016 284 41.2%
FY2017 751 56.9%
FY2018 988 55.6%
FY2019 1,911 59.7%
FY2020 2,062 46.4%
FY2021 1,048 52.8%
FY2022 1,519 68.1%
FY2023 2,808 67.6%
FY2024 3,915 71.1%
FY2025 5,979 60.6%

The judge lottery at Chicago Immigration Court

38 judges with enough asylum decisions to report. Grant rates run from 85.4% (512 decisions) down to 8.0% (25 decisions) - a 77.4-point spread on the same bench. Rates based on smaller decision counts carry more statistical noise.

Judge names below are the anonymized judge codes EOIR assigns in its public case-data release, not verified public identities. EOIR does not publish immigration judges' full names in this dataset. See our methodology for detail.

# Judge Decisions Asylum grant rate
1 Judge STP 512
85.4%
2 Judge JIP 657
84.6%
3 Judge GAR 886
82.3%
4 Judge CAE 417
73.4%
5 Judge JAL 435
71.7%
6 Judge EKN 265
70.9%
7 Judge ELT 488
70.3%
8 Judge EHC 732
67.8%
9 Judge MBP 115
67.8%
10 Judge ESS 994
67.6%
11 Judge AAM 921
67.6%
12 Judge KIN 294
67.3%
13 Judge KLD 801
66.2%
14 Judge EGL 560
65.2%
15 Judge MEV 795
63.3%
16 Judge JOB 518
63.1%
17 Judge PPF 314
62.4%
18 Judge BCC 697
62.3%
19 Judge SNA 1,115
62.2%
20 Judge MLK 1,004
60.8%
21 Judge VPG 196
59.7%
22 Judge CC 47
59.6%
23 Judge RJR 902
59.3%
24 Judge MCS 1,231
58.8%
25 Judge SMN 96
58.3%
26 Judge PKM 1,503
55.1%
27 Judge KSA 975
54.9%
28 Judge RDV 239
49.0%
29 Judge JD 39
48.7%
30 Judge CDE 1,849
48.4%
31 Judge SBC 631
48.3%
32 Judge JRF 55
43.6%
33 Judge JLG 445
40.7%
34 Judge SJB 31
35.5%
35 Judge LIY 146
29.5%
36 Judge DER 51
25.5%
37 Judge SME 180
15.6%
38 Judge PDM 25
8.0%

Nationwide courts with similar asylum profiles

Heavy-corpus peers for Chicago: ABS(grant-rate) and merits-volume matches outside the same state.

Similar grant rate (± asylum merits volume)

Similar merits caseload (± grant rate)

Why judge-level rates vary · Browse every tracked immigration court

Heavy-corpus court Chicago: 21,578 FY2015–2025 merits in DOJ EOIR FOIA data. Statistical information only, not legal advice.

Read our methodology - how Chicago's 21,578-decision EOIR court row is sourced, computed, and verified.

DOJ Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) FOIA bulk case data for Chicago Immigration Court; judge grant-rate spread 77.4 pp. PlainImmigration computed grant/denial aggregates FY2015–FY2025; Merits volume is heavy-corpus at 21,578 decisions FY2015–2025 (#7 of 77).

Source: U.S. EOIR, Immigration Court Statistics Immigration court outcomes by court and case type · 2025

Every figure on PlainImmigration is rendered directly from federal immigration court records, no number is typed in by an editor. Chicago Immigration Court's outcome and grant-rate figures are recomputed live from the EOIR case-level extract on every request, never hand-typed. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-09-05.