Courts → San Francisco, CA

Immigration court · San Francisco, CA

San Francisco Immigration Court

According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: a 91.0 pp judge-level grant spread is the widest lottery stamp on San Francisco's bench. Merits volume is heavy-corpus at 49,818 decisions FY2015–2025 (#2 of 77).

Data updated 2026-09-05

72.0%
Asylum grant rate
28.0%
Asylum denial rate
110,651
Pending cases
39 mo
Time to decision

San Francisco in one line

San Francisco's asylum grant rate is 72.0% (upper-third grant rate, above the 48.3% national average) across 49,818 FY2015-2025 merits decisions (heavy-corpus volume).

72.0%
Asylum grant rate · Upper-third grant rate
49,818
Merits decisions · Heavy-corpus volume
+23.7 pp
vs. national average
91.0 pp
Judge-level grant spread · wide
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What this court's record shows

San Francisco Immigration Court sits in the upper third of tracked courts at 72.0% across 49,818 FY2015–2025 merits (23.7 pp above the 48.3% national average). Historical docket context only.

Wide judge lottery: 4.5% to 95.5% (91.0 pp) across 75 reported judges at San Francisco. Case mix and assignment still shape the court aggregate.

Long-wait docket: 110,651 pending and 39 mo average recorded wait. Peer grids below place San Francisco on grant-rate and caseload axes; methodology covers extract limits.

Court outlook score

C-

Court outlook score

54/100

San Francisco, 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+ 72.0%

    Share of merits decisions granting relief, FY2015-2025

  • Time to decision F 39 mo

    Average recorded months from filing to decision

  • Backlog ratio F 18.8%

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

EOIR bench spread roll

Grant-rate neighbourhood for San Francisco

Upper-third grant-rate neighbors for San Francisco (72.0%), with bench-spread stamps for the same-docket judge lottery.

SPREAD 91.0pp WIDE JUDGES 75 WAIT LONG PEND 110,651 GRANT 72.0% RANK #2 of 77
San Francisco72%New York, NY74.7%Honolulu, HI64.1%Chicago, IL61.3%West Valley City, UT59.3%
Asylum grant rate · San Francisco highlighted · DOJ EOIR FY2015–2025

San Francisco 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)

49,818 2nd of 77 higher than 75 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 San Francisco sits: Favorable but Slow

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. San Francisco's own grant rate is 72.0% and its average wait is 39.3 months.

Grant rate vs. average wait time, 40 largest courts by merits decisions (DOJ EOIR FY2015–2025). San Francisco 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) San Francisco 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). San Francisco highlighted.

How to read this

  • Fast & Favorable
  • Favorable but Slow
  • Fast but Tough
  • Slow & Tough
Statistical data only. San Francisco's 72.0% 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.
Granted35858Denied13960
Asylum Outcomes at San Francisco Immigration Court - 49,818 merits decisions, FY2015–2025

Grant rate over time

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

Fiscal year Decisions Grant rate
FY2015 982 77.4%
FY2016 1,469 76.3%
FY2017 2,095 77.4%
FY2018 2,686 71.2%
FY2019 5,999 70.9%
FY2020 6,781 57.0%
FY2021 2,935 69.9%
FY2022 6,276 77.2%
FY2023 7,924 80.6%
FY2024 6,091 73.4%
FY2025 6,580 69.6%

The judge lottery at San Francisco Immigration Court

75 judges with enough asylum decisions to report. Grant rates run from 95.5% (1,257 decisions) down to 4.5% (264 decisions) - a 91.0-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 SML 1,257
95.5%
2 Judge MH 387
92.8%
3 Judge CSD 761
92.4%
4 Judge SYK 216
92.1%
5 Judge ADG 1,363
91.6%
6 Judge ECB 382
91.6%
7 Judge DLM 901
91.3%
8 Judge JLV 230
90.9%
9 Judge KSL 75
90.7%
10 Judge ICD 2,711
90.5%
11 Judge LLR 547
90.3%
12 Judge RAW 30
90.0%
13 Judge PSS 1,950
89.9%
14 Judge CMN 92
89.1%
15 Judge SGN 1,050
88.6%
16 Judge LAG 1,331
88.0%
17 Judge JVJ 1,617
87.5%
18 Judge JRW 135
87.4%
19 Judge JMP 1,124
86.9%
20 Judge SSG 199
86.9%
21 Judge JJS 130
86.2%
22 Judge HRD 654
85.9%
23 Judge RBJ 379
85.5%
24 Judge CJL 298
85.2%
25 Judge ACH 187
84.5%
26 Judge ACL 787
82.8%
27 Judge PAW 258
82.6%
28 Judge CAK 284
82.4%
29 Judge JJJ 532
81.8%
30 Judge JYB 844
81.5%
31 Judge AAS 1,628
79.4%
32 Judge EJC 52
78.8%
33 Judge CSG 2,016
78.4%
34 Judge CPE 103
77.7%
35 Judge LCF 772
77.5%
36 Judge MAS 642
77.3%
37 Judge KWS 856
76.8%
38 Judge ELY 783
76.5%
39 Judge AED 314
76.4%
40 Judge LSG 945
75.9%
41 Judge RKP 965
75.2%
42 Judge LLM 531
72.9%
43 Judge SMS 1,035
70.1%
44 Judge PRM 43
69.8%
45 Judge ISS 247
69.6%
46 Judge CFP 514
69.3%
47 Judge JRS 294
67.7%
48 Judge LLJ 551
66.1%
49 Judge DRH 188
64.9%
50 Judge SMK 1,563
63.6%
51 Judge JYP 1,239
60.5%
52 Judge SDG 1,382
58.6%
53 Judge CMP 638
57.2%
54 Judge PSO 1,627
55.6%
55 Judge RHD 486
54.9%
56 Judge NRF 799
53.8%
57 Judge NBW 61
52.5%
58 Judge DAD 208
51.9%
59 Judge KBL 527
50.9%
60 Judge SPN 1,350
50.6%
61 Judge MWN 327
50.2%
62 Judge GSS 620
44.8%
63 Judge AJC 789
42.2%
64 Judge FAS 2,545
40.4%
65 Judge LWP 50
40.0%
66 Judge VAB 156
38.5%
67 Judge GMT 58
29.3%
68 Judge JLN 822
29.2%
69 Judge RRH 258
27.9%
70 Judge CPH 63
19.0%
71 Judge WDN 39
15.4%
72 Judge VRW 25
12.0%
73 Judge NNA 242
6.6%
74 Judge SS2 47
6.4%
75 Judge ASM 264
4.5%

Nationwide courts with similar asylum profiles

Heavy-corpus peers for San Francisco: 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 San Francisco: 49,818 FY2015–2025 merits in DOJ EOIR FOIA data. Statistical information only, not legal advice.

Read our methodology - how San Francisco's 49,818-decision EOIR court row is sourced, computed, and verified.

DOJ Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) FOIA bulk case data for San Francisco Immigration Court; judge grant-rate spread 91.0 pp. PlainImmigration computed grant/denial aggregates FY2015–FY2025; Merits volume is heavy-corpus at 49,818 decisions FY2015–2025 (#2 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. San Francisco 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.