Courts → Sterling, VA

Immigration court · Sterling, VA

Sterling Immigration Court

According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: a 52.1 pp judge-level grant spread is the widest lottery stamp on Sterling's bench. Grant rate sits in the upper third of tracked courts at 48.8% (roughly in line with the 48.3% national average).

Data updated 2026-09-05

48.8%
Asylum grant rate
51.2%
Asylum denial rate
18,244
Pending cases
39 mo
Time to decision

Sterling in one line

Sterling's asylum grant rate is 48.8% (upper-third grant rate, roughly in line with the 48.3% national average) across 10,044 FY2015-2025 merits decisions (mid-band volume).

48.8%
Asylum grant rate · Upper-third grant rate
10,044
Merits decisions · Mid-band volume
+0.5 pp
vs. national average
52.1 pp
Judge-level grant spread · wide
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What this court's record shows

Sterling Immigration Court sits in the upper third of tracked courts at 48.8% across 10,044 FY2015–2025 merits (0.5 pp roughly in line with the 48.3% national average). Historical docket context only.

Wide judge lottery: 29.1% to 81.2% (52.1 pp) across 29 reported judges at Sterling. Case mix and assignment still shape the court aggregate.

Long-wait docket: 18,244 pending and 39 mo average recorded wait. Peer grids below place Sterling on grant-rate and caseload axes; methodology covers extract limits.

Court outlook score

D

Court outlook score

44/100

Sterling, 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 B 48.8%

    Share of merits decisions granting relief, FY2015-2025

  • Time to decision F 39 mo

    Average recorded months from filing to decision

  • Backlog ratio F 18.4%

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

EOIR bench spread roll

Grant-rate neighbourhood for Sterling

Upper-third grant-rate neighbors for Sterling (48.8%), with bench-spread stamps for the same-docket judge lottery.

SPREAD 52.1pp WIDE JUDGES 29 WAIT LONG PEND 18,244 GRANT 48.8% RANK #26 of 77
Sterling48.8%New York, NY48.7%Newark, NJ48.9%Orlando, FL48.4%Harlingen, TX49.5%
Asylum grant rate · Sterling highlighted · DOJ EOIR FY2015–2025

Sterling 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)

10,044 26th of 77 higher than 51 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 Sterling 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. Sterling's own grant rate is 48.8% and its average wait is 38.8 months.

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

How to read this

  • Fast & Favorable
  • Favorable but Slow
  • Fast but Tough
  • Slow & Tough
Statistical data only. Sterling's 48.8% 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.
Granted4901Denied5143
Asylum Outcomes at Sterling Immigration Court - 10,044 merits decisions, FY2015–2025

Grant rate over time

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

Fiscal year Decisions Grant rate
FY2020 3 0.0%
FY2021 1 100.0%
FY2022 7 57.1%
FY2023 1,439 61.1%
FY2024 2,425 59.1%
FY2025 6,169 41.9%

The judge lottery at Sterling Immigration Court

29 judges with enough asylum decisions to report. Grant rates run from 81.2% (32 decisions) down to 29.1% (592 decisions) - a 52.1-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 CEL 32
81.2%
2 Judge LAW 435
73.6%
3 Judge WPK 39
71.8%
4 Judge KAP 336
67.3%
5 Judge ENA 341
65.1%
6 Judge JG1 288
58.3%
7 Judge MWG 355
58.0%
8 Judge SBY 687
56.8%
9 Judge LDC 151
54.3%
10 Judge RCH 79
53.2%
11 Judge XFR 667
51.7%
12 Judge GJW 120
51.7%
13 Judge JEE 593
50.9%
14 Judge MPD 451
50.1%
15 Judge JTD 387
49.9%
16 Judge MBH 63
49.2%
17 Judge KJB 600
48.8%
18 Judge JLK 510
48.8%
19 Judge JPI 319
45.1%
20 Judge LSA 301
42.2%
21 Judge BCM 423
42.1%
22 Judge KMC 346
41.9%
23 Judge MCV 48
41.7%
24 Judge JNP 819
38.1%
25 Judge LCB 510
36.9%
26 Judge CCC 278
36.7%
27 Judge KNH 56
35.7%
28 Judge CNP 76
30.3%
29 Judge LMS 592
29.1%

Nationwide courts with similar asylum profiles

Cross-state peers matched on grant rate and merits caseload, not the same-state browse list.

Similar grant rate (± asylum merits volume)

Similar merits caseload (± grant rate)

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

Data from the DOJ Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) via FOIA bulk case data. Statistical information only, not legal advice.

Read our methodology - how Sterling's 10,044-decision EOIR court row is sourced, computed, and verified.

DOJ Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) FOIA bulk case data for Sterling Immigration Court; judge grant-rate spread 52.1 pp. PlainImmigration computed grant/denial aggregates FY2015–FY2025; Merits volume is mid-band at 10,044 decisions FY2015–2025.

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. Sterling 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.