Courts with Longest Case Backlogs
Ranked by average time to decision, in months (minimum 500 cases). Statistical data from DOJ EOIR.
This is a court-level historical average, not a prediction of how long any individual case will take. Not legal advice: actual wait times depend on case type, docket load, and continuances; consult a licensed immigration attorney or accredited representative for guidance on your situation.
Wait times here are operational averages from the FOIA extract across the 77 courts we profile (a separate population from FY2015–2025 asylum grant rates). EOIR's wider archive goes back to 2001. See our methodology for detail.
Download the EOIR asylum statistics dataset (CSV) , open extract wired into this page's Dataset JSON-LD.
Partial window: 7 courts below carry a chip such as "Since FY2024" or "FY2015–17 only". Their recorded decisions do not span all of FY2015–2025, so their figure covers fewer years than the rows without a chip; compare them with care. Their own pages show the year-by-year record.
Every figure on PlainImmigration is rendered directly from federal immigration court records, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on DOJ EOIR immigration court case data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-09-05.