Chelmsford Immigration Court
Chelmsford, MA
EOIR data through August 31, 2026 · built September 11, 2026 · What these dates mean
Where the court sits
Where to go and whom to call, from the EOIR reference tables.
2 more addresses
- 50 County Way, Portland, MA 04102 · 0 hearing records in 12 months
- 522 Bath Road, Wiscasset, MA 04578 · 0 hearing records in 12 months
Addresses and phone numbers come from the EOIR reference tables as of the release cutoff. A court can move between releases, so check the address against your hearing notice and the EOIR site before you travel.
How this is counted
A court usually has several hearing locations, and the one on your notice need not be the one listed first: the order here is by the number of hearing records over the last twelve months, and a record is one case on the calendar. A phone number is missing where the reference table holds a placeholder instead of a number.
Where cases heard here come from
Where the people whose cases are heard here live, by state and ZIP code.
- Massachusetts103 ZIP codes65% of cases · 2,028
- Rhode Island22 ZIP codes16% of cases · 509
- Maine15 ZIP codes12% of cases · 362
- New Hampshire13 ZIP codes3% of cases · 101
25 more states account for 134 cases in total.
The court appears in 248 ZIP codes and leads in none of them: cases from here more often go to neighbouring courts.
This is an observation, not a court assignment: it shows where cases of people with this ZIP code were heard, not where filings are directed. Check the official assignment on the EOIR site.
How this is counted
Only cases where the person was not detained are counted: a detained person's case is heard where the facility is, so a home address says nothing about jurisdiction. The court is the one of the latest proceeding started within the last five fiscal years, and the ZIP code is the current one in the release — so for someone who has moved, the case may still sit with the earlier court. A ZIP code enters the table at fifty cases; for half of them the leading court takes nine cases in ten, but for one in six it takes less than three quarters, which is why every court carries its share and its volume.
52%
Asylum grant rate
of 910 decisions · FY2022–FY2025
95% interval: 48% — 55%
- granted:
- 469
- denied:
- 441
How this percentage is calculated
Grant rate = granted / (granted + denied). Administrative closures, withdrawals, abandonment and "not adjudicated" are excluded from the denominator. What is counted is a decision per proceeding, not per application: asylum, withholding and CAT protection are almost always asked for together, so withholding and CAT grants are counted separately from asylum. The U.S. fiscal year runs October 1 – September 30.
How this compares
- Chelmsford Immigration Court52% (910)
- All U.S. courts33% (1,369,763)
This comparison does not adjust for which cases a judge was given: judges see different nationalities, different shares of detained respondents, and different rates of legal representation. A difference in percentages does not by itself mean identical cases were treated differently.
Trend by fiscal year
U.S. fiscal year: October 1 – September 30.
Years with fewer than 10 decisions are not plotted (1): at that sample size the percentage is noise. They remain in the table.
Show as a table
| Period | decisions | granted | 95% interval |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | 161 | 48% | 41% — 56% |
| FY2024 | 747 | 52% | 48% — 56% |
| FY2023 | 2 | 100% | 34% — 100% |
By applicant nationality
| Nationality | decisions | granted | 95% interval |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brazil | 213 | 27% | 21% — 33% |
| Guatemala | 202 | 54% | 48% — 61% |
| Angola | 55 | 80% | 68% — 88% |
| El Salvador | 53 | 47% | 34% — 60% |
| Democratic Republic of Congo | 48 | 67% | 53% — 78% |
| Ecuador | 41 | 44% | 30% — 59% |
| Honduras | 34 | 47% | 31% — 63% |
| Uganda | 22 | 95% | 78% — 99% |
| Venezuela | 19 | 84% | 62% — 94% |
| Congo | 19 | 100% | 83% — 100% |
| Colombia | 18 | 0% | 0% — 18% |
| Dominican Republic | 12 | 33% | 14% — 61% |
| Nicaragua | 11 | 64% | 35% — 85% |
| Pakistan | 10 | 30% | 11% — 60% |
| Haiti | 10 | 20% | 6% — 51% |
Timing and waits
How long each stage of a case takes at this court. Every figure is a median: half of cases are faster, half slower. Data as of August 31, 2026; these are past and current cases, not a forecast for yours.
How long decided cases took
from the NTA to the decision
49 mohalf of cases: 31—69 modetailshidehalf of cases: 31—69 mo
How long decided cases took
from the NTA to the decision
- Cases decided
- 910
- Half of cases
- 31—69 mo
| Decided in | cases | the case ran, median | half of cases, mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | 161 | 59 mo | 35—70 |
| FY2024 | 747 | 46 mo | 30—69 |
Cases decided this year may have begun a decade ago, so this is not a forecast for a case filed today.
The NTA is the charging document; serving it opens the case in court. The figure is a median, not a mean: durations have a long tail, and a few decade-long cases would pull a mean far from the typical case.
How long undecided cases have already waited
from the NTA to the data cutoff
limited data · proceedings in the queue: 18
34 mohalf of proceedings: 26—38 monationwide 34 modetailshidehalf of proceedings: 26—38 mo
How long undecided cases have already waited
from the NTA to the data cutoff
limited data · proceedings in the queue: 18
- Proceedings in the queue
- 18
- Half of proceedings
- 26—38 mo
- Nationwide
- 34 mo · half: 25—45 mo
- Hearing set after the cutoff
- 44.4% (24.6% — 66.3%) · nationwide 85.5%
Decided cases and waiting cases are different cases: the first have already left the queue, the second are still in it, so these two durations can differ in either direction.
The queue counts proceedings with no decision yet in the release. It is how long people have already waited, not how much longer they will.
Shown separately is the share with a hearing scheduled after the cutoff: the rest have no future event in the release at all, and cannot be read as live alongside these.
When the nearest hearing is set
from the data cutoff to the nearest hearing
too few to tellfewer than 50 casesnationwide 7 modetailshidefewer than 50 cases
When the nearest hearing is set
from the data cutoff to the nearest hearing
- Cases with a date set
- 1
- Nationwide
- 7 mo · half: 2—15 mo
Fewer than 50 cases have a date set. There is nothing to base a median on: it would rest on two or three rows.
Hearings set shortly after the cutoff have already happened by the time you read this. The count here is of cases, while the queue above counts proceedings, so the two figures need not agree. The horizon describes the docket, not the speed of the court.
Rows attached to cases already decided are excluded — the release keeps them, and with them the count of those waiting would be a tenth higher. The judge and court come from the schedule row itself: whoever will hold the hearing, not whoever the proceeding is assigned to. Cases where the person is detained have a hearing within days, the rest within months, and courts at detention centres consist almost entirely of the former. The median is only given from fifty cases up: below that it rests on two or three rows.
From a master calendar hearing to the individual hearing
from a master calendar hearing to the one set after it
limited data · hearings followed by an individual hearing: 164
8 mohalf: 4—26 monationwide 11 modetailshidehalf: 4—26 mo
From a master calendar hearing to the individual hearing
from a master calendar hearing to the one set after it
limited data · hearings followed by an individual hearing: 164
- Master calendar hearings in the year
- 805
- Followed by an individual hearing
- 20.4% (17.7% — 23.3%) · 164 of 805
- To the individual hearing, half of cases
- 4—26 mo
- Nationwide
- 11 mo · half: 2—24 mo
- A master calendar slot holds 2 cases at once, and the busiest one this year held 107; an individual hearing slot holds 3.
- On a master calendar day 3 cases in all are called before the judge, and on the busiest day of the year, 107.
| What was scheduled next | hearings | share | median gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| An individual hearing | 164 | 20.4%17.7% — 23.3%14.7% nationwide | 8 mo |
| Another master calendar | 437 | 54.3%50.8% — 57.7%52.9% nationwide | 5 mo |
| Nothing: the proceeding is over | 190 | 23.6%20.8% — 26.7%27.5% nationwide | — |
| Nothing: no hearing set yet | 14 | 1.7%1.0% — 2.9%4.9% nationwide | — |
Under each share — the 95% interval.
The figures cover master calendar hearings over the last twelve months of the release and what was set after each of them. The shares describe hearings, not cases: one case passes through several master hearings in a year and is counted as many times.
The next hearing has usually not happened yet: its date can be moved. A separate line shows after how many hearings nothing is scheduled — either the proceeding is over or the calendar has not been filled in, and towards the end of the window the second share grows simply because the calendar has not caught up. Cases where the person is detained move more than twenty times faster than the rest, and courts at detention centres consist almost entirely of them. A slot counts the cases of one judge at one time: you go to your judge's courtroom, not to the building. No hearing dates are shown here in any form. The median is only given from fifty hearings up.
Wait for a first hearing after moving here
from arrival here to the first hearing
14 mohalf of cases: 5—24 monationwide 9 modetailshidehalf of cases: 5—24 mo
Wait for a first hearing after moving here
from arrival here to the first hearing
- Cases moved here
- 1,101
- Half of cases
- 5—24 mo
- Nationwide
- 9 mo · half: 3—19 mo
- From the last hearing at the former court to the first here
- 19 mo · nationwide 13 mo
- Between two ordinary hearings here
- 2 mo · nationwide 5 mo
- 229 of 1,101 arrivals have no hearing set here yet.
| Cases | moved | median | vs. nationwide | a quarter longer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Person detained | 222 | 27 d | nationwide 16 d | 43 d |
| Not detained | 879 | 16 mo | nationwide 10 mo | 25 mo |
Over the same period 2,160 cases left this court.
The figures describe those who have already moved; they promise nothing about any one case.
The figures cover cases that arrived at this court on a change of venue. Only moves made at least a year before the release cutoff are included: those who arrived later may not have been given a hearing date yet, and their zero would describe the release date rather than the court. Some hearings are scheduled rather than held, and scheduled ones move; shown separately is how many arrivals have no hearing set at all. The gap between two ordinary hearings at the same court is measured between hearings, and what compares with it is the figure also counted from a hearing at the former court, not from the date of arrival. Cases where the person is detained move faster than the rest, and courts at detention centres consist almost entirely of them. The median is only given from a hundred moves up.
In absentia decisions
Removal cases at this court completed without the respondent in the room. This is not about the court's strictness: attendance depends on whether the person is detained, whether notice reached them and whether they have counsel.
2% of proceedings ended in absentia — 198 of 11,989.
- The whole court2% (11,989)
- All U.S. courts19% (11,588,297)
| Fiscal year | Proceedings | In absentia | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2022 | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| FY2023 | 4 | 0 | 0% |
| FY2024 | 9,463 | 143 | 2% |
| FY2025 | 2,172 | 54 | 2% |
| FY2026partial | 348 | 1 | 0% |
The denominator is every completed removal proceeding (RMV): other proceeding types almost never end in absentia. The headline share covers the whole history, while the table shows the latest fiscal years by the proceeding's completion date. An in absentia order can be challenged by a motion to reopen.
Full statisticsMotions, adjournment reasons, appeals to the BIA, three-member panels and second rounds after a remand.
Motions
What this court does with requests made along the way. Motions decided by this court's judges are counted.
10,358 motions decided in October 2021 — August 2026, 93 of them in the last twelve months. 69% are attached to the judge by the nearest hearing.
Thick line — The whole court, thin line — nationwide.
The band is the Wilson interval: the share lies within it with 95% confidence.
Years below the 30 threshold: 1. They are not shown, and the line breaks there.
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Volume | Share | Nationwide |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | 254 | 85%80% — 89% | 71% |
| FY2024 | 873 | 86%84% — 88% | 80% |
| FY2023 | 40 | 83%68% — 91% | 79% |
| FY2022 | 36 | 83%68% — 92% | 79% |
| Motion | Decidednow / before | GrantedSeptember 2025 — August 2026 | BeforeOctober 2021 — August 2025 | Nationallynow / before |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motion to Terminate | 72,769 | — | 92%91% — 93% | 59%71% |
| Motion for Change of Venue | 111,541 | — | 99%98% — 99% | 86%95% |
| Motion for Continuance | 91,203 | — | 86%83% — 87% | 56%77% |
| Motion to Withdraw as Counsel | 10760 | — | 92%90% — 94% | 91%88% |
| Motion for Administrative Closure | 0625 | — | 72%68% — 75% | 36%76% |
| Motion to Sever | 11494 | — | 96%94% — 98% | 82%90% |
| Motion to Substitute Counsel | 0433 | — | 98%96% — 99% | 97%96% |
| Motion to Dismiss | 1373 | — | 95%92% — 97% | 80%96% |
| Motion for Video Appearance | 0321 | — | 97%94% — 98% | 69%79% |
| Motion to accept late filed documents | 0301 | — | 96%94% — 98% | 86%90% |
| Other motion | 0251 | — | 84%79% — 88% | 68%75% |
| Motion to Consolidate | 0245 | — | 89%84% — 92% | 88%90% |
Under each share — the 95% interval.
A dash means the window holds too few decisions to name a share; an empty recent column means the judge no longer decides motions of that kind. What the letters G and D mean, EOIR does not publish: there is no lookup for this field, and they are read from the behaviour of the cases.
How this is counted
The last twelve months and the years before them are never merged: motion practice changes faster than a case runs, and a single five-year number would average two different eras. A motion record carries no judge code of its own — it is taken from the nearest hearing by date, that is, from whoever was actually sitting on the case at the time; six motions in ten attach that way, the rest are credited to the judge of the proceeding, and the two methods disagree in one case out of five. The "nationally" column shows where judges genuinely differ: procedural motions are granted by nearly everyone nearly always.
Adjournment reasons
Why hearings at this court do not go ahead, and how far that pushes cases.
Of 1,413 hearings with a stated reason in September 2025 — August 2026, 1,099 were adjourned (78%).
Thick line — The whole court, thin line — nationwide.
FY2026 is incomplete: 11 of twelve months are in the release, so its point is hollow.
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Volume | Median days, quartiles below | Nationwide |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026incomplete | 1,004 | 111 d27 d — 217 d | 93 d |
| FY2025 | 14,059 | 135 d38 d — 222 d | 161 d |
| FY2024 | 31,732 | 149 d51 d — 267 d | 146 d |
| Reason | Adjournmentsnow / before | ShareSeptember 2025 — August 2026 | Nationally | Follow-up | Median days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IJ reassignment | 98611,146 | 89.7%87.8% — 91.4%was 24.4% | 14.2%10.5% | 79% | 11030–200was 108134 nationally |
| Respondent to seek representation | 07,135 | —was 15.6% | 9.3%15.3% | — | — |
| IJ completion at hearing | 04,401 | —was 9.6% | 8.3%4.5% | — | — |
| Vacated master calendar hearing | 04,059 | —was 8.9% | 3.8%4.3% | — | — |
| Preparation - respondent/attorney/representative | 02,770 | —was 6.1% | 9.1%8.1% | — | — |
| MC to IC - merits hearing | 102,663 | —was 5.8% | 12.0%10.2% | — | — |
| IJ leave | 02,031 | —was 4.4% | 5.6%5.7% | — | — |
| IJ Completion prior to hearing | 61,906 | —was 4.2% | 1.5%1.1% | — | — |
| Data Entry Error | 781,700 | 7.1%5.7% — 8.8%was 3.7% | 4.0%4.3% | 77% | 9811–299was 4414 nationally |
| Other no-show by respondent/respondent's attorney or rep. | 01,216 | —was 2.7% | 0.7%2.4% | — | — |
| Other respondent/respondent's attorney/representative request | 21,077 | —was 2.4% | 2.8%2.9% | — | — |
| Docket management (postpone hearing) | 1880 | —was 1.9% | 9.7%8.3% | — | — |
The upper figure in a cell covers September 2025 — August 2026; the lower one and “was” cover October 2021 — August 2025.
Under the share — the 95% interval; under the median — the quartiles.
The reason does not assign blame: "respondent to seek representation" covers both a person looking for counsel and a court granting time to look. A dash means the window holds too few adjournments to name a share.
How this is counted
The recent window and the years before it are shown apart: adjournment practice changes faster than a case runs, and it is not only the frequencies that move but the reasons themselves, in different directions. Case-completion codes (8A, 8B, 8C) are separated from genuine continuances by behaviour rather than by wording: after them another hearing rarely follows, while after preparation continuances it almost always does. That is what the "follow-up" column shows, and a low value means "the case usually ended here", not "the adjournment failed". The median days figure is how far this reason pushed the next hearing; half the cases fall between the quartiles shown.
What became of appeals to the BIA
Appeals against decisions by this court's judges. The key to the table is who filed: the same outcome means opposite things when the respondent appeals and when the government does.
| Filed by | Appeals | Decision stood | Sent back | Overturned | Closed without merits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Respondent | 60 | 82% | 12% | 0% | 7% |
| nationally | 712,355 | 74% | 13% | 1% | 11% |
| Government (DHS) | 16 | 25% | 56% | 0% | 19% |
| nationally | 56,049 | 17% | 56% | 9% | 17% |
| Both sides | 3 | 33% | 0% | 33% | 33% |
| nationally | 2,903 | 38% | 39% | 9% | 13% |
There are also appeals of other kinds, not counted in this table: Bond Appeal — 26, Interlocutory Appeal — 5, MTR BIA — 5, Appeal of IJ MTR — 3, Circuit Court Remand — 1.
How often decisions are appealed
| Fiscal year | Granted | Appealed by the government | Denied | Appealed by the respondent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2023 | 2 | 0% (0.8%) | 0 | — (66.0%) |
| FY2024 | 389 | 3% (1.9%) | 358 | 66% (58.6%) |
| FY2025 | 78 | 4% (8.1%) | 83 | 80% (64.6%) |
In brackets, the same share across all courts. Counted by the date of the judge's decision rather than the Board's: an appeal is filed within a month, so recent years are nearly complete here — unlike the outcomes above.
Only appeals on the merits (Case Appeal) are counted: motions to the Board itself and bond appeals are different events. The same outcome means opposite things depending on the filer, which is why the bucket is called "the judge's decision stood", not "X won".
How this is counted
A dismissed appeal means the removal order stood when the respondent appealed, and that the asylum grant stood when the government did; the two do not go into one percentage. Recent years are undercounted: an appeal takes months or years to resolve, so outcomes are counted by the date of the Board's decision while the appealed share is counted by the date of the judge's decision.
Board panels
How often appeals from this court's judges go to a three-member panel instead of a single member.
Appeals on the merits decided in September 2025 — August 2026: 28.
Fewer than 50 appeals decided — 28 in all. There is nothing to state a share from: referral is a rare event, and on so few the interval is wider than the whole spread between judges. Nationally 4.1% of appeals are referred.
What follows shows in the outcomes: of 9,114 referred appeals the case went back to the judge in 60.5%, against 10.1% for the rest. The release carries no grounds for referral, so what stands here is measured behaviour, not a decoded label. This is an observation, not an explanation: a panel is not stricter, it gets different cases.
How often an appeal goes to a panel
- The whole court, October 2021 — August 202518% (51)
- All U.S. courts4% (31,254)
By who filed the appeal
| Filed by | Appealsnow / before | ReferredSeptember 2025 — August 2026 | BeforeOctober 2021 — August 2025 | Nationally |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Respondent | 2238 | — | — | 2.6%7.2% |
| Government (DHS) | 511 | — | — | 23.7%21.5% |
| Both parties | 12 | — | — | 60.0%43.5% |
Under each share — the 95% interval.
The grounds for referral are not in the release: the table has no column pointing at a lookup, so in place of a reason stands the measured behaviour of the cases. And this is not a property of the judge alone: panels take cases of a particular kind, and judges see different mixes of them.
How this is counted
The grounds themselves are listed in 8 CFR 1003.1(e)(6) — all of them about complexity or a departure from law. Counting goes by the date of the Board's decision, not the date the appeal was filed: referral happens between the two, and an unresolved appeal may lack the marker simply because it has not been reached yet. The two windows are shown apart because the referral rate has moved markedly over the past year, and almost entirely among respondent appeals: without the filer axis the shift would read as a general one. A share is stated from fifty decided appeals in a window upwards: the event is rare, and on fewer the interval is wider than the whole spread between judges.
The second round after a remand
Cases the Board sent back to judges of this court — and how they ended on the second round.
Completed second rounds over five years: 13. Unfinished ones are not counted here.
Fewer than 30 completed second rounds — 13 in all. There is nothing to state a share on: at that count the interval is wider than the whole spread between judges. Nationally 17.5% of second rounds end in protection.
Nationally the same judge runs the second round in 45% of cases. Outcomes must not be compared across this: cases that changed judges took longer, so shifts in practice over that time bore on them more heavily.
How the second rounds ended
| Outcome | Cases | The whole court | Nationally |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protection granted | 1 | 7.7% | 17.5% |
| Removal, denial | 11 | 84.6% | 29.6% |
| Voluntary departure | 1 | 7.7% | 2.5% |
By who filed the appeal
| Filed by | Cases | Protection granted | Proceeding terminated | Nationally |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Government (DHS) | 7 | — | — | 13.7% |
| Respondent | 6 | — | — | 19.7% |
Under each share — the 95% interval.
The judge here is the one whose decision was appealed, not necessarily the one who ran the second round. The denominator is completed second rounds, not all remanded cases. And this is not a property of the judge alone: the Board remands cases of a particular kind, and judges see different mixes of them.
How this is counted
Counting is by the date the second round ended; unfinished rounds are excluded — among cases remanded over the past five years, about a third are still running. A share is stated from thirty completed rounds upwards: on fewer the interval is wider than the whole spread between judges. There is no "now and before" pair here as in neighbouring blocks: second rounds are rare and slow, about three per judge in a year. The history is in the yearly series — which also shows why one figure for five years is not enough: what moved the headline share was the share of terminations, not judges growing stricter.
How to cite this page
Figures on this page belong to one monthly release and are replaced whole by the next. The release label and the data cutoff are part of the citation for that reason: without them the number cannot be checked later.
Asylum Beacon. Chelmsford Immigration Court. EOIR Case Data, U.S. DOJ FOIA Library, release 2026-08, data through 2026-08-31. https://asylumbeacon.com/en/court/LOW
Data comes from the monthly EOIR Case Data release (U.S. DOJ FOIA Library). This service is not affiliated with the U.S. government and does not give legal advice. The release lags by roughly a month, so check ACIS or Respondent Access for your current case status. The source has known gaps, including among relief applications: if something is missing here, that does not mean it is missing from your case.