Judge Kolbe, Margaret

Hearing cases: hearings are scheduled

Last hearing: July 31, 2026
Next hearing: August 4, 2026 · 3,302 scheduled in all
Last decision: July 31, 2026
Now sitting at: NEW YORK — IMMIGRATION COURT

Courts worked at: 6

Hearings scheduled here

NEW YORK — IMMIGRATION COURT2016—2026 · 41,433 hearings

Worked here before

JENA — IMMIGRATION COURT2022—2026 · 187 hearings
ELIZABETH — IMMIGRATION COURT2017—2026 · 189 hearings
CONROE — IMMIGRATION COURT2017—2017 · 218 hearings
PEARSALL — IMMIGRATION COURT2016—2016 · 57 hearings
SAN FRANCISCO — IMMIGRATION COURT2016—2016 · 55 hearings

The periods overlap, and that is not an error: a judge hears cases at a new court while still closing out old ones at the previous one. Each row answers "when did this judge work here", not "from when to when did they serve here".

Status is derived from the court calendar: whether the judge has hearings scheduled after the release cutoff. The EOIR release carries no personnel data, so retirement, removal, elevation to the BIA and extended absence cannot be told apart — only what the data shows is stated here. Hearings are scheduled two to three years out, so an empty calendar for a working judge is rare; for judges who went quiet in the last few months it may still be an artifact of the cutoff, which lags by about a month. The lookup table's "active" flag is not used: it disagrees with the calendar for a third of judges.

61%

Asylum grant rate

of 1,538 decisions · FY1989–FY2026

95% interval: 58% — 63%

granted:: 931
denied:: 607

How this percentage is calculated

Grant rate = granted / (granted + denied). Administrative closures, withdrawals, abandonment and "not adjudicated" are excluded from the denominator. The unit of count is a decision per proceeding, not per application: applicants almost always file asylum, withholding and CAT protection together. Withholding and CAT grants are counted separately from asylum. U.S. fiscal year: October 1 – September 30.

How this compares

This judge61% (1,538)
The whole court — NEW YORK — IMMIGRATION COURT57% (230,016)
All U.S. courts33% (1,350,724)

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.

FY2026 is incomplete: the release covers only 10 of its 12 months. Its point is drawn hollow and the segment leading to it is dashed.

Years with fewer than 10 decisions are not plotted (9): at that sample size the percentage is noise. They remain in the table.

Show as a table

Grant rate by fiscal year
Period	decisions	granted	95% interval
FY2026partial	165	32%	25% — 40%
FY2025	237	62%	55% — 68%
FY2024	161	70%	63% — 77%
FY2023	95	58%	48% — 67%
FY2022	69	58%	46% — 69%
FY2021	20	45%	26% — 66%
FY2020	46	22%	12% — 36%
FY2019	210	55%	48% — 61%
FY2018	236	72%	66% — 77%
FY2017	227	79%	73% — 84%
FY2016	51	75%	61% — 84%
FY2013	2	50%	9% — 91%
FY2012	4	50%	15% — 85%
FY2011	1	0%	0% — 79%
FY2005	1	0%	0% — 79%
FY2001	1	0%	0% — 79%
FY2000	2	0%	0% — 66%
FY1999	2	0%	0% — 66%
FY1998	5	0%	0% — 43%
FY1997	3	0%	0% — 56%

By applicant nationality

Grant rate by nationality, largest volumes first
Nationality	decisions	granted	95% interval
CHINA	299	84%	80% — 88%
EL SALVADOR	207	35%	29% — 42%
INDIA	159	70%	62% — 76%
ECUADOR	147	41%	33% — 49%
HONDURAS	106	40%	31% — 49%
GUATEMALA	90	39%	29% — 49%
NEPAL	49	92%	81% — 97%
NICARAGUA	43	77%	62% — 87%
PERU	40	35%	22% — 50%
BANGLADESH	36	75%	59% — 86%
TURKIYE	32	59%	42% — 74%
COLOMBIA	31	45%	29% — 62%
VENEZUELA	30	73%	56% — 86%
RUSSIA	30	90%	74% — 97%
Former Countries	18	94%	74% — 99%

How long a case takes

How long it took from service of the NTA to the decision on the application, for the cases this judge has already finished.

26 mo

median

half of cases: 17—37 mo

based on 1,538 cases

NTA-to-decision duration by fiscal year
Decided in	Cases	median	half of cases, mo
FY2026	165	28 mo	19—38
FY2025	237	26 mo	17—33
FY2024	161	24 mo	21—35
FY2023	95	40 mo	20—48
FY2022	69	33 mo	10—39
FY2020	46	6 mo	5—45
FY2019	210	34 mo	19—42
FY2018	236	28 mo	24—36
FY2017	227	19 mo	15—28
FY2016	51	21 mo	10—26

Duration runs from the NTA date (charging document served) to the decision on the application. Median, not mean: the distribution has a long right tail. Cases decided this year may have begun a decade ago, so duration by year of decision is not a forecast for a case filed today.

The queue

Cases with no decision yet. A different figure from the duration of completed cases: quick cases leave the queue first, so the long ones accumulate among those still waiting.

3,042
cases waiting: 32 mo
already waited, median

Half have waited between 21 mo and 45 mo.
2,942 (97%) have a hearing scheduled later than the date this data was collected. The rest have no upcoming event in the release.

The queue counts proceedings with no decision in the release. The figure runs from the NTA date to the release cutoff — it is how long people have already waited, not how much longer they will. Shown separately: how many have a hearing scheduled after the cutoff. The rest have no upcoming event in the release and should not be read alongside live cases.

What became of appeals to the BIA

An immigration judge's decision can be appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals. This is what the Board did with those appeals. A high share of reversals and remands tells a different story than a low grant rate alone.

What became of appeals to the BIA
BIA decision	Appeals
Dismiss Appeal/Affirm IJ's Decision	273
Remand	89
Denied	48
Withdrawal of Appeal	40
Summary Affirmance	23
Sustain	15
Summary Dismissal (G) untimely or waived appeal	12
Termination	11
Summarily Dismiss	7
Lacks Jurisdiction - BIA	7
Moot Bond	6
ROP Returned to Court to correct deficiency	5
Summary Dismissal (e) no brief	5
Grant with no Remand	4
Terminate-DHS PD	4
Dismissed (Grant V/D 30 days)	3
SUMMARY AFFIRMANCE/VD	2
Other	1
Background Check Remand	1

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 provide legal advice. The data lags by roughly a month; for current case status use ACIS and Respondent Access. The source is known to have missing records, including relief applications — absent data does not mean it is absent from your case.