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Asylum BeaconU.S. immigration court data

Judge Savage, Patrick S.

San Francisco Immigration Court

EOIR data through August 31, 2026 · built September 11, 2026 · What these dates mean

Hearing cases: hearings are scheduled

Last hearing
August 31, 2026
Next hearing
September 1, 2026 · 5,546 scheduled in all
Last decision
July 26, 2026
Courts worked at: 2

Hearings scheduled here

Worked here before

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, a transfer and an extended absence cannot be told apart — only what the calendar shows is stated here.

How this is counted

Hearings are scheduled two to three years out, so an empty calendar for a working judge is rare; but for a judge who went quiet in the last few months it may simply be the data lagging. The lookup table's "active" flag is not used: it disagrees with the calendar for a third of judges.

86%

Asylum grant rate

of 1,674 decisions · FY1995–FY2026

95% interval: 84% — 87%

granted:
1,436
denied:
238
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

  • This judge86% (1,674)
  • The whole court — San Francisco Immigration Court56% (89,431)
  • 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

0%25%50%75%100%201520182020202220242026

U.S. fiscal year: October 1 – September 30.

FY2026 is incomplete: the release covers only 11 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 (6): at that sample size the percentage is noise. They remain in the table.

Show as a table
Grant rate by fiscal year
Perioddecisionsgranted95% interval
FY2026partial3426%15% — 43%
FY202522274%68% — 80%
FY202413174%66% — 81%
FY202320595%91% — 97%
FY202216899%96% — 100%
FY20218394%87% — 97%
FY202018988%83% — 92%
FY201933087%83% — 90%
FY201812895%89% — 97%
FY20177890%81% — 95%
FY20167686%76% — 92%
FY20152374%54% — 87%
FY201210%0% — 79%
FY200810%0% — 79%
FY200520%0% — 66%
FY200310%0% — 79%
FY200010%0% — 79%
FY199510%0% — 79%

By applicant nationality

Grant rate by nationality, largest volumes first
Nationalitydecisionsgranted95% interval
India45695%93% — 97%
Guatemala28086%81% — 89%
El Salvador24982%77% — 86%
Mexico21569%62% — 75%
Honduras11590%84% — 95%
Nepal6694%85% — 98%
China6292%82% — 97%
Ukraine19100%83% — 100%
Eritrea1894%74% — 99%
Nicaragua1776%53% — 90%
Romania1362%36% — 82%
Russia1191%62% — 98%
Peru1060%31% — 83%
Iraq10100%72% — 100%
Cameroon989%56% — 98%

Timing and waits

How long each stage of a case takes before this judge. 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.

this judgenationwide

How long decided cases took

from the NTA to the decision

47 mo
half of cases: 27—79 mo
Cases decided
1,674
Half of cases
27—79 mo
The whole court
23 mo
NTA-to-decision duration by fiscal year
Decided incasesthe case ran, medianhalf of cases, mo
FY20263490 mo44—113
FY202522288 mo68—106
FY202413183 mo34—94
FY202320581 mo59—89
FY202216855 mo40—74
FY20218360 mo50—73
FY202018927 mo21—46
FY201933029 mo13—41
FY201812845 mo41—52
FY20177836 mo30—43

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

too few to tell
nationwide 34 mo
proceedings in the queue: 0

No undecided proceedings in this release.

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

11 mo
1.7 times longer than nationwidenationwide 7 mo
half of cases: 6—18 mo
Cases with a date set
4,931
Half of cases
6—18 mo
The whole court
8 mo
Nationwide
7 mo · half: 2—15 mo
More than a year out
47.8% (46.4% — 49.2%) · nationwide 32.1%
Time to the nearest hearing by hearing type and by custody
What is setcasesmedianvs. nationwidea quarter longerover a year out
Master hearing2,4809 mo1.7 times longer than nationwidenationwide 6 mo15 mo37.1%35.2% — 39.0%
Individual hearing2,51514 mo1.3 times longer than nationwidenationwide 11 mo23 mo58.1%56.2% — 60.0%

In the rows the figure runs to the nearest hearing of that kind, so it is never shorter than the overall one.

Under each share — the 95% interval.

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: 262

16 mo
1.5 times longer than nationwidenationwide 11 mo
half: 8—27 mo
Master calendar hearings in the year
2,600
Followed by an individual hearing
10.1% (9.0% — 11.3%) · 262 of 2,600
To the individual hearing, half of cases
8—27 mo
The whole court
13 mo
Nationwide
11 mo · half: 2—24 mo
  • A master calendar slot holds 22 cases at once, and the busiest one this year held 50; an individual hearing slot holds 2.
  • On a master calendar day 40 cases in all are called before the judge, and on the busiest day of the year, 63.
What was scheduled after a master calendar hearing: share of hearings and median gap
What was scheduled nexthearingssharemedian gap
An individual hearing26210.1%9.0% — 11.3%14.7% nationwide16 mo
Another master calendar1,68364.7%62.9% — 66.5%52.9% nationwide15 mo
Nothing: the proceeding is over65525.2%23.6% — 26.9%27.5% nationwide—
Nothing: no hearing set yet00.0%0.0% — 0.1%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.

In absentia decisions

Removal cases completed without the respondent in the room. This is not about a judge's strictness: attendance depends on whether the person is detained, whether notice reached them and whether they have counsel.

15% of proceedings ended in absentia — 1,515 of 9,818.

  • This judge15% (9,818)
  • The whole court13% (369,755)
  • All U.S. courts19% (11,588,297)
Share of in absentia decisions by fiscal year
Fiscal yearProceedingsIn absentiaShare
FY2021407277%
FY2022632549%
FY202388310812%
FY20241,26214111%
FY20251,49033322%
FY2026partial41112931%

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 the judge does with requests made along the way: continue the hearing, allow appearance by video, terminate the case, put it back on the calendar. Judges differ more here than in the asylum grant rate.

7,251 motions decided in October 2021 — August 2026, 1,017 of them in the last twelve months. 59% are attached to the judge by the nearest hearing.

0%50%100%92%97%93%84%20222023202420252026

Thick line — This judge, 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
Motion for Continuance: share granted by fiscal year
Fiscal yearVolumeShareNationwide
FY202510584%76% — 90%71%
FY20246193%84% — 97%80%
FY20237697%91% — 99%79%
FY20227892%84% — 96%79%
Share of motions granted, by type
MotionDecidednow / beforeGrantedSeptember 2025 — August 2026BeforeOctober 2021 — August 2025Nationallynow / before
Motion for Video Appearance1491,04779%72% — 85%96%95% — 97%69%79%
Motion for Change of Venue191901100%98% — >99%98%97% — 99%86%95%
Motion to Recalendar23171753%47% — 60%40%37% — 44%85%88%
Motion to Dismiss8561—96%94% — 98%80%96%
Motion to accept late filed documents26380—94%91% — 96%86%90%
Motion for Administrative Closure24324—96%94% — 98%36%76%
Motion for Continuance3930779%64% — 89%91%88% — 94%56%77%
Motion to Withdraw as Counsel5628993%83% — 97%98%96% — 99%91%88%
Motion to Substitute Counsel40302100%91% — 100%99%98% — >99%97%96%
Motion to Set an Individual/Merits Hearing6425598%92% — >99%94%91% — 96%76%83%
Motion to Terminate4526291%79% — 96%87%82% — 91%59%71%
Motion to Advance for Earlier Hearing Date5184—50%43% — 57%63%65%

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 a hearing did not go ahead, and how far it pushed the case. The court assigns the reason itself; a hearing counts as adjourned when another one follows.

Of 4,641 hearings with a stated reason in September 2025 — August 2026, 3,458 were adjourned (75%).

0 d250 d500 d184 d294 d126 d182 d395 d20222023202420252026

Thick line — This judge, thin line — nationwide.

FY2026 is incomplete: 11 of twelve months are in the release, so its point is hollow.

Show the numbers
Median gap to the next hearing by fiscal year
Fiscal yearVolumeMedian days, quartiles belowNationwide
FY2026incomplete3,144395 d198 d — 562 d93 d
FY20253,383182 d77 d — 631 d161 d
FY20242,436126 d70 d — 613 d146 d
FY20232,958294 d91 d — 625 d132 d
FY20224,246184 d140 d — 693 d120 d
Adjournment reasons: share of all adjournments and median days to the next hearing
ReasonAdjournmentsnow / beforeShareSeptember 2025 — August 2026NationallyFollow-upMedian days
Court closure/postponement53,154—was 24.8%0.6%5.2%——
MC to IC - merits hearing2612,3387.5%6.7% — 8.5%was 18.4%12.0%10.2%>99%693651–721was 813309 nationally
IJ reassignment8411,01924.3%22.9% — 25.8%was 8.0%14.2%10.5%72%269189–323was 225134 nationally
Docket management (postpone hearing)1,51125743.7%42.1% — 45.4%was 2.0%9.7%8.3%100%492398–574was 182205 nationally
Respondent to seek representation1141,4963.3%2.8% — 3.9%was 11.8%9.3%15.3%100%9889–117was 9199 nationally
IJ leave528081.5%1.1% — 2.0%was 6.4%5.6%5.7%95%13335–609was 280109 nationally
Data Entry Error1275193.7%3.1% — 4.4%was 4.1%4.0%4.3%81%1367–427was 29714 nationally
Preparation - respondent/attorney/representative635401.8%1.4% — 2.3%was 4.2%9.1%8.1%100%9155–133was 9134 nationally
Other no-show by respondent/respondent's attorney or rep.23514—was 4.0%0.7%2.4%——
Other respondent/respondent's attorney/representative request463641.3%1.0% — 1.8%was 2.9%2.8%2.9%94%860–231was 18662 nationally
IJ completion at hearing29346—was 2.7%8.3%4.5%——
IJ determined an in-person hearing is necessary4220—was 1.7%0.4%0.3%——

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

An immigration judge's decision can be appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals. The key to this table is who filed: the same outcome means opposite things when the respondent appeals and when the government does.

BIA appeal outcomes by filer
Filed byAppealsDecision stoodSent backOverturnedClosed without merits
Government (DHS)6010%99%0%1%
nationally56,04917%56%9%17%
Respondent13979%17%0%4%
nationally712,35574%13%1%11%

There are also appeals of other kinds, not counted in this table: MTR BIA — 29, Bond Appeal — 23, Appeal of IJ MTR — 22, Interlocutory Appeal — 15, Circuit Court Remand — 7, Bond MTR Reo — 2.

How often decisions are appealed

Share of the judge's decisions that were appealed
Fiscal yearGrantedAppealed by the governmentDeniedAppealed by the respondent
FY2021780% (1.6%)540% (68.2%)
FY20221660% (0.6%)20% (69.6%)
FY20231951% (0.8%)100% (66.0%)
FY2024972% (1.9%)3412% (58.6%)
FY202516531% (8.1%)5768% (64.6%)
FY202690% (8.8%)2576% (58.4%)

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

By default a single Board member decides an appeal. Referral to a three-member panel marks a case found difficult: not how the appeal ended, but how it was heard.

Appeals on the merits decided in September 2025 — August 2026: 7.

Fewer than 50 appeals decided — 7 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

  • This judge, October 2021 — August 202512% (104)
  • The whole court4% (985)
  • All U.S. courts4% (31,254)

By who filed the appeal

Share of appeals referred to a three-member panel, by who filed
Filed byAppealsnow / beforeReferredSeptember 2025 — August 2026BeforeOctober 2021 — August 2025Nationally
Respondent557—15.8%8.5% — 27.4%2.6%7.2%
Government (DHS)245——23.7%21.5%
Both parties02——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

The Board sent the case back to this judge or a colleague — and this is how the second hearing ended. The return is no formality: on the first round every one of these cases had been decided, and the decision was set aside.

Completed second rounds over five years: 429. Unfinished ones are not counted here.

7.2%

of them ended in protection being granted

protection in 31 of 429

95% interval 5.1% — 10.1%

nationally 17.5%

0.0%50.0%100.0%5.0%14.3%5.1%7.8%20222023202420252026

Thick line — This judge, 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
Share of second rounds ending in protection, by fiscal year
Fiscal yearVolumeShareNationwide
FY2025907.8%3.8% — 15.2%17.5%
FY20242155.1%2.9% — 8.9%17.7%
FY20237014.3%7.9% — 24.3%18.1%
FY2022405.0%1.4% — 16.5%19.8%

The same judge runs the second round in 270 of 429 cases — 63%. Nationally 45%. 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 often a second round ends in protection

  • This judge7% (429)
  • The whole court13% (4,014)
  • All U.S. courts18% (22,363)

How the second rounds ended

How second rounds ended after the Board sent the case back
OutcomeCasesThis judgeNationally
Protection granted317.2%17.5%
Removal, but withholding or CAT granted10.2%2.2%
Removal, denial7216.8%29.6%
Proceeding terminated23254.1%36.9%
Voluntary departure40.9%2.5%
Administrative closure8920.7%10.9%

By who filed the appeal

Second-round outcome by who filed the appeal
Filed byCasesProtection grantedProceeding terminatedNationally
Government (DHS)4167.5%5.3% — 10.4%53.1%48.3% — 57.9%13.7%
Respondent12——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. Judge Savage, Patrick S. EOIR Case Data, U.S. DOJ FOIA Library, release 2026-08, data through 2026-08-31. https://asylumbeacon.com/en/judge/PSS

Methodology in full

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.