US Immigration Court Backlog: Pending Proceedings and Trends
3,093,355 reconstructed pending proceedings at the Aug 2026 snapshot. This is a proceeding count, not an official count of people. Reconstructed pending proceedings are not an official person count, a live case lookup or a forecast. Missing calendar dates do not become zero. Verify an individual hearing through EOIR and the court-issued notice.
How we estimate
Asylum Tracker reconstructs national pending histories from EOIR FOIA proceedings and application records. The all-proceedings and asylum scopes use different opening dates. The same proceeding can contribute to both scopes. These histories can differ from EOIR’s published pending-case series because definitions, administrative closures and snapshot revisions differ.
Pending proceedings at the latest snapshot
The all-proceedings series reconstructs a proceeding as open from its court input date, or Order to Show Cause date when input is missing, until its recorded completion date.
| Month | Received | Completed | Pending at month end |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-09 | 128,764 | 73,714 | 3,652,274 |
| 2024-10 | 134,080 | 84,903 | 3,668,471 |
| 2024-11 | 107,079 | 70,208 | 3,677,159 |
| 2024-12 | 116,510 | 72,422 | 3,692,665 |
| 2025-01 | 119,903 | 84,284 | 3,694,857 |
| 2025-02 | 68,204 | 67,921 | 3,660,611 |
| 2025-03 | 67,179 | 86,589 | 3,608,861 |
| 2025-04 | 67,013 | 73,695 | 3,569,546 |
| 2025-05 | 67,678 | 72,105 | 3,536,236 |
| 2025-06 | 78,989 | 131,846 | 3,454,699 |
| 2025-07 | 92,669 | 76,206 | 3,440,808 |
| 2025-08 | 80,768 | 70,670 | 3,423,346 |
| 2025-09 | 93,420 | 74,633 | 3,411,123 |
| 2025-10 | 86,745 | 75,323 | 3,393,238 |
| 2025-11 | 81,952 | 61,974 | 3,387,072 |
| 2025-12 | 72,819 | 61,954 | 3,370,898 |
| 2026-01 | 69,900 | 69,947 | 3,341,034 |
| 2026-02 | 67,341 | 73,420 | 3,308,312 |
| 2026-03 | 90,045 | 87,486 | 3,279,628 |
| 2026-04 | 90,894 | 82,838 | 3,259,655 |
| 2026-05 | 79,519 | 79,977 | 3,233,497 |
| 2026-06 | 90,453 | 106,133 | 3,186,530 |
| 2026-07 | 88,310 | 110,859 | 3,132,124 |
| 2026-08 | 89,109 | 98,313 | 3,093,355 |
The table shows the latest 24 recorded months, or all available months if fewer. Receipts and completions belong to this table’s scope. Completions exclude change-of-venue and transfer closures.
Source: EOIR FOIA case data; reconstructed by Asylum Tracker. See the source dates below.
Asylum-claim backlog
The asylum series starts at the application receipt date and ends when the proceeding completes. It is not the national total of pending applications at USCIS.
| Month | Received | Completed | Pending at month end |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-09 | 94,929 | 32,503 | 1,539,989 |
| 2024-10 | 102,161 | 38,019 | 1,604,131 |
| 2024-11 | 97,269 | 33,445 | 1,667,955 |
| 2024-12 | 102,715 | 35,583 | 1,735,087 |
| 2025-01 | 94,793 | 42,051 | 1,787,829 |
| 2025-02 | 90,114 | 34,717 | 1,843,226 |
| 2025-03 | 77,991 | 36,267 | 1,884,950 |
| 2025-04 | 111,226 | 37,339 | 1,958,837 |
| 2025-05 | 75,700 | 36,779 | 1,997,758 |
| 2025-06 | 58,819 | 38,460 | 2,018,117 |
| 2025-07 | 55,948 | 40,031 | 2,034,034 |
| 2025-08 | 45,663 | 38,551 | 2,041,146 |
| 2025-09 | 48,022 | 41,384 | 2,047,784 |
| 2025-10 | 44,879 | 41,591 | 2,051,072 |
| 2025-11 | 41,147 | 34,306 | 2,057,913 |
| 2025-12 | 31,545 | 34,919 | 2,054,539 |
| 2026-01 | 23,211 | 41,412 | 2,036,338 |
| 2026-02 | 21,970 | 42,583 | 2,015,725 |
| 2026-03 | 35,587 | 52,836 | 1,998,476 |
| 2026-04 | 39,541 | 47,729 | 1,990,288 |
| 2026-05 | 34,582 | 47,045 | 1,977,825 |
| 2026-06 | 37,346 | 58,723 | 1,956,448 |
| 2026-07 | 31,461 | 57,923 | 1,929,986 |
| 2026-08 | 27,905 | 50,084 | 1,907,807 |
The table shows the latest 24 recorded months, or all available months if fewer. Receipts and completions belong to this table’s scope. Completions exclude change-of-venue and transfer closures.
Source: EOIR FOIA case data; reconstructed by Asylum Tracker. See the source dates below.
Workload ratio, not a hearing forecast
The ratio divides pending records by recent average monthly completions. Its unit is months of workload at that completion pace; it is not time already waited, a predicted hearing date or a predicted clearance date.
| Scope | Average monthly receipts | Average monthly completions | Pending / completions (months) |
|---|---|---|---|
| All proceedings | 88,055.0 | 94,267.7 | 32.8 |
| Asylum claims | 34,403.7 | 52,390.0 | 36.4 |
Each average uses the latest six recorded monthly buckets, or fewer if fewer are available. New receipts, changing staffing, case mix and reporting changes prevent this arithmetic from predicting an individual wait.
Source: EOIR FOIA case data; reconstructed by Asylum Tracker. See the source dates below.
Recorded hearing calendar
This calendar describes next hearing dates recorded for pending proceedings in the imported snapshot. The median and 90th percentile summarize only proceedings with a recorded future hearing; neither predicts a new case’s hearing or decision.
- Calendar snapshot
- Aug 2026
- Calendar pending proceedings
- 3,093,355
- With a recorded future hearing (percentile sample)
- 2,619,403
- Without a recorded future hearing
- 359,708
- Median recorded next-hearing month
- Mar 2027
- 90th-percentile recorded next-hearing month
- Aug 2028
| Hearing month | Proceedings with next hearing | Of those, opened in the previous 90 days |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-09 | 364,596 | 71,943 |
| 2026-10 | 249,000 | 22,533 |
| 2026-11 | 172,072 | 11,620 |
| 2026-12 | 153,895 | 7,481 |
| 2027-01 | 143,524 | 6,220 |
| 2027-02 | 122,077 | 4,301 |
| 2027-03 | 120,251 | 2,301 |
| 2027-04 | 104,640 | 1,410 |
| 2027-05 | 92,195 | 1,299 |
| 2027-06 | 92,070 | 903 |
| 2027-07 | 82,754 | 1,087 |
| 2027-08 | 82,587 | 1,362 |
| 2027-09 | 74,649 | 898 |
| 2027-10 | 62,898 | 774 |
| 2027-11 | 53,259 | 852 |
| 2027-12 | 47,717 | 655 |
| 2028-01 | 55,998 | 2,025 |
| 2028-02 | 53,486 | 1,157 |
| 2028-03 | 53,399 | 1,157 |
| 2028-04 | 42,315 | 1,000 |
| 2028-05 | 41,898 | 435 |
| 2028-06 | 37,119 | 550 |
| 2028-07 | 32,211 | 354 |
| 2028-08 | 36,028 | 460 |
Scheduled and unscheduled counts are reported separately against the calendar’s own pending total. “Without a recorded future hearing” does not prove that a person has no hearing. The table shows the first 24 recorded hearing months; later dates may exist.
Source: EOIR FOIA case data; reconstructed by Asylum Tracker. See the source dates below.
Key facts
3,093,355 reconstructed pending proceedings at the Aug 2026 snapshot. This is a proceeding count, not an official count of people.
1,907,807 reconstructed pending asylum claims at the Aug 2026 snapshot, shown separately from all proceedings.
All proceedings and asylum claims are overlapping scopes. Do not add the two counts together. Counts describe records in an imported snapshot, not live case status.
Missing or suppressed values are unavailable, not zero. A month without a reported monthly row is left unavailable in the annual table; a recorded zero stays zero.
Explore related court data
Explore related court data
- US asylum statistics
- Asylum approval rates by country
- Compare immigration judge approval rates
- Immigration courts by city and state
- Explore EOIR asylum decision trends
- USCIS affirmative asylum statistics and reporting dates
- ICE detention statistics and reporting dates
- Definitions and source limitations
- Official EOIR case-status guide
- 2025 asylum statistics
- 2026 asylum statistics
Frequently asked questions
What does the immigration court backlog count?
This page counts reconstructed open proceeding records in EOIR FOIA data. The all-proceedings scope begins at court input; the asylum scope begins at application receipt. The counts overlap and are not an official count of unique people.
Does the workload ratio tell me how long I will wait?
No. Pending divided by recent average monthly completions is a workload ratio. It does not account for the future path of a particular proceeding and does not predict a hearing, decision or date when the backlog will clear.
What does the recorded hearing calendar cover?
It covers next hearing dates recorded for pending proceedings at the imported snapshot. The median and 90th percentile use only proceedings with recorded future hearings. Proceedings without such a date remain a separate count, and missing dates remain unavailable.
Where should I verify my hearing information?
Use EOIR’s official Automated Case Information portal and the notice issued by the immigration court. EOIR identifies court documents such as hearing notices as the official source. This aggregate page does not collect case identifiers or verify an individual hearing.