San Francisco Immigration Court: Information Guide

San Francisco Immigration Court Overview

The San Francisco Immigration Court is in San Francisco, California. It is responsible for resolving deportation and asylum cases for non-citizens in North California. The court is one of ten immigration courts in California. The San Francisco court has 27 judges.

The judges there hear many cases in person. But they also decide cases at jails in San Francisco and several nearby counties. For example:

• Pleasanton – Federal Correctional Institution
• Taft-Federal Corrections Institution
• San Francisco – Dedicated Docket – Dd
• Calif. State Prison
• San Francisco Annex
• San Francisco Video
• Juvenile Detained Sansome
• San Francisco Non-Detained Juveniles
• San Francisco Detained Center

In this guide, we will discuss everything you need to know about the San Francisco Immigration Court including its contact information, location, processing time, judges, and other important information and data.

San Francisco Immigration Court Contact Information

Address

The San Francisco Immigration Court is located at:

100 Montgomery Street, Suite 800
San Francisco, CA 94104

Phone number

415-705-4415

This is the phone number you can use to contact the court’s clerks or the judges’ legal assistants.

Learn more about how to check your immigration court date and the status of your immigration case from here.

Hours

The Public Hours and the Window Filling Hours are from 8:00 am to 11:30 am and then from 12:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Getting to the San Francisco Immigration Court

The San Francisco Immigration Court is near the Union Square. It is surrounded by the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area (IIBA) and the Law Office of Zhang. Also, it is near Chinatown.

You can get there from Dwight D. Eisenhower Hwy via 3^rd street.

What the court looks like

From the front, the San Francisco court looks like this:

The back of the court building looks like this:

Immigration Judges in San Francisco

The San Francisco Immigration Court has 27 judges with Judge Elizabeth L. Young acting as Assistant Chief Immigration Judge.  The complete list and the San Francisco Immigration Judges rating is as follows:

Judges

• Jeremy J. Butler
• Jason R. Masterson
• Andrew J. Caborn
• Loi L. McCleskey
• Ila C. Deiss
• Julie L. Nelson
• Laura C. Figueroa
• Patrick S. O’Brien
• Scott D. Gambill
• Joseph Y. Park
• Amber D. George
• Susan Phan
• Louis A. Gordon
• Justin M. Price
• Charles S. Greene III
• Patrick S. Savage
• Jacqueline J. Jackson
• Karen W. Schulz
• Jeremiah Johnson
• Frank Seminerio
• Samuel Y. Kim
• Gregory L. Simmons
• Steven M. Kirchner
• Shadee M. Star
• Shira M. Levine
• Arwen A. Swink
• Dana Leigh Marks

Rating

Of the 27 of the San Francisco Court judges, Judge Joseph has the highest denial rate (86.5%) and Judge Julie has the second-highest denial rate (86.1%). On the other hand, Judge Dana has the highest grant rate (91.8%).  The remaining San Francisco Immigration Judges rating can be found here.

Getting a Bond at the San Francisco Immigration Court

The San Francisco Immigration Court does not have an immigration bond form available online.

The San Francisco Court has heard 17,702 bond cases since 2000. 8,116 of these cases were granted while 9,586 were denied. In other words, the court has denied about 54% of the cases heard since 2000.

Mexican Nationals come in the first place for the bond hearings with total cases of 9,489. 4,065 of these cases were granted while 5,424 were not.

In addition, the Nationals of El Salvador comes in second place with total cases of 2,200. 1,187 of these cases were granted while 1,013  were not.

Asylum Decisions in San Francisco

Asylum Denial Rates in San Francisco

The court has considered 45,579 asylum cases since 2000. 37,953 cases were represented while 7,617 were not presented.
12,841 of the represented cases were denied while 25,112 cases were granted. In other words, about 33% of asylum cases were denied.

This denial percentage is very low. Compared to other immigration courts such as the Immigration Court in Orlando and the Immigration Court in Los Angeles, the San Francisco court has a high approval rate.

Nationalities

India comes in the first place of asylum seekers before the court. Since 2000, it has heard 9,442 asylum cases from Indians.

Moreover, Mexico comes in second place. Since 2000, it has heard 6,066 asylum cases from Mexicans.

 

Backlog and Wait Time in San Francisco

The San Francisco Court has the highest number of pending cases in California. The total number of pending cases is 78,992. Subsequently, it takes 1,139 days to resolve a case.

This is the third-highest wait time in a state that has 10 immigration courts, and comes in behind Los Angeles and Santa Ana.

An example: the Los Angeles Immigration court takes 1,226 to resolve a case while Santa Ana takes about 1,219.

Free Lawyers for the San Francisco Immigration Court

Currently, 15 organizations provide free legal services for people at the Immigration Court in San Francisco. Immigration lawyers can be expensive for some people. Therefore, it is highly recommended to use a free lawyer when there is a chance.

Find out more about how to get legal help for your immigration case and visit our Immigration Court Page.

UC Davis School of Law Clinical Programs

This organization Serves Northern and Central California and takes both detained and non-detained cases. Besides, they help native Spanish people who do not speak English.

Address:
One Shields Ave., TB-30
Davis, CA 95616-5201
Phone number:
(530) 752-6942

Opening Doors

They are willing to accept collect calls from detention center. Besides, they help native Spanish, Farsi, and Arabic people who do not speak English.

Address:
1111 Howe Ave, Suite 125
Sacramento, CA 95825

Phone number:
(916) 492-2591 x 238