Judge Nelson, Barbara A.

28.8%

Approval Rate

727

Granted

2,547

Denied

3,274

Total Decided

Judge Nelson, Barbara A. serves at the New York City, NY Immigration Court. With an asylum approval rate of 28.8%, this judge is below average compared to the national average. Data sourced from EOIR (Executive Office for Immigration Review).

Community Discussion

DATA AsylumTracker Data 2026-05-22

Judge Nelson (New York City, NY) data snapshot: China vs Colombia grant rates differ 27×, overall rate fell from 34% to 4% in 3 years

A few numbers worth knowing if you have a hearing in front of Judge Nelson, Barbara A. (IJ code BAN, New York City, NY):

Overall track record

34 years on the bench (since 1993), 18,753 cases total, lifetime grant rate 28.5%

Last 3 years (2023–2026): 3,196 cases, grant rate 15.5% — 6.2pp below the New York City court average (21.7%)

Nationality breakdown (2023–2026 cumulative)

Nationality / Cases / Grant rate
Ecuador                670    2.4%
China                  306   47.3%
Venezuela              277    3.7%
Colombia               241    1.7%
El Salvador            175   23.5%
Guatemala              155   20.4%
India                  142   13.9%
Honduras               115   13.6%
Dominican Republic     101   11.5%
Mexico                  99   15.1%
Peru                    83    2.6%

China applicants see a 47.3% grant rate versus 1.7% for Colombia applicants — a 27.3× gap on this judge's docket.

Year-by-year

2023:  612 cases, 33.9% grant rate
2024:  800 cases, 17.5% grant rate
2025:  963 cases, 11.5% grant rate
2026:  821 cases, 3.5% grant rate

If you've appeared before Judge Nelson, I'd love to hear:

1. What's your nationality, and when was your most recent hearing?

2. How did your attorney prepare for this judge specifically?

Source: EOIR (U.S. Executive Office for Immigration Review) public statistics, May 2026 release, compiled by AsylumTracker. A judge's historical pattern does not predict the outcome of any individual case; this is shared to help set realistic expectations. Real-experience accounts from the community are welcome.

Have experience with this judge? Open AsylumTracker to reply or read more responses from the community.

How to Interpret These Judge Statistics

Nelson, Barbara A. is listed with the New York City, NY Immigration Court. The headline asylum grant rate shown here is 28.8% based on granted and denied asylum decisions represented in the current dataset.

Among the largest nationality groups shown for this judge, the table highlights Ecuador (662 decided, 4.4% grant rate), China (330 decided, 52.1% grant rate), and Venezuela (258 decided, 6.2% grant rate). Compare these rows with the judge's overall rate because nationality mix can materially change how the headline number should be read.

Grant rate is calculated as granted / (granted + denied). Other procedural outcomes, including terminated, withdrawn, administratively closed, or removed cases, are tracked separately where available and are not treated as asylum grants.

This page is based on public EOIR data last updated 2026-05-08. It is for research and information only, not legal advice.

Read the grant-rate methodology or learn how to read immigration judge statistics.

Approval Rate by Nationality

Nationality	Approval Rate	Granted	Denied	Decided
Ecuador	4.4%	29	633	662
China	52.1%	172	158	330
Venezuela	6.2%	16	242	258
Guatemala	22.8%	55	186	241
Colombia	2.8%	6	209	215
El Salvador	36.9%	76	130	206
Honduras	22.2%	39	137	176
India	24.7%	41	125	166
Mexico	20.6%	22	85	107
Dominican Republic	19.4%	18	75	93
Peru	5.2%	4	73	77
Bangladesh	65.0%	39	21	60
Russia	34.7%	17	32	49
Nepal	21.3%	10	37	47
Uzbekistan	10.6%	5	42	47
Haiti	5.3%	2	36	38
Jamaica	37.5%	12	20	32
Guinea	54.8%	17	14	31
Georgia	3.3%	1	29	30
Nicaragua	0.0%	0	26	26
Albania	46.2%	12	14	26
Chad	3.8%	1	25	26
Sri Lanka	52.0%	13	12	25
Senegal	0.0%	0	23	23
Pakistan	36.4%	8	14	22
Soviet Union	75.0%	15	5	20
Nigeria	89.5%	17	2	19
Trinidad And Tobago	66.7%	12	6	18
Mauritania	0.0%	0	17	17
Ivory Coast (Cote D'Ivoire)	93.8%	15	1	16
Afghanistan	50.0%	8	8	16
Turkey	33.3%	5	10	15
Paraguay	0.0%	0	15	15
Romania	0.0%	0	9	9
Gambia	88.9%	8	1	9
Panama	0.0%	0	9	9
Brazil	0.0%	0	9	9
Burkina Faso	62.5%	5	3	8
Egypt	37.5%	3	5	8
Guyana	57.1%	4	3	7
Ireland	0.0%	0	6	6
South Korea	0.0%	0	6	6
Tajikistan (Tadzhik)	33.3%	2	4	6
United Kingdom	0.0%	0	6	6
Mali	16.7%	1	5	6
Ghana	75.0%	3	1	4
Ukraine	50.0%	2	2	4
Burma (Myanmar)	100.0%	4	0	4
Dominica	25.0%	1	3	4
Morocco	0.0%	0	4	4
Democratic Republic Of Congo	0.0%	0	3	3
Mozambique	100.0%	3	0	3
Poland	100.0%	3	0	3
Turkmenistan	0.0%	0	3	3
Israel	0.0%	0	3	3
Yemen	100.0%	1	0	1

Yearly Trends

Year	Approval Rate	Granted	Denied	Decided
2026	2.5%	12	465	477
2025	11.5%	99	763	862
2024	17.5%	124	585	709
2023	33.9%	186	362	548
2022	57.1%	233	175	408
2021	63.9%	39	22	61
2020	26.7%	104	285	389