How often does the DOHA Appeal Board reverse a decision?

Either side may appeal an Administrative Judge's decision to the DOHA Appeal Board. This is how the decided appeals in the record came out, and why the answer depends on who appealed.

How often does the DOHA Appeal Board reverse a decision?

Rarely when the applicant appeals, usually when the government does. Of 3,594 Appeal Board decisions with a profiled outcome, 3,156 (88%) affirmed the judge and 438 reversed or remanded. When the government appealed (327 appeals), the decision was reversed or remanded in 83%; when the applicant appealed (3,254 appeals), in 5%. The Board decided a median of 84 days after the judge’s decision (3,154 matched cases).

Basis: 3,594 Appeal Board decisions with a profiled outcome, through October 2026. Descriptive history of decided cases, not a prediction.

The figures

Affirmed

88%

3,156 of 3,594 profiled appeals

Reversed or remanded

12%

438 of 3,594

Government appeals overturned

83%

272 of 327 government appeals

Applicant appeals overturned

165 of 3,254 applicant appeals

“Overturned” here means reversed or remanded. A remand sends the case back to the judge; it is not a decision for either side. The full appeals analysis, by year and by guideline, is on the statistics page; every Appeal Board decision is readable in the search.

What the Appeal Board does

The Board sits in panels of three. It reviews the record made before the judge for error: findings of fact that are not supported by the record, or law that was misapplied. It does not hold a new hearing, take new evidence, or decide the case afresh. If it finds no harmful error it affirms; if it does, it reverses, or remands for the judge to correct the error and decide again.

An appeal that asks the Board to see the facts differently from the judge, without pointing to an error in how they were found, rarely succeeds, and most applicant appeals are of that kind.

Why the two rates differ so much

The government appeals few decisions and chooses them: a grant it considers legally flawed, where the judge is said to have misapplied a guideline or credited mitigation the record does not support. Applicants appeal many denials, often without counsel, and often on the facts. The Board’s task is the same in both; the appeals it receives are not. The rates describe those decided appeals and nothing more.

Deadlines

A notice of appeal is due within 15 days of receiving the judge’s decision, the appeal brief within 45 days, and the reply brief within 20 days of receiving the appeal brief. The calendar dates for a decision received on a given day are worked out at the deadline calculator; the appeal letters are explained at the appeal.

How the process worksA contested case follows a published sequence. Open this for the short version, or put a question to Ask Mode on the home page. Accounts are free and include up to 25 questions per day.

A contested case follows a published path: a Statement of Reasons, the government's written list of its concerns (an SOR), a written answer, a hearing or a decision on the written record, the judge's decision, and in some cases an appeal.

Read the stages of a DOHA case · Ask a question about the process

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Descriptive statistics from decided public DOHA cases. An association in the record is not a cause, not advice, and not a prediction for any pending case.