Measured timelines of the DOHA process
No official stage-by-stage timelines are published. These figures are measured from dates stated in the decisions themselves, and only hearing decisions state them: of the 30,316 decisions in the record, 26,677 are hearings, and 25,707 of those give at least one usable date. Each figure below shows how many cases it rests on. All are medians of decided history, not a prediction of any pending case.
Hearing and written record
Cases decided after a live hearing took a median of 269 days from SOR to decision (15,840 cases). Cases decided on the written record took a median of 252 days (7,895 cases). What each path is and how they differ is covered in the correspondence guide.
By decision year
| Year | Cases | Median SOR to decision |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 414 | 302 days |
| 2025 | 632 | 308 days |
| 2024 | 862 | 307 days |
| 2023 | 966 | 356 days |
| 2022 | 1,020 | 401 days |
| 2021 | 603 | 345 days |
| 2020 | 456 | 258 days |
| 2019 | 1,022 | 262 days |
| 2018 | 1,574 | 335 days |
| 2017 | 2,160 | 410 days |
| 2016 | 1,585 | 325 days |
| 2015 | 1,451 | 259 days |
By guideline
| Guideline | Cases | Median SOR to decision |
|---|---|---|
| F · Financial | 14,412 | 269 days |
| E · Personal Conduct | 7,646 | 267 days |
| B · Foreign Influence | 3,417 | 262 days |
| H · Drugs | 3,308 | 247 days |
| J · Criminal Conduct | 3,299 | 261 days |
| G · Alcohol | 1,875 | 265 days |
| C · Foreign Preference | 1,244 | 239 days |
| D · Sexual Behavior | 542 | 286 days |
| K · Protected Info | 264 | 340 days |
| M · IT Systems | 261 | 317 days |
A case alleging several guidelines counts under each one.
How these numbers are measured
The SOR-issued date and hearing date are read from the text of every decided hearing-level case in the record. The SOR date is stated in 95.5% of decisions; a hearing date appears in about 47% (many cases are decided on the written record, with no hearing). Whether a case went to a live hearing or was decided on the written record is also identified from the decision text itself (transcript citations and testimony versus explicit written-record markers). Dates that fail basic sense checks (out of order or implausibly far apart) are excluded rather than guessed. Medians are shown with their sample sizes; small samples are suppressed. The record here runs through 2026-07-29 and updates as new decisions are ingested. This is measured history, and it is not a prediction of how long any pending case will take. Applicable deadlines are covered on the deadline calculator and correspondence guide.