As of January 4, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) petition processing times are posted using a specific date format rather than weeks or months. According to USCIS, this is the “first step to providing processing times that are timelier and easier to understand.” Based on the new format, if the “receipt date” on the petitioner’s/applicant’s I-797 (Notice of Action) is before the dates that USCIS lists on the Processing Times webpage, the petitioner/applicant should expect USCIS to have started adjudicating their petition/application. However, USCIS is not clear about how long the adjudication process is expected to take after the starting date of adjudication.
As of June 30, 2017, USCIS is processing the I‐526 petitions that it received before November 22, 2015 (a 35 day increase to the date published in May); the I‐829 petitions that USCIS received before January 15, 2015 and the I‐924 applications that USCIS received before December 25, 2015.
Key Data Points
- I-526: processing date advanced 35 days from last month with the average I-526 processing time around 20 months, representing a minor decline from last month but a 17% increase year-over-year.
- I-829: processing date advanced 43 days from last month. Average I-829 processing time is around still 30 months, minor decline from last month. A 40% (or 8 months) increase year-over-year.
- I-924: processing date advanced 64 days in a month. Average I-924 processing time is around 18 months, modest decline of 1 month from May. Still a 80% (or 8 months) increase year-over-year.
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