I-130 processing at California Service Center
Petitions by US citizens for their spouses, their unmarried children under 21 and, if they are 21 or older, their parents.
USCIS does not publish processing times per office. Nationally, I-130 (Immediate Relative) filers can expect a decision in 11-22 months if they file today, going by USCIS’s median for Apr–Jun 2026. USCIS decided 51% fewer of these that quarter than its average over the four before, so plan for the later end. See the national I-130 range for each category.
Latest USCIS data: Apr–Jun 2026, from the I-130 by Category, Case Status, and USCIS Field Office Location report.
Time to clear backlog
4.9 months
after USCIS moved cases away
Pending applications
13,842
−86%, cases moved out
Decided in Apr–Jun 2026
8,401
−55% vs. previous quarter
Approval rate
80%
−10 pts vs. previous quarter
Quarter-over-quarter highlight: The pile of pending I-130 (Immediate Relative) applications at the California Service Center shrank 86% to 13,842 in Apr–Jun 2026 as USCIS moved cases to other offices. At that quarter's pace of decisions, clearing it, without the cases moved out, would take 4.9 months; the quarter before is not comparable.
By category, Apr–Jun 2026
What happened to the applications
The bars are the I-130 (Immediate Relative) decisions the California Service Center made each quarter, approved in blue and denied in red. The amber line is its backlog: how many applications were still waiting at the end of that quarter, most of them filed in earlier ones. The dashed line is how many came in, which in Apr–Jun 2021 includes new filings USCIS routed here from elsewhere rather than filed with the office.
- Approved
- Denied
- Pending at quarter end
- Filed (or routed here)
The numbers are stored in a JSON file on GitHub. A dashed line ("cases moved or routed in"): In Apr–Jun 2021, USCIS moved these cases to the California Service Center and routed new filings here, which the filings line counts: its pile, and the time to clear it, changed for that reason, not because the office sped up or fell behind. A dashed line ("cases moved out"): In Apr–Jun 2026, USCIS moved these cases away from the California Service Center: its pile, and the time to clear it, changed for that reason, not because the office sped up or fell behind.
Backlog over time
Time to clear backlog is how long the office would need to decide every pending case at last quarter’s pace. It is not your wait: the pile includes cases on hold and cases USCIS cannot decide yet, and USCIS sometimes moves pending cases between offices. A dashed line marks a quarter in which it did: the pile, and the time to clear it, then include the cases moved in (or leave out those moved away), so they don't show the office falling behind or catching up.