I-130 processing at National Benefits Center, MO

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

18 months

steady vs. previous quarter

Pending applications

12,779

+1% vs. previous quarter

Decided in Apr–Jun 2026

2,122

unchanged vs. previous quarter

Approval rate

38%

−4 pts vs. previous quarter

Quarter-over-quarter highlight: The pile of pending I-130 (Immediate Relative) applications at the National Benefits Center grew 1% to 12,779 in Apr–Jun 2026. At that quarter's pace of decisions, clearing it would take 18 months, the same as the quarter before.

By category, Apr–Jun 2026

CategoryReceivedDecidedPendingTime to clear backlog
Immediate Relative6982,12212,77918 months
All Other Relative0684160.1 months
All categories6982,80612,79514 months

What happened to the applications

The bars are the I-130 (Immediate Relative) decisions the National Benefits 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.

  • Approved
  • Denied
  • Pending at quarter end
  • Filed
02k4k6k8k10k12k202120222023202420252026
Source: USCIS’s quarterly I-130 by Category, Case Status, and USCIS Field Office Location reports, via the Immigration and Citizenship Data page.
The numbers are stored in a JSON file on GitHub.

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. The chart leaves it out for quarters in which the office decided fewer than 100 of these cases.

Time to clear backlog
05101520months202120222023202420252026
Time to clear backlog is the pending applications at the end of each quarter, divided by the decisions (approvals and denials) made per month during it.