I-485 processing times · Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status

New public charge rules from September 18, 2026

For green card applications (Form I-485) filed from September 18, 2026, USCIS can look at more kinds of public benefits that you get from that date. If you or your family get public benefits, talk to an immigration lawyer before you file.

Details

DHS has rescinded (cancelled) its 2022 public charge rule. USCIS's new guidance applies to every Form I-485 postmarked or filed online on or after September 18, 2026. For those applications, USCIS can consider any means-tested public benefits (benefits that depend on your income) received on or after that date. For benefits received before that date, it can consider only public cash assistance for income maintenance and long-term institutionalization at government expense.

Applications filed from December 23, 2022 to September 17, 2026 are decided under the 2022 rule.

States and cities have sued to stop the new rule. It is in effect while the lawsuits go on.

If you or your family receive public benefits, talk to an immigration lawyer or accredited representative before filing.

Sources: USCIS: USCIS Issues Guidance on Making Public Charge Inadmissibility Determination (Aug 18, 2026); USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 8, Part G: Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility; Federal Register: Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility (Jul 20, 2026); JURIST: Two lawsuits challenge the revised public charge rule.

Last checked Sep 26, 2026.

Latest USCIS data: Apr–Jun 2026, from the All USCIS Application and Petition Form Types report.

If you file today (Family), most likely

6-12 months

could be 4-22 months

Based on USCIS's median time of 7.0 months (Apr–Jun 2026 data) and on how much real waits differed from it in the past.

Time to clear backlog

27 months

rising vs. previous quarter

Pending applications

611,067

+5% vs. previous quarter

Decided in Apr–Jun 2026

66,918

−20% vs. previous quarter

Approval rate

82%

−4 pts vs. previous quarter

Quarter-over-quarter highlight: The pile of pending I-485 (Family) applications at USCIS grew 5% to 611,067 in Apr–Jun 2026. At that quarter's pace of decisions, clearing it would take 27 months, up from 21 months.

Usually filed with the I-485 the I-765 work permit and the I-131 travel document.

If you file today

How long an I-485 filed today is likely to take, by category. In past quarters, the typical wait landed in the most likely range about half the time, and in the could-be range 8 times in 10.

Category	Most likely (50%)	Could be (80%)	USCIS median
Family	6-12 months	4-22 months	7.0 months
Employment	USCIS's median for the ones it decided was 6.0 months, but it can approve one only once the priority date is current, so how long yours takes depends on your priority date: see today’s cutoff dates.		6.0 months for those decided in Apr–Jun 2026
Asylum	22-42 months	16-79 months	25.6 months
Refugee	USCIS has nearly stopped deciding these: 95% fewer decisions last quarter than its average over the four before		17.6 months
Cuban	USCIS has nearly stopped deciding these: 91% fewer decisions last quarter than its average over the four before		16.3 months
Other	18-35 months	13-65 months	21.0 months

USCIS is deciding fewer of these cases than usual: 46% fewer Family cases and 58% fewer Other cases in Apr–Jun 2026 than their averages over the four quarters before. Plan for the later end of the range.

Details

We make the range wider when this happens. But in past slowdowns like this, the typical wait fell inside the could-be range only about 2 times in 3, not 8 times in 10 as usual.

What happened to the applications

The bars are the I-485 (Family) decisions USCIS made each quarter, approved in blue and denied in red. The amber line is the 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

Last 6 years

All years

Source: USCIS’s quarterly All USCIS Application and Petition Form Types reports, via the Immigration and Citizenship Data page.
The numbers are stored in a JSON file on GitHub.

USCIS median and backlog over time

The range starts from USCIS's own median processing time for your category and widens it by how far real waits have landed from that median in past quarters. Time to clear backlog is how long USCIS 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. USCIS's Apr–Jun 2024 report repeated the quarter before's medians, so the chart has none for Apr–Jun 2024.

Time to clear backlog
USCIS median processing time

Last 6 years

All years

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. USCIS's median is how long the cases it decided in the quarter had taken.

By category, Apr–Jun 2026

Category	Received	Approved	Denied	Pending	USCIS median
Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status (Family)	95,175	54,678	12,240	611,067	7.0 months
Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status (Employment)	97,501	42,076	3,160	268,408	6.0 months
Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status (Asylum)	15,141	2,350	292	126,267	25.6 months
Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status (Refugee)	16,819	103	45	149,470	17.6 months
Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status (Cuban)	6,279	139	447	342,360	16.3 months
Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status (Other)	12,074	2,222	614	62,718	21.0 months

Select your field office

USCIS also publishes these numbers per office for the I-485. Your case is handled by the field office whose jurisdiction covers your home address (or by a service center). Not sure which one? Look it up on USCIS’s office locator. Next to each office is how many I-485 (Family) cases it decided, approved or denied, in Apr–Jun 2026, and the offices are listed from the most to the fewest; for an office that handles few of those, or almost never approves them, the count is of its main category, named next to it. The office pages show every category.

Find your field office

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