I-485 processing at Lawrence, MA

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DHS has rescinded (cancelled) its 2022 public charge rule.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.

USCIS does not publish processing times per office. Nationally, I-485 (Family) filers can expect a decision in 6-12 months if they file today, going by USCIS’s median for Apr–Jun 2026. USCIS decided 46% fewer of these that quarter than its average over the four before, so plan for the later end. See the national I-485 range for each category.

Latest USCIS data: Apr–Jun 2026, from the I-485 by Category, Case Status, and USCIS Field Office Location report.

Time to clear backlog

22 months

rising vs. previous quarter

Pending applications

4,072

−2% vs. previous quarter

Decided in Apr–Jun 2026

561

−21% vs. previous quarter

Approval rate

84%

−7 pts vs. previous quarter

Quarter-over-quarter highlight: The pile of pending I-485 (Family) applications at the Lawrence office shrank 2% to 4,072 in Apr–Jun 2026. At that quarter's pace of decisions, clearing it would take 22 months, up from 18 months. Going by its average pace over the four quarters to Apr–Jun 2026, the Lawrence office's backlog of these cases would take about as long to clear as, not clearly longer or shorter than, that of all field offices together.

By category, Apr–Jun 2026

Category	Received	Decided	Pending	Time to clear backlog
Family	764	561	4,072	22 months
Employment	1,101	306	2,652	26 months
Humanitarian	317	22	3,984	not shown: too few decisions
Other	10	45	147	not shown: too few decisions
All categories	2,192	934	10,855	35 months

What happened to the applications

The bars are the I-485 (Family) decisions the Lawrence office 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

Last 6 years

All years

Source: USCIS’s quarterly I-485 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.

Time to clear backlog

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.