I-539 processing times · Application To Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status

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

If you file today (I-539), most likely

4-7 months

could be 3-9 months

Based on USCIS's median time of 5.7 months (Apr–Jun 2026 data) and on how much real waits differed from it in the past.

Time to clear backlog

8.5 months

rising vs. previous quarter

Pending applications

133,056

+22% vs. previous quarter

Decided in Apr–Jun 2026

46,914

−1% vs. previous quarter

Approval rate

83%

−3 pts vs. previous quarter

Quarter-over-quarter highlight: The pile of pending I-539 applications at USCIS grew 22% to 133,056 in Apr–Jun 2026. At that quarter's pace of decisions, clearing it would take 8.5 months, up from 6.9 months.

If you file today

How long an I-539 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
I-539	4-7 months	3-9 months	5.7 months

For an extra fee, you can ask for premium processing of some changes of status, such as to F, J or M, and USCIS then acts within 30 days. USCIS's median includes these fast cases.

What happened to the applications

The bars are the I-539 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. A diamond marks a pending count that doesn't match the quarter before's count plus the quarter's filings minus its decisions: it is what USCIS reported, but USCIS doesn't say why they differ, so the pages draw no conclusions from it.

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. A diamond marks a pending count that doesn't match the quarter before's count plus the quarter's filings minus its decisions: it is what USCIS reported, but USCIS doesn't say why they differ, so the pages draw no conclusions from it.