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I-730 processing times · Refugee/Asylee Relative Petition

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

Time to clear backlog

240+ months

 

Pending applications

23,562

−38%, more than decisions explain

Decided in Apr–Jun 2026

240

−89% vs. previous quarter

Approval rate

63%

−26 pts vs. previous quarter

Quarter-over-quarter highlight: The count of pending I-730 applications at USCIS went from 37,779 to 23,562 in Apr–Jun 2026 (−38%), but that quarter's filings minus its decisions come to +2,161, which doesn't account for the change, so we don't read it as USCIS catching up or falling behind. At that quarter's pace of decisions, clearing it would take 240+ months.

What happened to the applications

The bars are the I-730 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
010k20k30k40k202120222023202420252026
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

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 has not published a median for this form since Jul–Sep 2025. 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
0100200300months202120222023202420252026
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.