N-400 processing times · Application for Naturalization

Civilian

Military

All categories

Applications not based on military service.

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

If you file today (Civilian), most likely

8-16 months

could be 6-29 months

Based on USCIS's median time of 9.5 months (Apr–Jun 2026 data) and on how much real waits differed from it in the past.

Time to clear backlog

32 months

rising vs. previous quarter

Pending applications

727,371

+12% vs. previous quarter

Decided in Apr–Jun 2026

67,565

−30% vs. previous quarter

Approval rate

81%

−4 pts vs. previous quarter

Quarter-over-quarter highlight: The pile of pending N-400 (Civilian) applications at USCIS grew 12% to 727,371 in Apr–Jun 2026. At that quarter's pace of decisions, clearing it would take 32 months, up from 20 months.

If you file today

How long an N-400 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
Military	2.2-4.3 months	1.6-8.1 months	2.6 months
Civilian	8-16 months	6-29 months	9.5 months

USCIS is deciding fewer of these cases than usual: 64% fewer Civilian cases in Apr–Jun 2026 than its average 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 N-400 (Civilian) 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 dashed line ("separate medians"): Until Jul–Sep 2024, USCIS gave the Military and Civilian N-400 the same median, one figure for both; from Oct–Dec 2024 each has its own.

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 dashed line ("separate medians"): Until Jul–Sep 2024, USCIS gave the Military and Civilian N-400 the same median, one figure for both; from Oct–Dec 2024 each has its own.

By category, Apr–Jun 2026

Category	Received	Approved	Denied	Pending	USCIS median
Application for Naturalization (Military)	5,693	2,723	251	14,767	2.6 months
Application for Naturalization	140,179	54,974	12,591	727,371	9.5 months

Select your field office

USCIS also publishes these numbers per office for the N-400. 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 N-400 cases it decided, approved or denied, in Apr–Jun 2026, and the offices are listed from the most to the fewest.

Find your field office

Houston

Dallas

Brooklyn

New York

Washington

Newark