USCIS processing times by form and field office: how long before you can sue

Last updated 2026-10-01 · General information, not legal advice

These tables are the processing times USCIS publishes, by form, category and office, synced weekly. Each row carries two figures: the time in which USCIS finished 80% of the cases it completed over the prior six months, and the longer 93% line that decides whether the USCIS website will take a case inquiry. Take the Received Date from your I-797C receipt notice, find your row, and you know where you sit in the queue. Whether the wait is unreasonable in law is a separate question for a federal court, and a writ of mandamus asks that court to order a decision, never an approval.

Snapshot 2026-10-02, synced weekly. Where the figures come from, what they measure, and how to download or cite them: data source and downloads.

Key facts at a glance

What the two numbers mean

USCIS publishes two lines for each kind of filing. Most people read only the first figure.

80% is what the agency calls the normal range. Over the prior six months, 80% of the cases USCIS completed were finished before this point; USCIS explains the method on its own site. Past it, you are slower than most people, and the website will not volunteer that.

93% is the line that opens a case inquiry. USCIS computes the case inquiry date from it. Until your receipt date passes it, the site gives you no way to ask about your case at all.

The long stretch between those two lines is where the website still says you are normal while you are in fact slower than most. Nearly everyone is sitting there when they realize the case has stopped. The third column turns the 93% figure into a receipt date: the site takes an inquiry only once your Received Date is earlier than that date.

Table 1: family-based I-485, across every field office

A family-based adjustment is interviewed and decided at your local field office (USCIS says field offices handle interviews for all non-asylum cases), so USCIS publishes it by office. The slowest office can be more than twice the fastest for the same filing.

Table 2: every form, all categories

The same form number can differ several times over between categories and offices: an employment-based I-485 at a field office and one at SCOPS are separate rows, as are an I-130 at the National Benefits Center and one at a service center.

What is different about a published processing time

The figure describes finished cases; yours is still open. USCIS builds each number from the cases it approved or denied in the prior six months. A pending case adds nothing to it, so a figure that falls from one edition to the next says nothing about whether your own case moved.

"Within normal processing times" is the agency's own measure. People read it, conclude they have no case, and go on waiting. A court applying 5 U.S.C. § 706(1) asks whether, on the facts of your case, a wait this long is still reasonable. The published time is evidence on both sides, for the government to describe its queue and for you to show how far past it you are. No statute makes it the threshold for a suit or a defense to one.

The 93% line opens a web form. A service request, a congressional letter and an Ombudsman request each create a dated record. None is a precondition to filing, and none is exhaustion of administrative remedies in the legal sense; the common mistakes guide covers this.

Two kinds of row need a second reading. The N-400 rows run from the receipt date, but the naturalization remedy in 8 U.S.C. § 1447(b) runs from the interview (N-400 guide). A visa held at a consulate after a 221(g) refusal or a stalled DS-260 is a Department of State matter these tables do not cover.

The law this rests on

A mandamus suit over a USCIS delay pleads three provisions together: 28 U.S.C. § 1361, which gives district courts jurisdiction over an action "to compel an officer or employee of the United States or any agency thereof to perform a duty owed to the plaintiff"; 5 U.S.C. § 555(b), which requires each agency, "within a reasonable time", to "proceed to conclude a matter presented to it"; and 5 U.S.C. § 706(1), which tells a reviewing court to "compel agency action unlawfully withheld or unreasonably delayed". 8 U.S.C. § 1571(b) adds the sense of Congress that an immigration benefit application "should be completed not later than 180 days after the initial filing", a goal with no remedy attached.

No statute says how many months make a delay unreasonable. Courts weigh the six factors from Telecommunications Research and Action Center v. FCC, 750 F.2d 70 (D.C. Cir. 1984), known as TRAC: a rule of reason behind the agency's pace; any timetable from Congress; that delays affecting human health and welfare are less tolerable; the effect of expediting one case on others; the interests prejudiced; and that no impropriety need be shown. The published time belongs to the first and fourth factors, where the government describes its queue; the 180-day goal is the second; the third and fifth are the facts of your own life.

What to do, step by step

Step 1: Take the Received Date from your I-797C

Use the Received Date on the I-797C receipt notice, not the mailing date or the courier's delivery date. A later transfer notice changes the office, not the date.

Step 2: Find your row: form, category and office

Match the form number, the category (the basis of filing, such as (c)(9) on an I-765) and the office on your most recent notice. A family-based I-485 is in Table 1 under your field office; everything else is in Table 2.

Step 3: Read the two columns and place yourself

Inside the 80% figure, USCIS calls you normal and only the free steps are open. Past it, but with a receipt date later than the date in the third column: slower than most, and the website will not yet take an inquiry. Receipt date earlier than that date: the case inquiry is open today. The 60-second check does the arithmetic.

Step 4: Past the inquiry line, file the case inquiry

Submit the "outside normal processing times" request and keep the number and the reply; the case inquiry guide walks through it. USCIS's Policy Manual sets its own goal at 15 business days.

Step 5: Ask your member of Congress or the CIS Ombudsman

Your representative's office sends inquiries to USCIS at no charge (congressional inquiry guide). The CIS Ombudsman is an independent office in DHS, not part of USCIS, and takes a request once you have contacted USCIS in the last 90 days and given it at least 60 days to respond.

Step 6: Check the threshold for your form and get a free review

Each form's guide states the point at which we file and why (I-485, I-130, I-140, I-765; the general test is in when to sue). Write down, with dates, what the wait is costing you. Then start the free case review; we then ask for your receipt notice by email, and we tell you whether the case is ready to file.

Step 7: After the complaint is filed and served

The complaint is filed in the district where you live under 28 U.S.C. § 1391(e)(1) and served under Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(i) on the United States Attorney, the Attorney General and the officers named. The government then has 60 days under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(a)(2) to decide the application, answer, or move to dismiss.

Common mistakes

• Reading only the 80% column. It is the headline and the shorter figure. The inquiry form opens at the 93% line, which is always later.
• Counting from the wrong day. The mailing date and the courier's delivery date are earlier than the Received Date, which is what USCIS measures from.
• Treating "within normal processing times" as a bar to a suit. It is the agency's measure of its own output; a court decides under the TRAC factors.
• Treating the inquiry date as the day you can sue. It decides whether a web form opens. A complaint filed while the receipt date is still inside the published time hands the government an easy argument under the first TRAC factor.
• Forgetting an open request for evidence. The time USCIS spends waiting on you comes out of the count; see the RFE guide.

Frequently asked questions

USCIS says my case is within normal processing times. Can I still sue?

The phrase means your receipt date has not reached the line USCIS uses to open its inquiry form. A court decides unreasonable delay under 5 U.S.C. § 706(1) and the TRAC factors, and no statute makes the published time the threshold. A complaint filed inside the published time does face the government's strongest argument, that you are simply in the queue, which is why each guide on this site sets its filing point past it.

How does USCIS calculate the processing time it shows?

It takes the cases of a form and category it approved or denied in the prior six months and reports the time within which 80% were completed, a single figure since 5 May 2022. A pending case, including yours, is not part of it.

What is the case inquiry date and how do I use it?

The time by which 93% of completed cases were done, turned into a receipt date in the third column. USCIS accepts an "outside normal processing times" inquiry only for a case pending longer than that: if the Received Date on your I-797C is earlier than the date shown, the inquiry is open.

How often do these numbers change?

This page syncs once a week from the data USCIS publishes; the snapshot date at the top says which edition you are reading. USCIS republishes on its own schedule, and every edition since March 2022 is on the data page.

Does my N-400 clock start from the receipt date too?

The N-400 rows run from the receipt date like every other row. Naturalization adds a second clock: under 8 U.S.C. § 1447(b), if USCIS has not decided the application within 120 days after the interview, you may ask the district court where you live to hear the matter (see the N-400 guide).

Where this data comes from

Public data from the USCIS Case Processing Times tool. Current snapshot 2026-10-02; the publication date USCIS stamps on it is 2026-09-17. How it is collected, how often it updates, the JSON and CSV downloads and the citation format are on data source and downloads. This is a presentation of public data and is not legal advice.

What SpeedUpVisa does once you are past the published time

When your receipt date is past the threshold for your form, we prepare and file the mandamus complaint for a flat $3,500.

• Confirm the clock from your I-797C receipt notice, subtracting any RFE period.
• Confirm the venue from your ZIP code, so the complaint lands in the district where you live.
• Name the right defendants: USCIS, its Director and the Secretary of Homeland Security, in their official capacities.
• Serve the United States under Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(i), including the United States Attorney and the Attorney General.
• Track the 60-day response clock under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(a)(2) and keep you informed in the client portal.

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