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USCIS now reporting its backlog of cases
published 2 April 2009

Originally from the USCIS Press Room:

In our 2007 fee rule we committed to improving service. In the months that followed we received a large surge of applications. Notwithstanding that surge, in Fiscal Year 2008 we began measuring our performance and backlog against the goals we set in the fee rule. Although we knew we could not reach them in FY 2008 because of the large surge, we believed it was important to remain true to the commitments we made - and we did process 1.6 million more cases that we received during the year.

In the fee rule we also set a goal for the end of FY 2009 - to reduce average processing time by an average of 20% from our goals before the fee rule. We remain committed to that goal. The table below lists our goals before the fee rule and our goals the end of this fiscal year (September 30, 2009). Between them it shows our current national average active case processing time.

The Target Active Pending column reflects what we predict our caseload of active applications or petitions will be as of the end of September 2009. This does not include cases in which we are awaiting action by the applicant or cases which are in limited visa categories where no visa is available (unless otherwise noted).

The Today's Backlog column reflects the additional cases which USCIS will need to complete - over and above our current production rates - before the end of September 2009 in order to meet our processing time goals for the end of this fiscal year.

There are many reasons why processing times at an office or center can vary from the national average. See current case processing times at individual offices and centers in the Related Links section (in the upper right-hand corner) of this page.

Cells in blue reflect where USCIS is already meeting its FY 2009 goal.

Service or Benefit

Processing
Time Goals
in months

Current Active Case Processing Time

Cases Pending
based upon
current goals

Type of Request

Form

FY09 Goal before the July 2007 Fee Rule

FY09 Goal after
the July 2007 Fee Rule

National Average as of January 31, 2009

Target
Active
Pending

Today's Backlog

Sponsoring Relatives
& Orphans

I-130 Immediate Relative

6

5

6.8

188,683

84,570

Preference Relative1

6

5

6.8

82,891

13,277

I-129 Fiancee Petition

6

5

6.0

22,656

5,627

I-600/
600A/
800/
800A Orphan petitions

3

2.5

3.2

3,754

892

I-730 Ref/Asy Relative Pet

6

5

7.8

8,794

4,784

Resident
Services

I-90 Renew/ Replace Perm. Res. Card

3

3.5

6.7

106233

84,946

I-131 Reentry Permit/ Refugee travel doc

6

3

3

21793

-

I-751 Remove Conditions on Residence

6

6

9.2

91419

56536

I-829 Remove conditions - investor

6

6

14.5

259

272

N-300 Declaration of Intent

6

6

6

21

-

N-400 Military naturalization

7

5

8.8

3823

2,740

Other naturalization

7

5

7.1

197382

99,161

N-470 Preserve Residence

6

6

10.5

286

253

N-644 Posthumous naturalization

6

3

3

-

-

N-648 Disability Exception

6

5

5

5123

-

N-336 Hearing Request

6

6

6

4780

-

Immigrant Visas

2

.5

.5

15832

-

Employer
& Investor
Services

I-129 Temporary Worker

2

2

2

45151

-

I-140 Imm. Petition for Worker

6

4

10.6

25182

46,711

I-360 Immigrant Petition

6

5

8.4

9789

5,422

I-526 Investor Petition

6

5

6.7

504

253

I-905 Permission to issue health care certification

6

4

-

-

-

Nonimmigrant
Services

I-102 Replace I94

3

2.5

2.6

3761

128

I-539 Other Extend/ Change Status

3

2.5

3.2

37997

10,011

Adjustment

I-485 Asylum Adjustment

6

4

9.7

13514

18,851

Refugee adjustment

6

4

5.9

22244

7,963

Cuban Adjustment Act2

6

4

13.9

10166

5,053

Employment-based2,3

6

4

13.9

79558

234,043

Family-based2

6

4

13.9

115883

97,932

All other adjustment of status2

6

4

13.9

4002

7,046

I-131 Advance Parole

3

3

3

56328

-

EAD

I-765 EAD based on Asylum

1

1

1

-

-

All other EAD

3

3

3

468672

-

Transitional
services

I-589 Asylum

6

6

6

11578

-

I-821 Temporary Protected Status

6

3

3

255055

-

I-881 NACARA 203 Application

6

6

6

1,370

-

I-867 Credible Fear Referral

14 Days

14 Days

14 Days

284

-

I-687/
690/
695/
698/
700 Legalization/ SAW

6

6

15.7

581

2,299

I-817 Family Unity

6

6

7.2

1467

293

I-914 for "T" nonimmigrant status

6

4

5.9

391

125

I-918 for "U" nonimmigrant status

6

4

tba

3309

20,224

for "V" nonimmigrant status

6

4

tba

-

-

Other Services

N-600/N-643 Recognition of Citizenship

6

5

6.0

22180

4,600

I-824 Follow-up action on approved case

6

3

5.5

4370

4,459

N-565 Replace certificate

6

6

6

14931

-

Waivers

6

4

12.8

4222

9886

FOIA

20 business days

20 business days

20 Business
Days

6333

60,666

Geneology

-

-

-

1319

-

Total

1,973,869

889,023

1 Where the case priority date is within one year of immigration eligibility based on the petition. We currently have an additional 1,123,058 unripe preference relative petitions awaiting processing.

2 USCIS currently tracks one overall processing time for these adjustment of status applications, but over the course of FY09 will begin to track them individually.

3 Target active pending includes cases pre-adjudicated but which cannot be approved yet because of overall limits on immigration visas.


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