The median USCIS processing time for a family-based green card application (Form I-485Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, the form used to apply for a green card from inside the United States.See it in the glossary) rose from 6.1 months in fiscal year 2016 to 12.9 months in fiscal year 2021, then fell to 6.0 months in fiscal year 2026 to date, according to the agency’s historic processing times table. Employment-based applications followed a similar arc, from 5.5 months to a peak of 11.0 in fiscal year 2022 and 5.9 months so far in fiscal year 2026.
This article follows the I-485 medians across those eleven fiscal years, before, during and after the pandemic years, and explains what the numbers do and do not cover. Asylum-based and refugee-based applications tell a different story, and the figures come with an important limit: they describe only cases that USCIS has finished.
I-485 Processing Time by Fiscal Year: Family and Employment Based
USCIS reports the median, the time it took to complete half of the cases in a period, from receipt to completion. Fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. Family-based medians climbed from 6.1 months in fiscal year 2016 to 10.9 in fiscal year 2019, dipped to 9.3 in 2020, and reached 12.9 in 2021. They eased to 10.6 in 2022, moved back up to 11.4 in 2023, and have fallen each year since: 8.9, 7.4 and 6.0 to date.
Employment-based medians rose faster early on, from 5.5 to 10.6 months between fiscal years 2016 and 2018. They stayed near 10 through 2022, peaking at 11.0, then fell to 8.6 in 2023, 6.6 in 2024, 7.2 in 2025 and 5.9 to date in 2026.
| Fiscal year | Family-based | Employment-based | Asylum-based | Refugee-based |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2016 | 6.1 | 5.5 | 4.4 | 5.5 |
| FY2017 | 7.9 | 7.0 | 5.5 | 4.6 |
| FY2018 | 10.2 | 10.6 | 6.2 | 6.4 |
| FY2019 | 10.9 | 10.0 | 6.7 | 9.4 |
| FY2020 | 9.3 | 8.8 | 6.9 | 9.3 |
| FY2021 | 12.9 | 9.9 | 12.9 | 7.1 |
| FY2022 | 10.6 | 11.0 | 22.6 | 14.1 |
| FY2023 | 11.4 | 8.6 | 22.9 | 21.6 |
| FY2024 | 8.9 | 6.6 | 13.4 | 13.2 |
| FY2025 | 7.4 | 7.2 | 10.3 | 7.5 |
| FY2026* | 6.0 | 5.9 | 19.7 | 7.8 |
Fiscal years 2016 to 2023 come from USCIS’s historical processing times fact sheet. The fiscal year 2021 to 2026 columns come from the current table on the USCIS site, and the two sources match for fiscal years 2021 to 2023. USCIS revised fiscal year 2024 as more cases were completed: the early fact sheet showed 9.4 months for family-based and 7.2 for employment-based, and the current table shows 8.9 and 6.6.
Before and After the Pandemic Years
Comparing fiscal year 2019, fiscal year 2022 and fiscal year 2026 to date shows how differently the categories moved. Family-based fell from 10.9 to 6.0 months and employment-based from 10.0 to 5.9. Asylum-based rose from 6.7 to 19.7 months, after peaking at 22.9 in fiscal year 2023, and refugee-based went from 9.4 to 7.8 after a peak of 21.6 in fiscal year 2023.
Asylum and Refugee Based I-485 Medians
The table and chart cover applications from people admitted as RefugeeA person outside their country of nationality who cannot return because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion (INA 101(a)(42)). Admission as a refugee is discretionary, and annual admission levels are set through a Presidential Determination. A person already in the United States or at a port of entry with a similar claim may instead seek asylum.See it in the glossary or granted AsylumProtection granted to a person already in the United States or at a port of entry who meets the definition of a refugee and cannot safely return to their country.See it in the glossary more than one year ago. Asylum-based medians rose from 4.4 months in fiscal year 2016 to 12.9 in 2021, then to 22.6 in 2022 and 22.9 in 2023. They fell to 13.4 in 2024 and 10.3 in 2025, then rose to 19.7 in the fiscal year 2026 figure to date. Refugee-based medians followed a similar path through 2025 and stood at 7.8 in 2026 to date.
What the Latest Quarterly Data Shows
USCIS’s quarterly workbook for April 1 to June 30, 2026, published on its immigration and citizenship data page, splits I-485 into six categories. In that quarter USCIS received 242,989 I-485 applications and completed 118,366, fewer than half as many. It reported 1,560,290 I-485 applications pending on June 30.
Family-based applications made up the largest pending group at 611,067, followed by Cuban Adjustment Act applications at 342,360 and employment-based at 268,408. Refugee-based applications stood at 149,470 pending with 148 completions in the quarter, and asylum-based at 126,267 pending with 2,642 completions. The workbook does not explain the differences between categories.
| Category | Received | Completed | Pending | Processing time (months) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family | 95,175 | 66,918 | 611,067 | 7 |
| Employment | 97,501 | 45,236 | 268,408 | 6 |
| Asylum | 15,141 | 2,642 | 126,267 | 25.6 |
| Refugee | 16,819 | 148 | 149,470 | 17.6 |
| Cuban | 6,279 | 586 | 342,360 | 16.3 |
| Other | 12,074 | 2,836 | 62,718 | 21 |
| All I-485 | 242,989 | 118,366 | 1,560,290 | n/a |
The processing times in this workbook, 7 months for family-based and 6 for employment-based, sit close to the fiscal-year medians above. Asylum-based applications show 25.6 months, refugee-based 17.6 and Cuban Adjustment Act 16.3. They come from a different USCIS table, so read them as a second view, not a continuation of the fiscal-year series. Our earlier report on the family green card backlog covers the family-based quarterly change in more detail.
What These Medians Do Not Show
Three limits matter when reading the table. First, a median covers only cases that have been completed. It says nothing about cases still pending, so it can fall while the pending caseload stays high. The quarterly figures above show the pending counts, and our report on the overall USCIS backlog covers all forms.
Second, USCIS excludes visa-regressed I-485 applications from these figures. Applicants whose Priority dateThe date a petition was filed, or a labor certification was submitted, used to determine an applicant's place in line for a visa category with limited annual numbers.See it in the glossary is not yet current are not in the median, which is why employment-based green card waits in the India and China queues are better read through cutoff dates. See our histories of India EB-2 and EB-3 cutoff dates and China EB-2 and EB-3 cutoff dates.
Third, the fiscal year 2026 column is a partial year, and USCIS notes that its historical processing times are not comparable to the estimates on its processing times tool, which uses a different method. None of these figures estimates when an individual application will be decided. For how to read the official tool, see our Processing Times page, and for the NaturalizationThe process by which a permanent resident becomes a U.S. citizen, generally after three or five years of residence, by filing Form N-400.See it in the glossary side of the same data, see our report on naturalization processing time. Our explainer on immigration wait times covers what drives delays.