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 processing time averaged 11.4 months in July 2026, according to the monthly USCIS report on Form N-400 applications. A year earlier the same measure stood at 6.4 months. The rise came alongside a growing pile of pending citizenship applications, now at 778,489, and a steep drop in the number of cases USCIS decided each month.
The July average sits close to the 11.5-month fiscal year median that USCIS’s historic processing times table shows for fiscal year 2021, the peak of the series. The two numbers use different methods, so they are context for each other, not a like-for-like comparison.
Naturalization Processing Time: The Long View
USCIS publishes historical median processing times by fiscal year, which run from October 1 to September 30. The N-400 median rose from 5.2 months in fiscal year 2016 to 10.0 in 2019 and 11.5 in 2021, then eased to 10.5 in 2022. It fell to 6.0 months in 2023, 5.0 in 2024 and 5.6 in 2025.
In the fiscal year 2026 figure so far, the median is 7.2 months. That number covers only cases USCIS has completed, so it can look better than the monthly average, which is 11.4 months in July. The chart shows the fiscal-year series.
Fiscal-year medians for applications from civilians, from the USCIS historic processing times table. The July 2026 monthly average discussed below is a different measure.
Month by Month: September 2025 to July 2026
The monthly average held between 6.7 and 6.8 months from September to December 2025. It then rose every month: 7.8 in January, 7.9 in February, 8.6 in March, 9.5 in April, 10.1 in May, 10.7 in June and 11.4 in July.
The table lists the same monthly USCIS data, including how many applications were received, approved and denied, and how many were still pending at month end.
| Month | Received | Approved | Denied | Total pending | Avg. months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 87,903 | 71,181 | 7,198 | 537,769 | 6.7 |
| Oct 2025 | 169,159 | 58,692 | 6,852 | 641,468 | 6.7 |
| Nov 2025 | 41,478 | 48,691 | 6,173 | 627,819 | 6.7 |
| Dec 2025 | 42,569 | 42,512 | 5,168 | 622,664 | 6.8 |
| Jan 2026 | 46,385 | 32,862 | 4,970 | 630,860 | 7.8 |
| Feb 2026 | 44,508 | 23,626 | 4,462 | 647,193 | 7.9 |
| Mar 2026 | 49,630 | 26,868 | 5,424 | 663,951 | 8.6 |
| Apr 2026 | 47,630 | 22,560 | 5,009 | 683,960 | 9.5 |
| May 2026 | 49,534 | 17,038 | 3,757 | 712,572 | 10.1 |
| Jun 2026 | 53,392 | 18,439 | 3,852 | 744,412 | 10.7 |
| Jul 2026 | 55,579 | 16,514 | 4,160 | 778,489 | 11.4 |
Fewer Decisions, More Pending Cases
USCIS decided 20,674 N-400 applications in July 2026, approvals plus denials, compared with 80,077 in July 2025, a drop of about 74 percent, according to a Niskanen Center analysis of the same reports. Approvals fell from 72,334 to 16,514. Between January and July 2026 USCIS completed an average of 27,077 naturalization cases a month, against 86,044 a month over the same months of 2025.
Receipts did not fall at the same pace. USCIS received 55,579 applications in July 2026, and a one-month spike of 169,159 in October 2025 is the highest figure in the series. The share of decisions that were denials roughly doubled, from about 10 percent in July 2025 to more than 20 percent in July 2026.
Pending cases waiting more than six months rose from 110,789 in July 2025 to 485,003 in July 2026, an increase of about 338 percent. Total pending applications rose 46 percent over the same period, from 532,052 to 778,489. The monthly report does not explain the October 2025 spike or the slowdown in decisions. For the wider picture across all forms, see our coverage of the overall USCIS backlog, and for green cards, our I-485 processing time trends.
What the Different Processing Time Numbers Mean
Three separate measures circulate, and they answer different questions. The fiscal-year median describes cases already finished during a full year. The monthly service-wide average, used in the table above, is reported nationally for each month. The USCIS processing times tool gives office-level estimates and describes recent cases, not a promise for any one application.
None of these figures estimates when an individual application will be decided. Approval is also followed by a separate oath ceremony wait that these reports do not measure. Our explainers on immigration wait times and the citizenship timeline cover what drives delays, and the Processing Times page shows how to read the official tool.