USCIS I-130 Processing Time
Electronic Immigration System
— Receipt # IOE09
Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, is the first step in obtaining a Green Card for your family relative. Processing times vary by application type. Immediate relatives of a US citizen (spouses, parents, and children under 18 years of age) are generally processed the fastest. Our data indicates that these applications are currently taking about 12 months. However, other application types are constrained by annual quotas, which can cause significant delays. For a better understanding of I-130 application categories (Immediate Relative vs Family Preference), please see our FAQ.
The following data is for all I-130 applicants whose receipt number begins with "IOE09".
What does the current case backlog look like?
This graph shows the status of I-130 cases (with receipt # IOE09) received by USCIS in the last 2 years.
The backlog helps us understand the big picture. For example, we can see that USCIS generally processes cases in the order they were received.
Newer cases are shown on the right side of the graph. They mostly have the Case Received status. On the other side of the graph, around 80% of the old cases have been processed - either Approved or Denied. The remaining ~20% reflects cases that will take longer based on immigration quotas or individual case complexity.
While the backlog chart is a rich source of data, it isn't able to answer all questions. To see how fast USCIS is processing cases and to see exactly what month they are working on, we need to look at the graphs below.
To learn more about each status, visit our FAQ page.
How many cases is USCIS processing?
USCIS processing rate has greatly increased since November 2022. The processing rate now appears to be leveling off at around 2000 cases per working day (on average).