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When will USCIS decide my case, and when can I ask?

Pick your form and office and enter your receipt date. This puts USCIS's own figures on your case's calendar, from its posting of October 19, 2026.

Selected: I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status

Selected: Employment-based adjustment applications

Received

Half decided by

Enter the receipt date on your notice to see your case's dates.

From USCIS's posting of October 19, 2026. USCIS's own processing times tool is the last word.

One thing the dates above can't see: your priority date. USCIS can approve this application only while a visa number is available for it. The priority date calculator checks yours against this month's visa bulletin.

What happens along the way

USCIS mails a receipt notice with your receipt number, and for many forms an appointment to take fingerprints and a photo. It may send a request for evidence or schedule an interview before it decides. None of these has a posted time, so the calendar above doesn't date them. The USCIS case status lookup shows the step your own case is on.

If it runs late: the steps, in order

Each step has its own wait before the next one opens.

  1. Ask USCIS

    Once you're past the date above, send a case inquiry through USCIS's e-Request, or call the Contact Center at 800-375-5283. Keep the reference number USCIS sends: the Ombudsman asks for it later. USCIS aims to answer within 15 business days.

  2. Ask your representative or senators

    A congressional office can ask USCIS on your behalf, usually once your case is outside normal processing. You'll sign the office's privacy release, because USCIS answers an office only with one. Find yours at house.gov or senate.gov. The note below drafts the message.

  3. Ask the CIS Ombudsman

    The Ombudsman takes a delayed case once you asked USCIS in the last 90 days and gave it at least 60, and not within 45 days of a congressional inquiry.

  4. Talk to an immigration attorney about mandamus

    A mandamus case asks a federal court to order USCIS to decide. Courts treat it as a last resort, once the steps above are used up. Whether a delay is long enough is a question for a lawyer.

A note for a congressional office

Fill in what you have, then copy the note into the office's form or email. It stays in this browser, and nothing is sent anywhere. Never put a Social Security number in it.

Hello,

I'm a constituent asking for help with a USCIS case that's taking longer than normal.

Form: I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status (Employment-based adjustment applications)
Receipt number: (add yours)
Filed: (add the date)
Office handling it: All Field Offices

Could your office make an inquiry with USCIS? I'll sign your privacy release form, and I can send the receipt notice.

Thank you,
(your name)

FAQs

When can I ask USCIS about my case?
Once it has waited longer than the time USCIS took to finish 93% of similar cases. USCIS's processing-times page turns that into a receipt date for each form, category and office: a case received before it may be asked about. Where USCIS posts no time for a form, its default is six months from the receipt date.
Why is that later than the processing time USCIS prints?
The time USCIS prints is how long it took to finish 80% of cases. The inquiry date uses 93%. So a case can pass the printed time and still be inside what USCIS calls normal processing.
What's the difference between the median and the posted time?
The median is the time by which half of cases were decided, from USCIS's quarterly report, across every office. The posted time is the time by which 80% were, for one office. Most cases finish between the two.
Does asking speed up my case?
It gets you an answer about where the case stands. USCIS decides the timing, and an inquiry or a congressional request doesn't move a case ahead of others.
Is anything I type here sent anywhere?
No. The dates and the note are worked out in your browser. The page stores nothing and sends nothing.
Is this legal advice?
No. The dates are arithmetic on USCIS's own published figures and your receipt date. Whether a delay is unreasonable, and what to do about it, are questions for an immigration attorney.

USCIS posted processing times through Oct 19, 2026 · USCIS quarterly form data through Jun 30, 2026. How these figures are counted. Spotted an error? Tell us; every fix is dated in the corrections log.

The sources in full

USCIS posted processing times: USCIS processing-times page, daily copies by the jzebedee/uscis project (GitHub) · data through Oct 19, 2026 · uscis posts about monthly; the project copies it daily; read daily

USCIS quarterly form data: USCIS quarterly all-forms performance data (uscis.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly

What each source includes

USCIS posted processing times: Every figure USCIS's processing-times page has posted since March 2022, by form, subtype and office, with USCIS's own posting date: the time it took to decide 80% of the cases it decided in the past six months. An open-source project copies USCIS's page each day, and this site checks it against a weekly reading of the page itself.

USCIS quarterly form data: Every USCIS form's receipts, approvals, denials, pending count and MEDIAN months to a decision, per quarter, as USCIS publishes them. The median isn't the 80th-percentile figure on USCIS's processing-times page.

Cite this page

The rules behind these numbers

Waiting on a PERM case?

  • When it'll likely be decided
  • An email when DOL moves it

It's on your ETA-9089 receipt.

Don't have the number?