I-129 Final-Stage Wait Holds at 12 Days, Down from 75 a Year Ago
The final-stage wait for I-129 petitions has been flat at 12 days for roughly four weeks, an early signal of stable processing conditions heading into fall H-1B extension season.
The I-129 final-stage wait sits at 12 days this week, unchanged from last week and down from 75 days at the same point in 2025, an 84% year-over-year improvement. Based on 5,170 approved cases this week, the reading is well above the thin-sample threshold. The 12-week window shows the median has ranged from 12 to 18 days, with the lower end of that range holding since mid-August. A shrinking active backlog, down roughly 10,099 cases (13%) over the 28 days ending September 14, appears consistent with the sustained calm in weekly medians.
- The I-129 final-stage wait is 12 days this week, down from 75 days in the same week of 2025, an 84% year-over-year decline.
- The median has held between 12 and 18 days across the full 12-week window, with the lower band of 12 days sustained since mid-August.
- RFE (Request for Evidence)-stamped cases cleared in 21 days vs 14 days for plain processing, a 7-day gap that is modest given overall short final-stage waits.
- The April 2026 filing-month group is 78% approved at 23 weeks of age; the June 2026 group (46,787 total cases) is 64% approved at 15 weeks, with 16,416 cases still active.
- Across all filing groups combined, active cases fell by about 10,099 (13%) over the 28 days ending September 14, 2026.
Twelve days, and holding
At 12 days, the I-129 final-stage wait is 63 days below the 75-day figure posted in the same week of 2025, an 84% year-over-year decline. The current reading rests on a sample of 5,170 approvals, well above the level where weekly noise could distort the median. Looking back across the 12-week window, the median peaked at 18 days in late July and has trended down since, settling at 12 days from mid-August onward. The overall range across those 12 weeks ran from 12 to 18 days, a narrow band by historical standards.
Where in the queue cases actually sit
The 12-day weekly approval median reflects cases that recently cleared, not the full active pipeline. The stage durations data (30-day raw window) tells a different story about where most cases currently sit. Standard processing, the 'USCIS Is Currently Processing the Case' status, holds about 64.7% of active cases across 261,986 cases, with a raw median of 93 days and a 25th percentile (p25) of 44 days and a 75th percentile (p75) of 141 days. The premium-processing track, covering about 11.2% of cases across 45,402 cases, carries a raw median of 12 days. These two tracks describe very different experiences: one is the extended adjudication (the case decision step) queue; the other is the expedited path.
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