I-140 Final-Stage Wait Holds at 20 Days, Running 37 Days Faster Than Last Year
For the week of August 24, the median final-stage wait for I-140 approvals matched last week exactly at 20 days, down from 57 days in the same week of 2025. Eight weeks of quiet data confirm the low plateau is structural, not a one-week reading.
The I-140 final-stage wait held at 20 days this week, identical to last week and 37 days below the 57-day median recorded in the same week of 2025, a 65.4% year-over-year reduction. The 8-week regression slope of +0.1 days per week with an R² of 0.03 confirms the flat reading is not a fluke: the data show a genuinely stable plateau. No anomaly flags fired. With 3,024 cases approved this week, the sample is large enough to treat the number as reliable. The story is sustained improvement, not noise.
- The median final-stage wait for I-140 approvals was 20 days this week, unchanged from last week and 37 days faster than the same week in 2025 (57 days, n=3,693).
- The 8-week regression slope is +0.1 days per week with an R² of 0.03, confirming a noisy-stable pattern with no directional trend.
- Five of six recent filing-month groups have crossed the 50% approval mark by weeks 17 to 21, with the April 2026 group at 58.0% approved at week 21.
- The main processing queue holds 160,828 cases at a median of 80 days (25th percentile 44 days, 75th percentile 151 days), the primary reservoir of wait time before cases reach final-stage clearing.
- The total active I-140 backlog of pending cases shrank by 5,130 cases (2.9%) over the past 28 days, a modest but consistent decline.
20 days, unchanged, and 37 days faster than last year
This week's median of 20 days measures the time from a case's last reported status to approval, what the brief calls the final-stage wait. It is not the total filing-to-approval time, which the cohort (a group of cases) section addresses separately. The week-over-week reading is flat: 20 days this week, 20 days last week. Against the 57-day median from the same week in 2025, the gap is 37 days. The 12-week trailing average sits at 22 days, confirming that this week's number is in line with recent performance rather than an isolated low.
A June spike that faded, and eight weeks of quiet since
The 12-week window shows two elevated readings in late June: 41 days in the week of June 22 (W26) and 32 days in the week of June 29 (W27). Since the week of July 6 (W28), the median has moved within a 16-to-20-day band. The 8-week regression slope of +0.1 days per week and an R² of 0.03 quantify what the chart makes visible: the data have no meaningful directional trend. The brief labels this pattern "noisy stable." The 25th percentile (p25) this week is 13 days, meaning a quarter of cases approved this week cleared in 13 days or fewer from their last reported status.
The pipeline is moving: five of six recent cohorts are past the halfway mark
A cohort here means all cases filed in the same calendar month, tracked forward to see what share has been approved as of this week's snapshot. The overall I-140 active backlog of pending cases (spanning all filing months) shrank by 5,130 cases, or 2.9%, over the 28 days ending August 31, 2026. Among the six most recent filing-month groups, the April 2026 group (at week 21) is 58.0% approved across 20,123 total cases; the May 2026 group (at week 17) is 50.4% approved across 16,683 total cases; and the June 2026 group (at week 13) is 42.9% approved across 15,185 total cases. Cohorts at different ages should not be compared directly as if they form a time series: an older group has simply had more time to clear.
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