I-360 Median Ties 12-Week High as RFE-Response Cases Clear Unusually Fast

The I-360 median final-stage wait for the week of June 8 came in at 177 days, tying the W21 reading as the highest in the current 12-week window and rising 10 days from last week's 167. On its own that gap would suggest something changed. The 8-week regression says otherwise: the slope is +0.5 days per week, and the R² is 0.09, meaning the trend line explains almost none of the week-to-week variation. This week's reading is more likely a product of who happened to be approved than a sign of a confirmed directional shift.

At the same time, the rfe_fast anomaly flag fired. Cases carrying an RFE (Request for Evidence, USCIS's standard follow-up letter asking for missing documents) response in their history posted a median of just 20 days this week, against 186 days for cases that never received one. That is roughly a 9-to-1 speed ratio, which the anomaly detector treats as unusual relative to the form's historical pattern. Receiving an RFE is not itself a negative outcome; most cases that receive one are still approved. The 20-day reading may reflect a batch of RFE responses submitted around the same time that happened to clear together this week rather than any broad change in adjudication (the case decision step) policy.

Across the 12 weeks from March 23 through June 8, the I-360 median has moved within a 15-day band: a low of 162 days in W15 (April 6) and a high of 177 days in W21 and again this week. The 12-week trailing average is 170 days. This week's interquartile range (IQR), where the 25th percentile (p25) sits at 170 days and the 75th percentile (p75) at 187 days, is wider than in most prior weeks, suggesting more spread in case-level wait times rather than a uniform upward shift. With R²=0.09, the series appears to hover in place rather than move in any confirmed direction.

In a series where R² is near zero, a single week at the top of the band tells you more about who cleared than about where the median is heading.

Non-RFE cases posted a median of 186 days this week; cases with an RFE response in their history posted just 20 days. The rfe_fast flag fires when RFE-response cases process unusually quickly relative to their historical baseline, and the 0.11 flag value this week places it in that range. The most plausible structural reading is a batch effect: a group of RFE responses filed around the same period cleared together, compressing the weekly median for that sub-set. The stage-duration data (Stage durations, 30-day raw window) shows cases sitting at the 'Response To USCIS' Request For Evidence Was Received' status with a median of 66 days across 2,660 cases, a p25 of 31 days and a p75 of 100 days; the 20-day weekly reading is well below that 30-day median, confirming the current week reflects an unusually fast-clearing subset, not the broader RFE-response population.

The non-RFE median of 186 days also sits above the all-case weekly median of 177 days. That gap is a compositional effect: the RFE-response cases that cleared quickly are pulling the combined weekly median below what the non-RFE group alone would produce. Neither number is wrong; they reflect two different populations approved in the same seven-day window.