I-360 Final-Stage Wait Falls 83 Days While Pending Backlog Nearly Doubles
Week 30, 2026: The median final-stage wait for I-360 approvals dropped to 88 days, the lowest in the 12-week window, even as active pending cases grew 96% over the same period. The two signals point in opposite directions.
The median final-stage wait for I-360 approvals fell to 88 days this week, down from 171 days in early May, a drop of 83 days across roughly 12 weeks. That puts this week's reading 53 days below the 12-week trailing average of 141 days, based on 816 approved cases. At the same time, the active pending backlog grew from roughly 12,000 cases to 23,656 cases, a 96% increase over 81 days. The fast clearance reflects cases already deep in the adjudication (USCIS's case decision step) queue. For those filing today, the picture is considerably slower.
- The I-360 final-stage wait fell 83 days in roughly 12 weeks, from 171 days in early May to 88 days this week, with the National Benefits Center (MSC) driving nearly all of the movement at a slope of -14.0 days per week.
- Active pending cases rose 96% (+11,584 cases) between May 7 and July 27, 2026, reaching 23,656 total, meaning new filings are accumulating faster than approvals are clearing.
- Cases that received an RFE (Request for Evidence) and submitted a response are clearing with a median of 21 days, versus 161 days for cases without one, a 7.87x ratio that fired the rfe_fast anomaly flag this week.
- Of cases filed in March 2026, now 21 weeks old, only 1.5% have been approved; the February 2026 filing-month group at 25 weeks sits at just 2.2%.
- The 4-week forecast carries a residual standard deviation of 32 days and a band width of roughly ±49 days; the projected range for the week of July 27 runs from ~25 to 123 days, making any single-number projection unreliable.
83 days faster, twice as many cases waiting
The I-360 median final-stage wait has fallen 83 days since the week of May 4, when it stood at 171 days. This week's reading of 88 days, drawn from 816 approved cases, sits 53 days below the 12-week trailing average of 141 days. The 8-week regression slope is -13.9 days per week, consistent with a sustained acceleration rather than a single-week fluctuation. The 25th percentile (p25) this week is 83 days and the 75th percentile (p75) is 93 days, a narrow band that reflects week-to-week stability in who is being approved.
The counterweight to that acceleration is harder to miss in the backlog data. Active pending cases rose from roughly 12,072 to 23,656 between May 7 and July 27, a 96% increase (+11,584 cases) over 81 days. Filing-month groups from February through June 2026 account for nearly all of that growth, with the May 2026 group alone adding 3,655 active cases to the pipeline. The arithmetic is straightforward: new cases are entering the queue faster than approvals are clearing them. The current fast clearance benefits applicants already deep in adjudication; those filing in 2026 are joining a much longer line.
Where the speed is coming from: MSC doing the heavy lifting
MSC (the National Benefits Center, USCIS's facility in Lee's Summit, MO) processed all 816 approved cases this week, posting a median of 88 days and an 8-week slope of -14.0 days per week, matching the overall trend almost exactly. WAC (California Service Center, Laguna Niguel, CA) had 23 cases at a median of 136 days, and LIN (Nebraska Service Center) had 20 cases at a median of 8 days; both carry flat slopes and sample sizes too thin to move the aggregate. The activity log supports the MSC picture: MSC recorded 10,328 status transitions in the last 30 days, with 'decisionIssued' as the dominant status, in line with a high-throughput decision push. Case mix differs across these centers, so the comparison is structural rather than a performance verdict.
The stage duration data (from the Stage durations, 30-day raw window) puts the bottleneck in plain view. Cases at the 'Case Was Received' status, which account for 57.4% of the active pipeline across 35,794 cases, show a median of 192 days, with a p25 of 181 days and a p75 of 201 days. Cases clearing this week were already well past that stage. The much larger group still sitting at intake is likely months from reaching the same point in adjudication, regardless of how fast the current approval pace appears.
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