I-539 Waits Drop 67 Days in 12 Weeks, but Center Gaps Tell a Different Story

Since early June, the I-539 final-stage median has declined from 168 days (week of June 8) to 101 days, a 67-day drop over 12 weeks. The 8-week regression slope of -2.7 days per week points in the right direction, but the R² of 0.43 indicates the fit is moderate: week-to-week noise remains visible, and the trend is not yet firmly locked in. This week's sample of 1,327 approved cases is the smallest in the 12-week window, compared to a prior four-week average of over 3,600 approvals per week, so this particular reading carries more statistical uncertainty than recent ones.

The year-over-year comparison adds important context. This week's 101-day median sits 10.7% above the same week in 2025, when 366 approved cases posted a median of 92 days. The recent trajectory is positive, but the year-ago baseline shows the form was already processing at a faster pace twelve months ago. The gap does not signal a crisis in the current data, but it does indicate how much further the trend would need to run before matching last year's pace.

SRC (Texas Service Center) processed 1,957 cases this week at a median of 45 days. Its slope of +3.4 days per week (R²=0.79) signals a modest and statistically solid drift toward slower times, but at 45 days it remains by far the fastest center. WAC (California Service Center, the USCIS facility in Laguna Niguel, CA) sits at 204 days across 562 cases, but carries a slope of -11.0 days per week with an R² of 0.97, the strongest improving signal in the entire dataset. EAC processed 310 cases at 248 days; its slope of -0.2 days per week and R² of 0.00 describe a center that is effectively flat. LIN (Nebraska Service Center) at 192 days across 80 cases shows a modestly rising slope of +3.9 days per week. YSC (Potomac Service Center) at 178 days across 46 cases is also drifting slightly higher at +2.0 days per week. Case mix differs across centers, so these figures are not direct performance comparisons.

For applicants, the practical consequence is large. Those whose cases are being processed at SRC face a median final-stage wait of 45 days; those at EAC face 248 days, more than five times as long. Service center assignment is not applicant-controlled, though cases can be transferred between centers. The uneven_centers anomaly flag, which fires when the spread between the fastest and slowest center exceeds a typical threshold, registered at 223.30 this week, reflecting the full 203-day range from SRC to EAC.

Where your case lands matters more than the national headline number this week.