I-765 Final-Stage Wait Falls to 63 Days, but the Active Backlog Grew 36% in One Month
The week of June 1 delivered the lowest median in 12 weeks for EAD approvals. A concurrent 36% expansion in the active pending caseload raises questions about whether that pace can hold.
The median final-stage wait for I-765 Employment Authorization Document approvals fell to 63 days the week of June 1, down 11 days from 74 days the prior week and the lowest reading in the 12-week window. The improvement follows a sustained downtrend: the 8-week slope stands at -4.2 days per week, though an R² of 0.68 supports the direction rather than any precise forecast. The counterweight is significant. The active pending caseload grew to roughly 298,900 cases, up about 79,400 (36.2%) in the 31 days ending June 7, with the April 2026 filing-month group accounting for most of that growth. Faster clearing this week and a larger incoming queue for coming weeks are both real, and both belong in the same sentence.
- The I-765 final-stage median fell to 63 days the week of June 1, an 11-day week-over-week drop and the lowest reading since the 12-week window opened at 130 days in mid-March.
- The active pending caseload reached roughly 298,900 cases, up about 79,400 (36.2%) over the 31 days ending June 7, with the April 2026 filing-month group adding the largest share (+34,999 active cases).
- Center medians ranged from 41 days at IOE (3,732 cases this week) to 176 days at EAC (174 cases), a 135-day spread that triggered the uneven_centers anomaly flag.
- RFE (Request for Evidence) cases cleared in a median of 28 days this week versus 93 days for cases with no RFE, an inversion explained by a batch of older RFE responses resolving together, not by RFEs accelerating cases overall.
- The April 2026 filing-month group (88,656 cases total) is only 13.6% cleared at 9 weeks of age, while the January 2026 group (84,087 cases) sits at 20.6% cleared at 22 weeks, behind the February 2026 group's 27.1% at 18 weeks.
63 days: a 12-week low with an asterisk
The median final-stage wait for I-765 approvals reached 63 days the week of June 1, down 11 days from 74 days the prior week and the lowest reading in the current 12-week window. The 12-week high was 130 days back in mid-March, so the improvement over roughly three months is substantial: about 67 days off the peak. The 8-week regression slope of -4.2 days per week supports the downward direction, and the R² of 0.68 gives moderate confidence in that direction without supporting a precise point forecast.
The counterweight to the speed reading is the active pending caseload. Over the 31 days ending June 7, the total number of active cases grew to roughly 298,900, up about 79,400 cases, a 36.2% increase in one month. Cases filed in April 2026 account for the largest share of that growth, adding about 34,999 active cases to the pipeline. A larger incoming queue of this scale typically feeds into slower clearing 4 to 8 weeks down the line, which is the tension the current 63-day reading does not fully resolve.
135 days separates the fastest and slowest centers
The IOE channel, which processes e-filed cases and accounts for 3,732 of this week's 5,580 approvals, posted a median of 41 days. At the other end, the Vermont Service Center (EAC), with 174 cases this week, sat at 176 days, and the Nebraska Service Center (LIN), with 179 cases, came in at 165 days. Both EAC and LIN are improving: EAC's 8-week slope is -22.1 days per week (R² 0.73), and LIN's is -16.8 days per week (R² 0.51). The Texas Service Center (SRC), handling 817 cases, is the only center trending in the wrong direction, at +3.5 days per week with an R² of 0.75, the most statistically confident deterioration among the six centers. Case mix differs across centers, so these medians are not directly comparable as measures of processing efficiency.
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