I-765 Median Falls 8 Days, but Center Divergence Runs 321 Days Wide
This week's drop to 130 days is a single-week reprieve in a volatile summer. The Nebraska Service Center (LIN) and Vermont Service Center (EAC) logged **385 and 389 days** respectively, while the Texas Service Center (SRC) cleared cases in 68 days, a 321-day spread that shows where a case is processed matters as much as national trends.
The I-765 Employment Authorization Document application posted a 130-day median this week, down 8 days from last week's 138. That improvement is real, but it lands against a 12-week range that has run from 45 to 198 days and a year-over-year gap of 15.9% (130 days now versus 113 the same week in 2025). The filing-month cohort (a group of cases) burndown adds a forward-looking layer: cases filed in the April 2026 group (the filing-month cohort, cases received in the same calendar month) are only 24.1% cleared at 21 weeks, with roughly 78,000 still active. A 321-day spread between the fastest and slowest service centers, flagged by the automated anomaly detector, explains much of the week's texture.
- The I-765 final-stage median fell 8 days week over week, from 138 to 130 days, but sits 15.9% above the same week last year (113 days).
- The Nebraska Service Center (LIN) and Vermont Service Center (EAC) registered 385 and 389 days respectively, while SRC cleared cases in 68 days, a 321-day spread that triggered the uneven_centers anomaly flag.
- Cases that received and responded to an RFE (Request for Evidence) cleared in a median of 44 days, compared with 130 days for plain-processing cases, an inversion the anomaly detector flagged as rfe_fast.
- The April 2026 filing-month cohort is only 24.1% cleared at 21 weeks, with about 78,000 cases still active; the overall active pending count across all cohorts stands at roughly 1.16 million, down just 0.4% over 28 days.
- USCIS has announced that older editions of Form I-765 will be rejected starting September 15, 2026; applicants and attorneys should verify they are using the current edition.
One good week in a bumpy summer
The I-765 median fell from 138 days to 130 days this week, an 8-day drop that is concrete and welcome. But the 12-week record puts it in perspective: the same metric has ranged from 45 days (the week of June 8) to 198 days (the week of August 3), and the 12-week trailing average sits at 125 days. The trend pattern is classified noisy_stable, with a slope of +8.0 days per week and an R² of 0.21, meaning week-to-week swings overwhelm any directional signal. This week's improvement should be read as one data point in a volatile window, not as evidence of a lasting turn.
The year-over-year picture is less favorable. The same week in 2025 produced a median of 113 days, as did the 3-year same-week average. The current reading of 130 days sits 17 days, or 15.9%, above both benchmarks. For an applicant waiting on an Employment Authorization Document (EAD), that gap translates to roughly two and a half additional weeks compared with what cases at this point in 2025 were experiencing.
A 321-day gap between centers
The center breakdown this week shows a wide range of outcomes. The Texas Service Center (SRC) cleared cases with a median of 68 days across 1,083 approvals. The IOE channel (electronic filings routed through USCIS's e-filing system) posted 127 days across 8,786 approvals, accounting for about 82% of this week's total. The California Service Center (WAC) came in at 144 days across 257 approvals, and the National Benefits Center (MSC) at 151 days across 234 approvals. At the slow end, LIN (Nebraska Service Center) registered 385 days across 226 approvals, and EAC (Vermont Service Center) registered 389 days across 110 approvals. Because IOE dominates the volume, the overall 130-day median largely reflects IOE's pace rather than a true blending of all centers.
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