EAD Wait Times Triple Year Over Year as Center Routing Creates a 332-Day Gap
The week of August 24 brought a 155-day median final-stage wait for I-765 Employment Authorization Document applications, more than three times the 46-day reading from the same week in 2025. Where a case was routed matters as much as when it was filed.
I-765 EAD processing reached a median of 155 days in the week of August 24, a 24-day jump from the prior week and 238.9% above the 46-day median recorded the same week last year (across 23,368 cases). The overall active pending count stands at about 1.16 million cases, down roughly 9,100 over the past 28 days, a modest but real reduction. The bigger story this week is center disparity: the Nebraska Service Center (LIN) posted a 398-day median while the Texas Service Center (SRC, known as TSC) came in at 66 days, a 332-day spread that means routing may determine an applicant's wait more than almost any other factor.
- The I-765 median final-stage wait reached 155 days the week of August 24, up 24 days from the prior week and 238.9% above the same week last year (46 days, n=23,368).
- The uneven-centers anomaly flag fired with a value of 286.38: LIN's median of 398 days versus SRC's 66 days is a 332-day spread, the largest in the 12-week window.
- Cases that received an RFE (Request for Evidence) and responded cleared in 44 days this week, versus 132 days for non-RFE cases, an inversion of the usual pattern that may reflect a concentrated batch clearing rather than a policy change.
- The March 2026 filing-month group, now 26 weeks old, is only 31.6% approved (34,469 of 109,085 cases), underscoring how much of the 2026 filing volume remains in the active queue.
- USCIS announced that older editions of Form I-765 will be rejected starting September 15, 2026; applicants preparing to file should confirm they are using the current edition.
155 days, and where that stands historically
The week of August 24 produced a 155-day median across 11,962 approved I-765 cases, a 24-day rise from the 130-day reading the prior week. The year-over-year gap is sharper: the same ISO week in 2025 logged a median of 46 days across 23,368 cases, placing this week's reading 238.9% above that baseline. The 12-week window offers some context: the median has ranged from 45 days (W24, Jun 8) to 198 days (W32, Aug 3) this summer, so 155 days is elevated but sits below the recent high. The level has nonetheless settled well above the 46-day three-year same-week average, a shift that spans months rather than weeks.
A volatile summer, not a clean climb
The 12-week series tells a story of volatility rather than a steady climb. The median opened at 45 days in the week of June 8, rose to 138 days by June 22, dipped to 100 days the following week, climbed again to 198 days by August 3, then pulled back to 130 to 155 days over the past two weeks. The last-year overlay shows readings between 36 and 176 days over the comparable summer period, all well below the current range. The 8-week linear slope is +4.9 days per week, pointing upward, but the R-squared of 0.09 means the regression explains very little of the week-to-week movement. In plain terms: the general direction leans higher, but the fit is too noisy to call a clean trend, and any given week can deviate substantially from the line.
Where the slowdown lives: a 332-day gap between centers
The uneven-centers anomaly flag fired this week at a value of 286.38, driven by a 332-day spread between the Nebraska Service Center (LIN, 398-day median, 225 cases) and the Texas Service Center (SRC, 66-day median, 1,534 cases). In between sit EAC at 302 days (288 cases), WAC (the California Service Center) at 197 days (329 cases), MSC (the National Benefits Center in Lee's Summit, MO) at 141 days (235 cases), and IOE at 158 days. IOE, the electronic-filing routing channel, handled 9,338 of this week's 11,962 approvals, about 78% of the total, so its 158-day median is the closest single number to the overall picture. The gap between LIN and SRC likely reflects category mix as much as processing efficiency: centers route different sub-types of the same form, and a direct comparison understates those structural differences. Case mix differs across centers, and the 332-day spread is the widest recorded in the 12-week window.
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