I-765 median falls 56 days in a week, but only for electronic filers
This week's 83-day final-stage median, down from 139 last week, is driven almost entirely by IOE electronic cases clearing at 53 days. Paper-routed centers are moving in the opposite direction.
The I-765 Employment Authorization Document application posted an 83-day final-stage median the week of September 21, down 56 days from 139 the prior week and 32% below the same week last year (122 days). A statistical outlier flag fired on the reading, placing it 2.56 standard deviations below the 8-week trend line. The drop is real, but it is concentrated in IOE electronic filings, which account for 12,826 of 16,238 approvals this week at a 53-day median. Every paper-routed service center posted a positive, worsening slope. The headline number and the experience of most paper filers are pointing in opposite directions.
- The I-765 final-stage median fell to 83 days the week of September 21, down 56 days from 139 the prior week and 39 days below the 12-week trailing average of 140 days.
- IOE electronic filings drove the headline: 12,826 of 16,238 approvals (79%) cleared at a 53-day median, while paper-routed centers such as LIN (481-day median) and MSC (258-day median) continued worsening.
- Cases that received an RFE (Request for Evidence) cleared at a 61-day median this week, faster than the 138-day median for plain cases, a reversal of the usual pattern.
- The total active I-765 pending backlog stands at approximately 1.16 million cases as of September 28, up 0.3% over the prior 28 days, with the biometrics-completed stage showing the longest single-status wait at a 242-day median.
- The May 2026 filing-month group shed 2,591 active cases over the past 28 days, the largest reduction among recent cohorts, while the April 2026 group grew by 39 active cases over the same period.
83 days: the biggest one-week drop in three months
I-765 · Week 39 anomaly
The I-765 final-stage median landed at 83 days the week of September 21, down 56 days from 139 the week before. A low-outlier flag fired on the reading, placing it 2.56 standard deviations below the 8-week trend line computed against the prior 8-week trailing fit. Against the 12-week trailing average of 140 days, this week sits 57 days lower. Against the same week last year (122 days, based on 19,215 approvals), the reading is 32% lower. The drop is large enough to attract attention, but the aggregate alone does not explain where it came from.
IOE is doing the heavy lifting — and the math
IOE, the routing code for electronically filed I-765 cases, accounts for 12,826 of the 16,238 approvals this week (79%) at a 53-day median. Its 8-week slope is −15.0 days per week (R²=0.59), a consistent and statistically meaningful acceleration. The contrast with paper-routed centers is direct: SRC (Texas Service Center) posted a 121-day median across 2,178 cases with a slope of +9.3 days per week (R²=0.87, the strongest fit in the data). LIN (Nebraska Service Center) sits at a 481-day median across 312 cases with a slope of +9.9 days per week. MSC (National Benefits Center, the Lee's Summit facility) shows a 258-day median across 256 cases and a slope of +13.1 days per week. The headline improvement is an IOE story, not a system-wide one.
WAC (California Service Center, Laguna Niguel) posted a 201-day median across 466 cases with a slope of +6.8 days per week. EAC (Vermont Service Center) shows a 442-day median across 200 cases. Both centers continue to move in the worsening direction. The receipt prefix on an I-797 notice does not predict where a case will be decided; our data reflects the approving center, not the filing center, and cases are sometimes transferred between centers during adjudication (the decision step where USCIS issues an approval, denial, or requests more information). We have no data on staffing or routing policy to explain the IOE speed advantage.
RFE cases, faster than average? Yes, this week.
Cases that received an RFE (Request for Evidence, USCIS's standard follow-up letter asking for missing documents) cleared at a 61-day median this week, compared with 138 days for cases that moved through plain processing with no RFE. The ratio, 2.25 times faster for RFE-stamped cases, reverses the usual pattern: ordinarily, cases that require additional documentation take longer, not less time. One possibility is that a batch of RFE responses submitted months ago happened to clear adjudication together this week, producing a temporarily compressed median for that group. The data does not confirm this mechanism, and a single week is not enough to call it a trend.
2.25x RFE response cases clear faster than the plain processing cohort.
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