I-90 Green Card Renewal Wait Falls to 126 Days, Lowest in 12 Weeks

Cases approved the week of November 2 waited a median of 126 days from USCIS receipt to approval, the lowest reading in at least 12 weeks and 7 days below the prior week's reading of 133 days. The year-over-year comparison is also favorable: the same week in 2025 posted a median of 131 days across 1,238 approvals, so the current pace is modestly faster than a year ago. Meanwhile, 75,838 cases remain pending as of November 9, up slightly from 75,655 four weeks earlier; that pending count covers all filing cohorts and is a separate population from the approvals described here. None of the wait figures in this brief describes how long those pending cases have waited.

The spread around the median offers additional reassurance. The 25th percentile (p25) sat at 47 days, meaning a quarter of approved cases cleared within 47 days of filing. The 75th percentile (p75) was 131 days, so three quarters of approvals came in at or under that mark. In concrete terms, 1,334 cases (26% of those with a known filing date) were approved within 45 days of filing, and only 85 cases (2%) waited more than a year. Outcomes vary, and faster clearance is a real possibility for many applicants.

The weekly total wait series traces a clear downward path. The median peaked near 188 days in late August, then fell roughly 7 to 10 days per week through October, landing at 126 days this week. The final-stage wait (time from the last status update to approval, a secondary metric distinct from the total wait) followed a similar arc, from 104 days in mid-August to 82 days now. That said, the 8-week regression on the final-stage series carries an R² of 0.24, making the direction suggestive rather than confirmed by a tight fit. USCIS volume and staffing data are not available to explain the decline mechanically; the data brief does not identify a cause.

Looking at stage durations (30-day raw percentiles) from the case flow data, cases currently sitting at the 'USCIS Is Currently Processing the Case' status show a median of 179 days at that status, with the 25th percentile at 120 days and the 75th percentile at 221 days, across 325,074 cases. That stage accounts for 36.6% of all tracked I-90 cases. A long stretch at the processing stage is not stalling; it reflects the normal adjudicator queue. The status will typically jump directly from processing to 'Case Was Approved' without an intermediate update, which is standard for I-90 adjudication (the USCIS case decision step).

The biometrics (fingerprint and photo appointment) stage, 'Biometrics Appointment Was Scheduled,' shows a much shorter median of 23 days across 150,819 cases, so this step is not a meaningful bottleneck for most applicants. Similarly, 'Card Is Being Produced' (27.5% of tracked cases, across 244,445 cases) moves quickly at a median of 5 days. Once a case reaches approval, card production adds only a brief interval before the physical card is on its way.