I-90 Final-Stage Wait Falls From 250 Days to 27 in 12 Weeks

Twelve weeks ago, the median time from an I-90 applicant's last reported status to approval stood at 250 days. As of June 8, that figure is 27 days. The arc is almost perfectly linear: the 8-week regression slope is -25.6 days per week with an R² of 0.97, meaning the data fits a straight line with very little scatter. This is a sustained, consistent descent, not a correction from a single anomalous week. The single-week drop of 37 days (from 63 days in the week of June 1 to 27 days in the week of June 8) is the latest step in that sequence. All 5,225 approved cases this week cleared through the IOE channel, which handles electronically filed I-90 applications. No other service center reported meaningful approval volume.

The filing-month cohort burndown data (cumulative approvals as a share of all cases filed in a given month, as of this week's snapshot) reveals an uneven pattern across recent groups. The April 2026 filing-month group, at age 11 weeks, has reached 47.6% cleared out of 18,757 total cases. The March 2026 group, four weeks older at 15 weeks, sits at only 16.2% cleared out of 23,039 cases. Because the two groups are at different ages, a direct percentage comparison overstates the gap, but the April group was well ahead of the March group's pace when the March group was at the same 11-week mark. The January 2026 group, the oldest tracked at 24 weeks, has reached 38.5% cleared out of 17,028 cases, meaning more than six in ten cases from that period remain pending. Cohort burndown measures cumulative approvals from the filing month forward, not any single week's approval flow.

The total active pending backlog grew by 16,156 cases, a 32.6% increase, over the 43-day window from May 7 to June 19. The May 2026 filing-month group accounts for the bulk of that growth, adding 11,924 active cases as new filings were receipted into that intake window. A rising active backlog alongside faster final-stage approvals is consistent with a wave of new filings arriving faster than the system clears them. That dynamic does not automatically signal slower future processing, but it is the metric that will determine whether the current fast pace is sustainable.

The inversion appears structural rather than a statistical artifact. Cases with an RFE (Request for Evidence) response already on file have cleared the evidentiary review step; the adjudicator's remaining task is narrower than for a case still working through initial review. The 265,269 cases sitting at 'Case Is Still Being Processed By USCIS' carry a raw median of 192 days in the last-30-day stage window, which is where the non-RFE median of 161 days likely anchors. By contrast, cases at the 'Response To USCIS' Request For Evidence Was Received' stage show a raw median of 35 days, a 25th percentile (p25) of 14 days, and a 75th percentile (p75) of 72 days across 1,722 cases in that 30-day window. This does not mean applicants should seek an RFE; most plain-processing cases clear without one, and the evidentiary process adds its own delay earlier in the timeline. An RFE is not a sign of trouble: most cases that receive one are ultimately approved.

An RFE response on file narrows the adjudicator's remaining task, and this week's data suggests that narrower task resolves faster.