N-400 Backlog Grows Nearly 50% in One Month While Weekly Median Looks Calm
The week of June 1, 2026 shows a 28-day final-stage median that sits below the 12-week average, yet the active pending backlog expanded by 48.7% over the prior 31 days. Recent filing-month groups remain largely untouched by approvals.
The N-400 naturalization application's final-stage wait (median days from last recorded status to approval) came in at 28 days for the week of June 1, up 3 days from the prior week's 25 and still below the 12-week trailing average of 31 days. That number looks routine. Beneath it, the active pending backlog grew from roughly 40,000 to 59,710 cases in 31 days, a 48.7% increase, driven in large part by the April 2026 filing-month group, which added 7,233 active cases. Cases filed since January 2026 are clearing at rates of 2.5% or below. The mild weekly metric and the growing structural queue are telling different stories about the same form.
- The final-stage median for N-400 rose to 28 days this week, up 3 days from last week's 25 but still below the 12-week average of 31 days.
- The active pending backlog grew 48.7% (from roughly 40,000 to 59,710 cases) over 31 days, with the April 2026 filing-month group accounting for 7,233 of those additions.
- Only 2.5% of January 2026 filers have been approved at 22 weeks of age, and the February 2026 group stands at 2.2% approved at 18 weeks.
- Cases that had received an RFE (Request for Evidence) cleared in 27 days at the final stage this week, 5 days faster than plain-processing cases at 32 days, likely a pipeline-composition effect rather than a policy signal.
- The 4-week forecast carries a wide confidence band (~8 to 45 days the week of June 8) because the 8-week regression explains only about a quarter of weekly variance (R² = 0.26).
A mild number with a warning underneath
The N-400 final-stage wait (median days from the case's last recorded status to approval) came in at 28 days for the week of June 1, 2026. That is 3 days above last week's 25 and still below the 12-week trailing average of 31 days. The surface reading is mild. The same data period, however, shows the active pending backlog (cases filed since January 2026 that have not yet been approved or exited) grew from roughly 40,000 to 59,710 cases in 31 days, a 48.7% increase. The weekly median reflects cases already deep in the pipeline; the cohort (a group of cases) data reflects the large, largely untouched volume that has entered the queue in recent months.
Recent filers: barely a dent in the queue
The filing-month cohort (the group of cases filed in the same calendar month) data tells a quieter but more consequential story. Of the 12,522 cases in the January 2026 cohort, only 319 have been approved as of this week's snapshot, a clearance rate of 2.5% at 22 weeks of age. The February 2026 cohort stands at 2.2% approved at 18 weeks, across 13,536 total cases. The April 2026 cohort, now 12,402 cases strong, had the largest single-month growth in active cases: 7,233 additions over the 31-day window. These cohorts are still early in the adjudication (USCIS's case decision step: approval, denial, or a request for more information) queue, so low clearance rates are expected at this age. Even so, the volume accumulating at each age band suggests the pace of approvals will need to accelerate materially before clearance rates rise.
Monthly status count data reinforces the picture. Approved-status transitions during January through June 2026 are effectively near zero across all filing months, while processing-status transitions dominate each month's flow. Adjudication of recent cohorts has not yet begun in volume.
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