N-600 Posts a Tentative 89-Day Median as RFE Cases Clear in Just 25 Days

The week of August 24 is, for now, an early signal only. At 137 cases approved, this week's sample is roughly half the 12-week average of about 246 approvals per week, and USCIS data at this volume tends to shift materially as the full week fills in. With that caveat front and center: the preliminary median final-stage wait for N-600 this week is 89 days, up 20 days (+28.4%) from last week's 69. The outlier_week_high flag fired with a z-score of 2.04 against the prior 4-week trailing window, meaning this week's reading sits two standard deviations above the recent run. Against the same week last year, the gap is larger still: 36 days in 2025 versus a tentative 89 days now, a 146% year-over-year difference. If the sample fills in to full strength next week, the median could shift in either direction.

N-600 medians have moved across a wide range over the past 12 weeks, from a low of 33 days the week of June 29 to a high of 117 days the week of June 8. That 84-day spread is not unusual for this form at current sample volumes. The pattern is classified as noisy and stable: a slope of +2.7 days per week over the last 8 weeks suggests a mild upward drift, but the regression's R² of 0.22 means the week-to-week noise explains most of the variation, not any underlying directional trend. At a preliminary sample of 137 cases this week, the median can reflect who happened to be approved as much as any underlying movement in adjudication (USCIS's case decision step) pace.

Placed against the 12-week trailing average of 69 days, this week's 89 reads high but not without precedent: the same 12-week window already contains a 117-day week and an 88-day week. The 3-year same-week average of 36 days offers a longer perspective, though that baseline reflects a period when N-600 weekly sample counts averaged around 26 cases (as in the same week last year), a much thinner flow than current volumes. The two baselines are measuring meaningfully different caseload environments and should not be compared directly.

The rfe_fast anomaly flag also fired this week, and the underlying numbers are the counterintuitive part of this issue. Cases that received and responded to a Request for Evidence posted a median final-stage wait of 25 days. Cases with no RFE in their history posted a median of 79 days, making the RFE-response group 3.2x faster. Normally the reverse holds: after a response is submitted, an adjudicator must review the materials, which adds time relative to cases that never required a follow-up. One reading consistent with the data is that a group of RFE responses from a concentrated filing period cleared rapidly together, producing an apparent batch effect. The data brief does not distinguish among mechanisms, and the pattern may revert as newer RFE responses age in the queue without the same timing coincidence.

Cases that received a Request for Evidence this week cleared in 25 days, less than a third of the 79-day wait for cases that never received one.