USCIS Processing Time Goals

04/09/2009

In our 2007 fee rule we committed to improving service. In the months that followed we received a large surge of applications. Notwithstanding that surge, in Fiscal Year 2008 we began measuring our performance and backlog against the goals we set in the fee rule. Although we knew we could not reach them in FY 2008 because of the large surge, we believed it was important to remain true to the commitments we made – and we did process 1.6 million more cases that we received during the year.

In the fee rule we also set a goal for the end of FY 2009 – to reduce average processing time by an average of 20% from our goals before the fee rule. We remain committed to that goal. The table below lists our goals before the fee rule and our goals the end of this fiscal year (September 30, 2009). Between them it shows our current national average active case processing time.

The Target Active Pending column reflects what we predict our caseload of active applications or petitions will be as of the end of September 2009. This does not include cases in which we are awaiting action by the applicant or cases which are in limited visa categories where no visa is available (unless otherwise noted).

The Today's Backlog column reflects the number of cases that USCIS will need to complete - over and above our current production levels - before the end of September 2009 in order to meet our processing time goals for the end of this fiscal year.

There are many reasons why processing times at an office or center can vary from the national average. See current case processing times at individual offices and centers in the Related Links section (in the upper right-hand corner) of this page.

Cells in blue reflect where USCIS is already meeting its FY 2009 goal.

<< Back