- Family-based applications accounted for 611,067 pending cases at quarter-end.
- Employment-based applications had a reported median processing time of 6 months.
- The agency’s filing test uses the applicable chart and an applicant’s priority date.
Checked against USCIS
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data put the pending Form I-485 total at 1,560,290 on June 30, 2026. The figure counts applications awaiting a decision, not every person worldwide seeking permanent residence.
The agency received 242,989 applications and decided 118,366 between April 1 and June 30, 2026. More came in than were decided. Those quarterly flows are not the same as the pending total at quarter-end.
Adjustment of status generally applies to people seeking permanent residence while present in the United States. This is a domestic application queue, not a complete count of people waiting through consular processing or for a visa to become available.
A separate tracker says the pending count rose 9% from the prior calendar quarter. It also reports an 85.8% I-485 approval rate for the quarter, down from 88.4% in Q1 2026, with 101,568 of 118,366 decided cases approved. Those comparisons belong to the tracker; the quarter’s receipts and decisions alone do not establish how any individual case will move.
The phrase “Green Card Backlog” can suggest a count of overdue cases. The figure here is a pending inventory, and it does not by itself establish that each application is late or predict a personal wait.
| Category | Pending at quarter end | Received, April–June | Completed, April–June | Median processing time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family-based | 611,067 | 95,175 | 66,918 | 7 months |
| Employment-based | 268,408 | 97,501 | 45,236 | 6 months |
Family and employment applications had more receipts than completions
The agency completed 54,678 family-based cases, approving them, and denied 12,240. Employment cases included 42,076 approvals and 3,160 denials among completed applications. Denials made up about 18% of family decisions and about 7% of employment decisions in the quarter.
The family pending total is an aggregate covering family-based cases, but the figures do not break it down by relationship or preference category. They do not say how many cases involve spouses, children, parents, siblings, or particular preference categories; no relationship-by-relationship count is provided.
A separate dashboard uses a broader grouping and counts 618,097 cases as humanitarian, compared with 611,067 in the family-based category. Those figures come from different category groupings, so they should not be treated as directly comparable slices of one classification.
Other adjustment categories show different pending totals and medians
The reported category figures also show large pending stocks alongside differing numbers of quarterly completions:
- Cuban adjustment: 342,360 pending and 586 completed, with 139 approvals and 447 denials.
- Refugee cases: 149,470 pending and 148 completed; the reported median was 17.6 months.
- Asylum-based cases: 126,267 pending and 2,642 completed; the median was 25.6 months.
The employment-based median was 6 months. A median describes cases completed in the quarter, not the time a particular applicant should expect to wait. The tracker says its median calculation uses cases completed during that period.
The domestic adjustment queue is not the consular visa line
Preference applicants may have to wait for a visa to become available before filing. Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens are not subject to the annual cap that applies to family preference visas.
A legal analysis says the State Department paused immigrant visa appointments at consular posts worldwide indefinitely beginning August 24. It says that pause affects visa processing abroad, not adjustment applications handled inside the United States. The appointment pause and the June pending total describe separate processes.
Pending family petitions on Form I-130 are also a separate measure. They should not be added to the adjustment total as though each petition represents a separate person.
Check the monthly chart and your own case status
The agency’s guidance on when to file an adjustment application says an otherwise eligible applicant may file when the priority date is earlier than the date shown on the applicable chart, or when the category is current.
- Preference applicants should identify their category and country column, then compare the priority date with the chart the agency says to use that month.
- A filing date determines whether an applicant may submit the application; it is not the same as a final-action date for approval.
- Applicants with a pending case can check the agency’s processing-times tool and available inquiry options for case-specific information.
The monthly chart governs filing availability. The pending total does not replace that check.
