U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved 15,349 Form N-400 applications in August 2026, down from 16,514 in July and 18,439 in June. The decline puts Indian Green-Card Holders among applicants facing slower US Citizenship Approvals, though the agency’s monthly figures do not break pending cases down by nationality.
The USCIS backlog reached 813,453 cases in August, up from 778,489 in July and 744,412 in June. The agency received 54,492 applications in August, more than three times the number it approved. The wait is growing.
At that month’s end, 513,462 applications had been pending for more than six months. USCIS reported an average processing time of 12.7 months, but did not explain the falling approval totals in its monthly data.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington state Democrat, criticized the administration on X, citing figures compiled by David Bier of the Cato Institute. She accused it of “blocking off people who… are green card holders… waiting for their citizenship approval.”
Applicants must meet residency rules and keep their records current
Lawful permanent residents generally may seek naturalization after holding a green card for five years. The waiting period is three years for eligible residents married to a U.S. citizen. Applicants must meet the other requirements, demonstrate English proficiency, pass a civics test and complete an interview.
Immigration lawyers advise applicants to submit complete forms, provide accurate information and keep their home addresses current with USCIS. Those steps can prevent avoidable administrative delays, but cannot guarantee faster decisions.
Naturalized citizens can vote in federal elections, sponsor certain relatives for immigration and travel on a U.S. passport without the restrictions attached to permanent residency. Green-card holders cannot vote in federal elections. Applicants still waiting when the November midterm elections arrive may not be able to participate.
Jayapal, who was born in Chennai and later became a naturalized citizen, serves as ranking member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement.
Quarterly reports show regular cases carry most of the queue
USCIS’s third-quarter fiscal 2026 report covered April through June. It listed 145,872 new naturalization applications, 57,697 approvals and 12,842 denials. The agency made 70,539 decisions overall, about 48 decisions per 100 new applications received. Denials accounted for about 18 percent of decisions.
The report’s quarter-end pending total differs from the agency’s monthly series. The quarterly report put the June workload at 742,138, while the monthly count for June was 744,412.
| Case type, April-June 2026 | Applications received | Approvals | Denials | Pending at quarter-end | Median processing time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular naturalization | 140,179 | 54,974 | 12,591 | 727,371 | 9.5 months |
| Military naturalization | 5,693 | 2,723 | 251 | 14,767 | 2.6 months |
Regular applicants made up most of the workload. They completed 67,565 cases during the quarter. Through June 30, USCIS had received 523,605 regular naturalization applications fiscal year to date and completed 325,167, including 279,685 approvals and 45,482 denials.
The field-office figures varied widely. Houston had 31,057 pending cases, followed by Dallas with 28,662, Chicago with 23,623, San Jose with 20,899 and San Antonio with 18,999. Dallas received 6,167 applications in the quarter, compared with 5,545 in Houston and 5,077 in Chicago. Houston issued the most approvals among those offices, 4,441.
Denials clustered at several New York-area offices: Brooklyn recorded 733, while Queens and New York each recorded 706.
A proposed fee hike and other immigration restrictions add context
India ranked second among countries of birth for people naturalized in fiscal year 2024. About 49,700 India-born people became U.S. citizens that year, representing 6.1 percent of all people naturalized.
The Trump administration has tightened other legal immigration channels, including a reported suspension of the PERM labor certification process used in many employment-based green-card cases. Indian professionals often rely on employment-based routes, and per-country limits have left some applicants waiting years or decades for permanent residency.
A separate Department of Homeland Security proposal, announced in June, would raise naturalization fees by up to 80 percent. Under the plan, Form N-400 would cost $1,330 on paper, up from $760, and $1,280 online, up from $710. The proposal would remove the reduced fee for eligible lower-income applicants and end fee waivers for naturalization applications and related appeals. Statutory exemptions for qualifying current and former military service members would remain.
DHS said the proposed increases would make applicants cover the full cost of processing their cases. The plan is a proposal, not a fee change currently in effect.
An Ohio resident has asked a federal court to set deadlines
Meng Ju Liu, also known as Michael Liu, sued federal officials in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on October 15, 2026. Liu, a Taiwanese national and lawful permanent resident since 2002, applied for naturalization on April 25, 2025, and had waited around 18 months without an interview.
His complaint cites a 9.5-month USCIS processing time for 80 percent of N-400 cases in Cincinnati. Federal law allows an applicant whose case remains undecided more than 120 days after the naturalization examination to ask a federal district court to intervene.
Liu is asking the court to require completion of his record and background security checks within 30 days. If he clears them, he wants the government to naturalize him within 30 days after the checks finish, and to pay court costs and fees.
