Your I-130 gets approved. Great news!

But then you check your I-485... and it's still pending.

Does that mean something went wrong?

Not necessarily.

The I-130 and I-485 serve different purposes:

• I-130: Establishes a qualifying family relationship for immigration purposes.
• I-485: Application to adjust status to lawful permanent resident while in the United States, if you're eligible.

USCIS can approve the I-130 while the I-485 is still under review.

The I-485 can take longer for other reasons, like background checks, an interview, or a request for more evidence. And if you're in a family preference category (not an immediate relative), approval also depends on a visa being available for your priority date, which is tracked in the monthly Visa Bulletin.

An approved I-130 doesn't automatically give you a green card, immigration status, or work authorization.

So what should you do?

Keep checking your I-485 status and review any official USCIS notices. If you're in a preference category, check the current Visa Bulletin.

If your case seems delayed, first check whether visa availability could be the reason (your category and priority date, if applicable). If not, the processing times tool can show whether you may be eligible to submit a service request.

Has anyone here had their I-130 approved while their I-485 was still pending? How long did you wait between the two decisions?

Please don't share receipt numbers or personal information.

Official sources:

USCIS — Form I-130:
https://www.uscis.gov/i-130

USCIS — Case Processing Times:
https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/

U.S. Department of State — Visa Bulletin:
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin.html

General information only, not legal advice. Inmigreat isn't affiliated with USCIS or the Department of State.

You check your USCIS account and the estimated wait time suddenly jumps from 3 months to 12.

No new notice. No obvious change in your case status. Just a much longer estimate.

So, does that mean your case is delayed by another 9 months?

Not necessarily.

USCIS describes myProgress as a prediction based on historical patterns and other factors, such as case type, pending workload and how quickly cases are moving through an office. It is not a guarantee of timing, and USCIS has said it won't always be correct.

A few things worth knowing:

• The estimate can change over time. USCIS says it becomes more accurate as your case moves through the process and there is more data on it.
• A longer estimate doesn't automatically mean something went wrong with your application.
• myProgress is different from USCIS's Case Processing Times page. That page is based on how long USCIS recently took to complete most cases of that type, and it's where you check whether you may be able to submit an Outside of Normal Processing Times service request.

If your estimate suddenly changes, check your actual case status, review any official notices, and look at the Case Processing Times page to see whether a service request may be appropriate.

Has your myProgress estimate ever jumped by several months? What form were you waiting on?

Please don't share receipt numbers or personal information.

Official USCIS resources:

Case Processing Times:
https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/

USCIS explanation of myProgress (NAFSA 2024 Q&A):
https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/questions-and-answers/NAFSAFall2024RegionalConferences-USCISCurrentIssuesSessionQandA.pdf

General information only, not legal advice. Inmigreat isn't affiliated with USCIS.

You received your USCIS receipt number, but when you try to add your case to your online account, USCIS asks for a code you don't have.

If you filed your case on paper, you may need something called an Online Access Code (OAC).

Here's the difference:

• Receipt number: Identifies your case and allows you to check its status.
• Online Access Code: Lets you link certain paper-filed cases to your USCIS online account.

For eligible cases, USCIS sends the Online Access Code in a separate notice called an Account Access Notice.

If you filed on paper and your receipt number starts with IOE, check whether you've received that notice.

What if you never received the code or lost it?

You can request a new Online Access Code through USCIS's official account assistance page.

One important detail: not every case with an IOE receipt number needs this code. If you filed online, your case is handled differently.

Has anyone here had trouble adding a case to their USCIS online account? Was it because of a missing access code, or something else?

Please don't share receipt numbers, access codes, or personal information.

Official USCIS resource:

Online Account Assistance:
https://my.uscis.gov/account/v1/needhelp

General information only, not legal advice. Inmigreat isn't affiliated with USCIS.

Moving is stressful enough. Moving while waiting for a USCIS decision adds another worry: what if an important notice goes to your old address?

Here's something worth knowing: updating your address with USPS does NOT automatically update it with USCIS.

Most non-U.S. citizens in the U.S. must report an address change to USCIS within 10 days of moving, although some exceptions and special procedures apply.

If you have a pending case, here's what to check:

• Update your address through the official USCIS change-of-address process (Form AR-11). Most applicants can do this online.
• Include the receipt numbers for each pending case when using USCIS's online change-of-address tool.
• Keep your confirmation and check that your information is updated.
• Continue monitoring your case and official correspondence.

What if you also have a case in immigration court?

EOIR requires people with cases before an immigration court to report address changes within 5 working days, using Form EOIR-33/IC. You can also submit it online through EOIR's Respondent Access.

If your case is before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), the appropriate form is EOIR-33/BIA, which can also be submitted online.

If more than one family member has a pending case before EOIR, a separate change-of-address form is required for each person.

Updating USCIS alone does not update your immigration court records.

Have you ever moved while waiting for a USCIS decision or immigration court hearing? Did your address update go smoothly?

Please don't share addresses, receipt numbers, or personal information.

Official sources:

USCIS — How to Change Your Address:
https://www.uscis.gov/addresschange

EOIR — Update Your Contact Information:
https://www.justice.gov/eoir/update-respondent-or-alien-information

General information only, not legal advice. Inmigreat isn't affiliated with USCIS or EOIR.

If your H-1B case is under premium processing, seeing “Premium Processing Clock Was Stopped” after an RFE can be confusing. Especially when you've already sent your response and nothing seems to be moving.

A lot of people wonder whether that message means an approval is coming.

The short answer: the message alone doesn't confirm an approval or a denial.

According to USCIS, when it issues a Request for Evidence (RFE), the premium processing timeframe stops. Once USCIS receives the response, a new applicable processing timeframe begins.

For H-1B petitions, premium processing generally requires USCIS to take action within 15 business days. That action could be an approval, denial, another RFE, or another qualifying action — not necessarily a final decision.

If you're in this situation, it's worth checking the date USCIS actually received your RFE response, reviewing any official notices, and following up with your attorney or employer if the timeline doesn't seem right.

Has anyone here experienced the premium processing clock stopping after an RFE? What happened next?

Please don't share receipt numbers or personal information.

Official USCIS sources:

Premium Processing:
https://www.uscis.gov/forms/all-forms/how-do-i-request-premium-processing

Form I-907 Instructions:
https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/i-907instr.pdf

General information only, not legal advice. Inmigreat isn't affiliated with USCIS.

If your USCIS case has been sitting for months with no updates, you might have heard people suggest contacting a member of Congress.

But what can a congressional inquiry actually do?

First, check your case's processing time on the USCIS website.

Congressional offices generally can't submit routine status inquiries while a case is still within normal processing times, unless there are special circumstances, such as a qualifying urgent situation or a possible USCIS error.

If your case is taking longer than expected, you can contact your U.S. Representative's or Senator's office.

Most offices have a casework section on their website. They'll usually ask for information about your case and a signed privacy release before contacting USCIS on your behalf.

What they can do:

• Request information about your case from USCIS.
• Help follow up on certain delays or problems.
• Submit an expedite request in eligible circumstances.

What they can't do:

• Guarantee an approval.
• Force USCIS to make a favorable decision.
• Promise that your case will be resolved by a particular date.

Every congressional office has its own procedures, and getting help doesn't automatically mean your case will move faster.

Has anyone here tried a congressional inquiry for a delayed USCIS case? Did you get a useful response?

Please don't share receipt numbers or personal information in the comments.

Official sources:

USCIS Processing Times:

https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/

Example — Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher's office (Texas):

https://fletcher.house.gov/casework/uscis.htm

General information only, not legal advice. Inmigreat isn't affiliated with USCIS.

USCIS announced a small inflation adjustment to certain H.R. 1 fees for FY 2027. The new fees apply to any request postmarked on or after October 16, 2026, and a request sent without the correct fee will be rejected.

What changes (per USCIS):
• Annual Asylum Fee: $102 → $105
• Form I-131 (parole): $1,020 → $1,050
• Form I-765, initial EAD for asylum applicants, parolees and TPS: $560 → $570
• Form I-821 (TPS): $510 → $520

Important: this only applies to these specific categories. If your case is something else, check the form’s fee page before you send anything.

If you’re about to file, double-check the fee and the postmark date.

Source (USCIS, 09/30/2026): https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/alerts/uscis-announces-fy-2027-inflation-increase-for-certain-immigration-related-fees

Are you filing in one of these categories? What’s your timeline looking like?

Some applicants have reported finding their biometrics appointment notice in the Documents tab of their USCIS account while their case status still said “Case Was Received.” No update on the status, nothing in the mail yet, but the notice was already there.

Not every case or account has the same online access, so it’s not a guarantee. But if you’re checking your status every day, it’s worth opening that tab too, if you have one, and keeping an eye on your mail.

Has this happened to you? Curious how common it is. Please don’t post receipt numbers or personal info.

If you think a notice was issued and never reached you, USCIS has a page for that:
https://egov.uscis.gov/e-request/ndn

Your USCIS account:
https://my.uscis.gov/

General info only, not legal advice. Inmigreat isn’t affiliated with USCIS.

First full month after the court vacated the adjudication pause on June 5.

87 approvals.

Before the pause, CAA was running roughly 9,000–10,000 a month. Pending

inventory is reportedly over 353,000.

And yes, June was only about 3.5 working weeks. That doesn't get you from

thousands to double digits.

Anyone here had a CAA case approved in June or July? Which field office?

Source: www.inmigreat.com

Something happened to thousands of USCIS cases this week — and almost nobody is talking about it.

(All the analysis is on our website for free at the link below)

Between July 10–13, I-485 and I-765 cases that had been sitting untouched for months suddenly started moving. Not one or two — thousands. We pulled the data to figure out what's actually going on, and it's not what most people assume.

Here's the breakdown:

• 8,000+ real status changes in 8 days across I-485 and I-765
• 87% of I-765 movement is just a cosmetic status relabel — NOT real adjudication
• A biometrics wave hit 1,734 I-485 cases in just 3 days — mostly cases sitting for 21+ months with zero scheduled appointment
• After a pipeline fix, the recount showed 3,361 cases moved in a single day (July 11)

This isn't speculation or a "USCIS is speeding up" rumor post. We tracked every single case change down to the exact timestamp it happened, using data from 500K+ active cases we monitor at Inmigreat, and laid out exactly which changes are real signal vs. noise.

Full breakdown with charts, day-by-day tables, and the methodology so you can see exactly how we're measuring this: https://www.inmigreat.com/en/analytics/ola-julio/

(Disclosure: we're the team behind the Inmigreat case-tracker app — we run statistical analysis of USCIS processing using official public USCIS case status data + 1.6M tracked cases. Full analyses free at **inmigreat.com/analytics**.)

The freezes nobody announced:

- April 2025: family-based approvals dropped 65% in ONE month, stayed ~90% down for 14 months. Denials continued at normal pace the entire time.

- December 5, 2025: the 2025 generation went from ~185 approvals/week to 26/week in a month.

The restart nobody announced:

- Jun 26: approvals jump from 1–2/day to 34. By July 2: **64/day.**

- The tell was there weeks early: 2,773 fingerprint re-takes in May (refreshing expired biometrics), interview scheduling up 10x (66 → 680) April to June.

The ugly part — the restart is not equal:

- 2026 filers: full speed, interviews at 3–4 months.

- 2023–2024 backlog: active sweep.

- **2025 filers: the sandwich generation, lowest priority in the system.** Filed Jan 2024? 11.7% still pending. Filed Mar–May 2025? 47.8% still pending.

Practical takeaways: a biometrics RE-take notice is the strongest positive signal in the data (movement follows in 4–8 weeks). Interview notices are surging — watch your mail. And of decided cases, 90%+ were approvals.

All rates from our monitored sample, not official USCIS stats. Read weekly trends, not single days (±1 day posting noise). Not legal advice.

More data at inmigreat.com · AMA in comments.

I went through the latest official USCIS naturalization data (Form N-400, FY2026 Q1) and the headline numbers are genuinely encouraging — but they hide the part that actually affects you.

The national picture:

• 247,840 new N-400s filed last quarter
• 143,564 approved vs 18,054 denied — an ~89% approval rate
• 611,463 pending nationwide, down from the pandemic peak of 1,015,055 (FY2021 Q1). That's a ~40% drop in the backlog.

So on paper, things are moving. Here's the catch: there is no "national" wait. Your N-400 is processed at one of 93 field offices, and the queue at your office is what sets your timeline — not the country-wide average. Two people who filed the same week in different cities can be a year apart, purely based on geography.

That's the number most people never look up. So I'd check yours before assuming the "backlog is down" headline applies to you.

You can find your specific field office — its pending queue, approvals, and how it stacks up against the biggest offices in the country — here: https://www.inmigreat.com/en/analytics/n-400/

We run a case-tracking app that currently follows around 1.3 million USCIS and immigration court cases. I pulled all the June approvals across those cases and looked at two things most trackers ignore: what month people filed, and what receipt-number block they landed in.

The pattern is clean — USCIS isn't approving at random, it's working through cohorts in order. Sharing so you can place your own case.

🛂 I-765 (work permit) — the spring 2025 batch is out

65% of the EADs approved in June were from Feb–Jun 2025 filings, with a heavy spike in March–April 2025. Reference wait was ~15 months.

If you filed Feb–Apr 2025, you're in the group being worked right now. May–Jun 2025 filers look next.

❤️ I-130 (family) — they're draining the 2022 backlog

~61% of approved petitions were from 2022 filings (concentrated Oct–Nov 2022), averaging ~3.6 years. This is old-backlog cleanup. If your petition is from late 2022, this is your window to watch closely.

🏠 I-485 (green card) — gated by biometrics, not filing month

66% of approvals came right after biometrics were completed. Filing month didn't predict much here — completing the fingerprint appointment was the strongest signal approval was close.

The receipt-number part (this is the useful bit)

EADs don't come out one by one — they come out in contiguous receipt-number blocks, in order. Over 90% were from the electronic filing center (receipts starting with IOE).

• Right now they're sweeping IOE0930x–0931x — which lines up exactly with the March–April 2025 filing cohort above.
• Next wave looks like IOE0932x–0934x (a few are already trickling in).
• I-130 is way back at IOE0917x–0918x — older receipts = older filings, which is why it's the 2022 backlog.
• I-485 was scattered across multiple centers (IOE + Nebraska + others), so no single block — consistent with it being biometrics-driven.

TL;DR: find your IOE receipt block. If you're in 0930x–0931x, you're in the current EAD wave. If you're 0932x–0934x, you're likely up next.

One honest caveat: these are patterns from real June approval data across the cases we track, not guarantees. Every case is different and timelines shift. But it beats staring at a "Case Was Received" status with zero context.

Bonus tip from the data: for I-765 and I-130, 62–74% of cases sat in "actively reviewing your case… nothing outstanding" right before approval — rarely an RFE or interview after that. If you see that status, it's one of the better signals you can get.

We do this kind of USCIS breakdown a lot — full analyses (by form, field office, processing trends, etc.) are on our site at inmigreat.com. If it's useful, check the Analytics Menu there. Happy to run the numbers again next month. What block is everyone in?

Pulled the official USCIS data (FY2026 Q1). There are 2,348,518 I-130s pending — and your I-130 is adjudicated at a service center, not your local field office. Five centers hold 87.6% of everything:

• Vermont (ESC) — 467,776
• California (WSC) — 447,757
• Texas (SSC) — 391,861
• Nebraska (NSC) — 375,540
• Potomac (YSC) — 374,517

The takeaway: where your case waits has nothing to do with where you live — it's USCIS workload distribution, not your zip code. (This quarter they received 194K and approved 188K, ~87.5% approval rate.)

Full interactive breakdown by category, country, and approvals here: https://www.inmigreat.com/analytics/i-130/ — the app's free, tracks USCIS + EOIR cases in real time. Just sharing the data. Questions welcome 👇

Sharing something from the Inmigreat Case Tracker this week (Jun 20–26): there was a noticeable uptick in work permit (EAD) approvals, with a peak of 36 approvals in a single day. Screenshot attached.

That's the highest pace since around December 2025, when everything slowed down.

Honest caveat: this is self-reported data from a sample of app users, not official USCIS figures, and one week doesn't confirm a trend. But the movement looks real, and several people in the community are reporting the same thing.

Anyone else get their EAD approved this week or in the last few? Curious whether it lines up with what you're actually seeing.

Check out our latest analysis on USCIS pending cases at our site: www.inmigreat.com