VisaTracker

Our Methodology

VisaTracker tracks processing times, approval rates, and field office performance for every major visa type in the United States. We use official government data to give applicants and attorneys a clear picture of the immigration system. Here is exactly how we do it.

Data Sources

Our primary data source is the USCIS quarterly case status reports, published by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. These reports contain processing times, approval and denial counts, and pending caseloads for each form type at each field office and service center.

We supplement this with the DHS Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, published annually by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Immigration Statistics. The Yearbook provides country-of-origin breakdowns, historical trend data, and demographic details not available in the quarterly reports.

The form types we track include:

  • Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence (green card)
  • Form N-400, Application for Naturalization (citizenship)
  • Form I-589, Application for Asylum
  • Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative (family-based immigration)
  • Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker (work visas including H-1B, L-1, O-1)

How We Calculate the Pipeline Score

Every USCIS field office receives a Pipeline Score on a 0-100 scale that grades processing efficiency. The score is a weighted composite of three performance indicators:

  • Processing Time vs. National Average, 40% weight. How the office's median processing time compares to the national median for each form type. Offices that process faster than average score higher. We normalize processing times to a 0-100 scale where the fastest offices score 100 and the slowest score near 0.
  • Approval Rate, 30% weight. The percentage of completed cases that result in approval. Higher approval rates suggest more efficient adjudication and better-prepared applicants in that office's jurisdiction. We compare each office's rate to the national average.
  • Backlog Trend, 30% weight. Whether the office's pending caseload is growing or shrinking over the most recent four quarters. Offices that are reducing their backlog score higher than those where pending cases are increasing. This captures operational momentum.

The Pipeline Score is calculated per-office across all tracked form types. An office with a high score is processing cases faster than average, approving at a healthy rate, and reducing its backlog.

Data Collection Process

We download USCIS quarterly reports (published as Excel files) and parse case counts by form type, field office, and service center. Country-of-origin data is extracted from the DHS Yearbook CSV files. We use office identifiers to track performance over time and calculate quarter-over-quarter trends.

Processing times are reported by USCIS as the time range within which 80% of cases are completed. We use the midpoint of this range as the representative processing time for scoring purposes.

Update Frequency

USCIS releases quarterly data approximately 60-90 days after each quarter end. We process and publish updates within one week of each quarterly release. The DHS Yearbook is published annually and incorporated when available.

Known Limitations

  • USCIS processing time data reflects historical completions, not predictions for pending cases. Actual processing times may be longer or shorter than reported.
  • Approval rates can be influenced by factors beyond office efficiency, including the complexity of cases assigned to each office and regional differences in application quality.
  • Some form types are processed at service centers rather than field offices, which affects geographic comparisons.
  • The Pipeline Score is our own composite metric, not an official USCIS designation. It is intended to help applicants understand relative office performance, not to predict individual case outcomes.
  • Asylum cases (I-589) may follow different processing paths through immigration courts, and USCIS data captures only the affirmative asylum process.

How to Cite This Data

If you use data from VisaTracker, please cite:

VisaTracker. "[Topic] Immigration Statistics." DOMAIN_TBD, 2026. Accessed [date].

Underlying data is sourced from USCIS quarterly reports and the DHS Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, both in the public domain.