Green Card (I-485)

I-485 is among the longest-waiting USCIS form types tracked here, averaging 480 days — roughly 16 months, well over a year. Multi-year processing typically reflects per-country quotas under the Immigration and Nationality Act, severe receipt-versus-completion imbalances at the adjudicating service centers, or stacked dependencies on prior petitions.

Adjustment of status to lawful permanent resident. Includes family-sponsored, employment-based, and diversity visa immigrants. The official adjudicator is U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). For applicants outside the United States, the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs handles consular processing through embassies and consulates.

I-485 has a 82% approval rate, solidly above the cross-form USCIS average. The category leans approve-by-default for complete filings, but a meaningful minority of cases are denied, usually for missing evidence, eligibility gaps, or admissibility issues during background checks. The cross-form USCIS average across the 8 categories tracked here is 73%, so I-485 sits above the agency-wide benchmark.

Filing volume for I-485 has been increasing in recent USCIS reporting periods. Rising receipts without matching adjudicator capacity is the single most common cause of growing backlogs, and is the dynamic the agency cites most often when explaining processing-time slippage.

USCIS publishes form-type performance data quarterly. The current dataset reflects fiscal year 2023 adjudication, covering 2.1M total applications across 198 countries and 63 field offices. The DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics publishes the annual Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, which provides historical baselines this dataset cross-checks against.

Processing time is the average number of days from USCIS receipt of a complete filing to final adjudication, sourced from quarterly USCIS performance reports. Approval rate is computed as approved cases divided by completed cases (approvals plus denials), excluding still-pending applications. All values are aggregated nationally; per-service-center variation can be substantial. Read the full VisaTracker methodology for definitions, edge cases, and refresh cadence.

Note: This page presents general statistics, not legal or immigration advice. Eligibility, evidence requirements, and case-specific timing should be discussed with a licensed immigration attorney or an accredited representative recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice.