FY2026 Q2 · USCIS record

I-485 processing time for Refugees

14.6 mo

Median processing time

half of cases took longer

132,538

Still pending

in this category

121

Decided this quarter

approvals and denials

23,448

Filed this quarter

new petitions received

Which category your case is counted in

Adjustment after admission as a refugee is reported in its own row.

USCIS does not publish a separate processing time for refugee. It publishes I-485 as Refugee, and that is the queue your petition sits in — so the figures above are that category's, not an estimate made for this page.

What comes after the petition

A refugee is required to apply one year after admission, and there is no numerical cap.

Reading the number

14.6 months is a median: half of the I-485 Refugee petitions USCIS finished in FY2026 Q2 took longer than that, and half took less. It describes cases that were completed in the quarter, so it says nothing directly about a case filed today — a queue of 132,538 pending petitions sits ahead of a new filing.

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