U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is grappling with an unprecedented backlog of immigration cases, reaching a record 11.3 million pending applications.
USCIS data from January to March shows some immigration categories experiencing worsening delays, with processing times creeping up. As backlogs grow larger each quarter, applicants are left waiting months or even years longer than they expected.
Immigration attorneys told Newsweek that the Trump administration’s efforts to find fraud in applications is significantly slowing down processing times and creating “massive backlogs” across an already overwhelmed immigration system.
“The Trump administration has told USCIS to slow down processing of cases. Predictably, the system has quickly developed massive backlogs. By the end of 2028, we will pine for the days of a functioning legal immigration system because it will effectively not exist by the end of the Trump term,” Charles Kuck, the founding partner at Kuck Baxter in Atlanta, told Newsweek.
Newsweek contacted USCIS for comment via email on Monday afternoon.
Why It Matters
The 11.3 million applications backlog marks the highest volume of pending cases ever recorded by the agency. For the first time in over a year, USCIS reported a “frontlog”—cases received but not yet opened or officially entered into the processing system—that stands at more than 34,000. The high number of unprocessed applications raises concerns about delays beginning even before formal review processes commence.
What To Know
USCIS is funded solely through the fees it charges immigrants applying for various benefits, such as green cards and work authorization, and replacement visa documents. Reports over multiple administrations have laid out the difficulties with this model and the ongoing struggles to fully staff the agency, leading to delays.
The latest data showed several form categories with an uptick in processing times, with some applicants waiting several years for their cases to be decided.
Forms I-90, the Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card, and I-765—the Application for Employment Authorization, with the EAD card issued on Form I-766— have shown increases in processing times compared to the previous quarter.
This is partially attributed to the agency’s suspension of its Streamlined Case Processing (SCP) program, an automated system that expedited approvals without the need for officer review. The suspension is intended to allow enhanced vetting, though no timeline has been announced for the SCP’s reinstatement.
Greg Siskind, an immigration attorney at Siskind Susser in Memphis, Tennessee, told Newsweek that attorneys had been expecting longer wait times since the presidential election in November. He said staff were likely to have left without replacements, particularly in the face of Department of Government Efficiency pressures across the federal government.
“Then there was an expected increase in the rate of Requests for Evidence, where USCIS demands more documentation before approving a case,” Siskind said. “This happened in the first Trump term, and a spike in RFE rates will show up in the processing times, often doubling or tripling the amount of time one can expect in a given case.”
Some categories saw improvements, however. The backlog of Form I-131, the advance parole application, decreased by almost 60,000 cases this fiscal year. Still, it remains high, with about 260,000 cases pending and a median processing time of 5.8 months—a length considered unacceptably long by immigration advocates.
“It is still early to draw firm conclusions from the data, as processing trends may shift based on staffing, litigation, or new policy guidance. However, outside the boundaries of congressional mandates or statutory requirements, what may appear to be backlogs may be better described as policy choices,” Morgan Bailey, a partner at Mayer Brown and former senior official at the Department of Homeland Security, told Newsweek.
Work authorization applications paint a mixed picture. Cases tied to adjustment of status and asylum, known as categories C09 and C08, are facing little to no backlog. However, other types of work permits add up to about 775,000 pending cases. Most notably, the parole-based C11 category alone includes about 531,000 applications, many of which have been reopened for revocation under programs for nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela—commonly referred to as the CHNV parole program.
Employment-based applications made up a large share of USCIS’s workload this quarter, with 1.73 million forms filed in Q2 alone. This category includes key programs such as H-1B visa petitions, employment authorization applications and green card applications for skilled workers. The high numbers highlight how much the U.S. economy continues to depend on foreign talent across a wide range of industries.
Notably, Form I-765, the Application for Employment Authorization, saw 698,586 cases processed far faster, especially for asylum-seekers—with a median processing time of 0.7 months.
Data published by USCIS for January to March of fiscal year 2025 shows about 2.4 million approvals compared to 261,000 denials, resulting in an overall approval rate of about 90.2 percent.
Meanwhile, immigration courts are overwhelmed, with a backlog exceeding 3.7 million cases, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Asylum-seekers often wait years for decisions on their cases.
The growing backlog means longer waits for family reunification, employment opportunities and humanitarian protections for millions of immigrants. The “frontlog” shows slowdowns even at the earliest stages of the process, compounding delays.
What People Are Saying
Greg Siskind, an immigration attorney at Siskind Susser, told Newsweek: “The one thing that was giving me hope that we might not see the big increase in processing times we were expecting is the acceleration of USCIS’s accepting online filings of cases versus the labor-intensive paper filing process.
“USCIS is still moving along with e-filing, and that is making things less bad as far as processing times go. And USCIS’s long-term goal is to totally move away from paper filings, so I expect that trend to continue. More worrisome is the expectation by many in the immigration bar that USCIS will increasingly use AI—often poorly designed AI—that will speed up decision-making but in a way that lacks transparency and with serious quality control concerns.”
Charles Kuck, the founding partner at Kuck Baxter, told Newsweek: “The rapid growth in the USCIS is 100 percent predictable given the Trump administration’s approach to immigration. Starting with the staff reductions ordered at the USCIS (which is funded by user fees, not tax dollars). Followed by seeking “volunteers” from USCIS to assist ICE in enforcement efforts. Which then leads to the administration’s effort to find fraud in every application, slowing down processing times.”
Morgan Bailey, a partner at Mayer Brown, told Newsweek: “The Trump administration believes that the primary mission of USCIS is to serve as a screening and vetting agency rather than as a benefits granting agency.”
What Happens Next
USCIS will likely get a funding boost through increased fees and charges for immigration applications, but it remains to be seen whether this will affect processing times.
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