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Green Cards in limbo: What to know as replacement wait times surge across the US
USCIS faces a massive backlog, with I-90 processing times skyrocketing by nearly 1,000% in Q2 FY2025.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is experiencing a mammoth backlog, and the green card holders are getting the brunt of it. Newly-released information indicates that the processing time of Form I-90 has soared by almost 1,000 per cent between the second quarter of fiscal year 2025.
From 1 January to 31 March 2025, USCIS took an average of 8.3 months to process an I-90 application. Just a few months earlier, between October and December 2024, the median wait time was less than a month, about 0.8 months.
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US immigration system is under immense pressure
Immigration courts currently face a record-breaking 3.7 million pending cases. Green card holders are required to file Form I-90 every 10 years or sooner if their cards are lost, damaged, or contain errors.
The agency’s website currently states that “80 per cent of cases for 'initial issuance or replacements' for I-90 are completed within 21.5 months,” while 10-year renewal cases are completed in “12.5 months” for 80 per cent of applicants.
Notably, between January and March 2025, USCIS received over 285,000 I-90 applications. That’s a significant increase from the 189,000 submitted in the previous quarter. By the end of March, there were more than 356,000 I-90 applications still pending up from 265,000 just three months earlier.
This isn’t the first time USCIS has struggled with fluctuating processing times. In FY2024, the agency had dramatically improved processing, bringing the average down to 1.1 months from 9.1 months in 2023. In 2022, the average was 1.2 months, while it stood at 5.2 months in 2021.
Interestingly, USCIS announced in September 2024 that green cards would remain valid for 36 months beyond the listed expiration date for lawful permanent residents who had filed for renewal.
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“These receipt notices can be presented with an expired Green Card as evidence of continued status and employment authorization. This extension is expected to help applicants who experience longer processing times, because they will receive proof of lawful permanent resident status as they await their renewed Green Card,” USCIS noted.
