Trends in Family Green Card Processing

Field offices hit record family green card approvals in 2025, yet backlogs also reached new highs

Source: Manifest Law analysis of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data | Image Credit: Manifest Law

USCIS approved 433,071 family-based green card applications in fiscal year 2025, the highest annual total on record and up 73% from 2015 levels. Similarly, application denials also increased, reaching 62,389 in fiscal year 2025, an increase of 101% during the same 10-year span. The rise in both approvals and denials suggests that USCIS has been moving more family-based adjustment cases to final decisions overall, rather than simply approving more cases. That pattern is consistent with the agency’s recent emphasis on increasing case completions by implementing process improvements to reduce barriers and speed up adjudications.

Despite record levels of family green card case completions, USCIS’s pending caseload also reached a new high. By the end of fiscal year 2025, the agency had 543,486 pending family-based green card applications, up 180% from 2015 and the highest total on record. That growth reflects the other side of the adjudication system: approvals and denials measure cases completed, while pending applications represent cases still waiting for a decision. A rising pending caseload alongside record approvals suggests that demand for family-based adjustment of status continues to exceed the system’s capacity to fully absorb it. Some of that pressure is structural, since family-sponsored preference visas are subject to certain annual limits and some cases cannot move forward until a visa becomes available, but a major shift to nearly entirely consular processing may further exacerbate the pending caseload backlog.

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Which U.S. Cities Have the Most Family Green Card Holders?
Which U.S. Cities Have the Most Family Green Card Holders?
A new analysis from Manifest Law found that pending family-based green card applications reached 543,486 in 2025—the highest level on record and up 180% since 2015. The timing is notable. Recent USCIS policy changes signal a major shift in how many family-based green card cases may be processed moving forward, raising questions about what happens to the hundreds of thousands of applicants currently waiting in the system. Under the new USCIS guidance, many family green card applicants may be required to leave the U.S. and complete processing through a consulate overseas. Researchers analyzed USCIS family-based immigration data to identify the states and field office regions with the most pending family green card cases. The report ranks locations by total pending Form I-485 family-based applications, and highlights the communities that could be most affected by changes to family green card processing. 1 min