While President Trump has kept the spotlight on illegal immigration, legal immigration has also been disrupted—through policy changes and bureaucratic slowdowns. At the same time, delayed data releases have obscured how federal agencies are currently operating, limiting public insight. Below, I analyze the most recent data available, current as of August 31, 2026.
Contents
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- Subset of processing data for July 2026
- All forms processing data for January through March 2026
- Median processing times through May 31, 2026
- Consular wait times as of August 17, 2026
- IV and NIV monthly visa issuances for February 2026
- PERM Processing Times as of August 27, 2026
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
- International student records through August 2026
National Travel and Tourism Office
- Trends in overseas visitors through July 2026
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) oversees the administration of legal immigration by adjudicating applications and petitions for benefits such as work authorization, citizenship, and legal permanent residence (green card status).
Comprehensive processing data for all USCIS forms is only available through March, but a smaller dataset provides updated details through July.
Key takeaways from the April 2026 USCIS processing data:
- In July 2026, USCIS received 48 percent fewer forms among the reported form types. Despite the decreased workload, USCIS completed 53 percent fewer cases among these types.
- Most strikingly, USCIS completed just 20,674 naturalization cases in July 2026, down from 80,077 a year prior. From January 2026 to July 2026, USCIS completed an average of just 27,077 naturalization cases per month. By comparison, from January to July of 2025, USCIS completed an average of 86,044 naturalization cases per month.
- Between July 2025 and July 2026, the share of naturalization completions that were denied doubled from 10 percent in July 2025 to more than 20 percent in July 2026.
- The number of naturalization applications that have been pending for over six months increased by 338 percent between July 2025 and July 2026.
- The average processing time for an application for employment authorization rose by 132 percent between July 2025 and July 2026.
- Notably, the month prior in June 2026, 40 percent of completed refugee green card applications were denied. By comparison, in June 2025, only 14 percent were. July 2026 reported 20 percent of its refugee green card completions as denials, compared to just 6 percent in July 2025.
For all USCIS forms, processing data is only currently available through the second quarter of fiscal year 2026, or January through March 2026.
Key takeaways from the FY2026 Q2 USCIS data:
- USCIS set a new record with over 12 million pending cases at the end of FY2026 Q2. The pending caseload has ballooned in spite of a 45 percent decrease in incoming forms compared to the same time last year.
- This is because USCIS completed just 1.5 million cases in Q2, a 44 percent decrease compared to the year prior and 17 percent lower than the quarter prior.
- The growth in pending cases was driven primarily by cases within the government’s control. The net backlog, or backlogged cases within the government’s control, grew by 42 percent between FY2025 Q2 and FY2026 Q2, surpassing a startling 7 million cases in FY2026 Q2.
- Down from nearly 200,000 at the end of Q1, the frontlog (unopened cases received by USCIS) numbered 38,500 cases at the end of FY2026 Q2. At the end of FY2025 Q2, the frontlog was 34,028.
- In a rapid acceleration of recent trends, the active DACA population dropped by over 40,000 individuals between Q1 and Q2. By comparison, the drop between FY2025 Q4 and FY2026 Q1 was just 10,620 individuals.
- The processing times for DACA renewals and DACA-based work authorization applications both increased by 388 percent between FY2025 Q2 and FY2026 Q2.
Real-time USCIS processing data isn’t easily accessible in aggregate, but annual median processing times still offer valuable insight into broader trends.
Key takeaways from the median processing times:
- Median processing times have generally increased or stayed approximately the same since last reporting.
- At the end of FY2025, the median processing time for an asylum-based green card was 10.3 months. As of May 31, 2026, the FY2026 median time is 17.2 months, or a 67 percent increase.
- At the end of FY2025, the median processing time for the petition a U.S. citizen would use to adopt an orphan was 13.8 months. As of May 31, 2026, the FY2026 median time is 18.2 months, or a 32 percent increase.
- At the end of FY2025, the median processing time for an I-730, the petition for a family member of an asylee was 10.9 months. As of May 31, 2026, the FY2026 median time is 22.1 months, or a 103 percent increase.
Department of State
The Department of State (DOS) issues visas to foreign nationals abroad, leveraging interviews and other vetting tools to protect the integrity and security of legal immigration.
Key takeaways from consular wait times:
- Consular wait times have fluctuated sharply in recent months as new vetting procedures—such as social media reviews and duplicative interview requirements—have taken effect. While some posts have managed to lower wait times in spite of these changes, other locations have seen steep increases in estimated wait times.
- Notes regarding data consistencies: Between January 2025 and April 2025, the Department of State consular wait time data changed formats. Data that was once reported in days is now published only in rounded months. For consistency, January 2025 figures have been converted into approximate months to allow comparison. Additionally, in September 2025, the Department of State began labeling any value less than 0.5 as “<0.5,” rather than providing the specific value or rounding down.
Key takeaways from the consular visa issuance statistics
- U.S. consulates issued 26% fewer nonimmigrant visas in February 2026 than in February 2025.
- Compared to February 2025, consulates issued 74 percent fewer H-1B visas for specialty occupation workers in February 2026. Similarly, consulates issued 81 percent fewer H-4 visas for H-1B spouses and children in February 2026.
- Compared to the year prior, consulates issued 80 percent fewer H-2B visas for seasonal, non-agricultural workers in February 2026.
- U.S. consulates issued 48% fewer immigrant visas in February 2026 than in February 2025.
- In absolute terms, U.S. consulates issued 24,575 fewer immigrant visas in February 2026 compared to February 2025, with diversity visas only accounting for 4,140 of those visas.
- By magnitude, the largest drop was seen among parents of U.S. citizens who were issued nearly 6,000 fewer immigrant visas in February 2026 compared to the year prior.
Department of Labor
The Department of Labor (DOL) oversees multiple labor certification and prevailing wage processes that were designed to protect American workers and uphold minimum standards for the employment of foreign nationals sponsored on employment visas.
Key takeaways from the PERM processing times
- Following record highs, PERM processing times have reported a new low not seen since 2023.
- As of August 27, 2026, PERM processing times are reported at 372 days, an impressive improvement over the 501 days reported at the end of May.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Beyond leading the interior enforcement efforts, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also administers SEVIS, (the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System used by international students and cultural exchange visitors).
Key takeaways from the SEVIS records
- Latest data continues to reflect year-over-year declines in active SEVIS records.
- As of August 2026, there were over 70,000 fewer active international student records overall and over 47,700 fewer STEM-enrolled international student records compared to August 2025.
- This represents the single largest year-over-year drop since the Trump administration took office.
National Travel and Tourism Office
The National Travel and Tourism Office, part of the International Trade Administration, tracks data on international travel to and from the United States.
Key takeaways from the overseas visitor numbers
- Despite the international appeal of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, overseas visitor numbers for June and July 2026 still underperformed the year prior. Note, Canadian and Mexican visitors are not included in overseas visitor numbers.
- In July 2026, the U.S. received 233,073 fewer visitors than it did in July 2025.
- In the first seven months of 2026, the U.S. received over 900,000 fewer overseas visitors compared to the same time last year.
- The International Trade Administration that publishes this data says that every 40 international visits supports 1 U.S. job. At that rate, the U.S. could have missed out on over 22,800American jobs thus far in 2026 as a result of tourism declines.
ARCHIVE: Previous updates to the “Legal immigration in numbers” series are available for download here.
