I-130 Processing Time in 2026: Spouse, Parents, Siblings

Form I-130 processing time depends almost entirely on who is filing for whom. For the largest group, immediate relatives of U.S. citizens (a spouse, a parent, or an unmarried child under 21), the USCIS processing-times tool showed on October 14, 2026 that 80% of cases at its service centers are completed within 25.5 months. The agency's separate historical table puts the national median at 12.8 months for fiscal year 2026 (October 1, 2025 through August 30, 2026). In plain terms: about half of immediate-relative petitions are decided in roughly 13 months, and four out of five within about two years.

For everyone else (spouses and children of green card holders, adult and married children of citizens, and brothers and sisters) USCIS mostly does not post a processing time at all. Those petitions sit in visa-capped preference categories, and the real clock is the State Department's Visa Bulletin, where waits run from months to more than two decades. This guide walks through every category, explains what the published numbers do and do not mean, and shows what happens before and after the approval notice. It is general information, not legal advice; the official form page is uscis.gov/i-130.

I-130 Processing Time by Category (Checked October 14, 2026)

USCIS no longer lists I-130 times by individual service center. California, Nebraska, Texas, Vermont and Potomac have been folded into one line, Service Center Operations (SCOPS), because the agency now assigns electronic files wherever it has capacity. The tool offers three "offices" for Form I-130: SCOPS, All Field Offices, and the National Benefits Center. The table below reproduces what the tool displayed for each filing category on October 14, 2026. Each figure is the time within which USCIS completed 80% of cases over the previous six months.

*USCIS notes that the National Benefits Center figure applies only to adoption-based I-130s, which that office handles exclusively. Source: egov.uscis.gov/processing-times, read October 14, 2026. USCIS says it updates the tool monthly using data that is about one month old.

How to read those numbers

• The service-center line is the one that matters for most families. A standalone I-130 filed online or mailed to a lockbox is normally worked by SCOPS. For immediate relatives, 25.5 months is the 80th-percentile figure, not a typical case.
• The field-office figures are not a forecast. Field offices decide a small and unusual slice of I-130s, mainly files sent for an in-person interview and old preference petitions that only became worth deciding when a visa number came within reach. USCIS says the long times for preference categories reflect "statutory constraints on available immigrant visas, for which the wait times are typically much longer than the time it takes for USCIS to adjudicate the form." A 286.5-month figure for siblings is a mirror of the visa line, not of how long an officer spends on the file.
• "No time posted" is deliberate. USCIS states that service centers prioritize preference petitions "when the Department of State Visa Bulletin shows an immigrant visa is available or will soon become available," and that it generally does not list a time for a category that is not current.
• If you filed the I-130 together with Form I-485, USCIS tells you to look at the I-485 processing time for your local field office instead. The petition and the green card application are decided as a package.

Median vs. 80%: Why USCIS Publishes Two Different Numbers

USCIS publishes I-130 timing in two places, and they answer different questions.

The historical table shows how the median has moved. USCIS notes that its I-130 line excludes preference petitions, so it describes immediate relatives only.

Source: USCIS, Historical National Median Processing Time, queried by the agency in September 2026. USCIS cautions that the historical medians and the tool use different methods and are not directly comparable. A sensible way to use them together: plan around the median, and do not assume something is wrong until you are past the 80% mark.

I-130 Processing Time for a Spouse

Spouse petitions split into two very different tracks depending on the petitioner's status.

Spouse of a U.S. citizen (IR1/CR1)

This is an immediate-relative case. There is no annual cap and no visa line, so the wait is purely administrative. Use the immediate-relative row above: a 12.8-month national median in FY 2026 and 80% of service-center cases within 25.5 months. What follows the approval depends on where your spouse lives:

• Spouse abroad: the approved petition goes to the National Visa Center and then to a U.S. embassy or consulate. On October 5, 2026 the NVC reported it was creating cases for petitions received from USCIS on September 11 and reviewing documents submitted on August 4. Interview scheduling then depends on the post.
• Spouse in the United States after a lawful admission or parole: the I-130 and Form I-485 can be filed together. USCIS's median for family-based I-485s was 6.2 months in FY 2026; check your local field office in the tool for the current 80% figure.

Spouse of a green card holder (F2A)

This is a preference case with an annual limit. USCIS posts no service-center time for it. The October 2026 Visa Bulletin lists F2A final action dates of September 22, 2026 for every country except Mexico (March 22, 2026), and the F2A "dates for filing" chart is current for all countries. In practice that means the visa queue for F2A is short right now and the petition's own processing is the main wait. That can change: F2A has retrogressed before, and the bulletin is reissued every month. If the petitioner naturalizes while the case is pending, the spouse converts to an immediate relative; USCIS explains how to report that on the I-130 page.

I-130 Processing Time for Parents

Only a U.S. citizen who is at least 21 can petition for a parent, and a parent is an immediate relative. The same figures apply as for spouses of citizens: 12.8 months at the median in FY 2026, 25.5 months for 80% of service-center cases as of October 14, 2026. Parent cases tend to be document cases (your birth certificate naming the parent, plus a marriage certificate if you are petitioning for your father), so they rarely need an interview at the petition stage. Each parent needs a separate petition and a separate fee; see I-130 fee.

I-130 Processing Time for Children

A permanent resident cannot petition for a married child at all; the I-130 instructions say such a petition is denied or automatically revoked if the son or daughter marries before immigrating. Age matters too. The Child Status Protection Act can keep some children classified as "under 21" after their birthday, using a formula that subtracts the time the petition was pending. If a child is close to 21, that calculation is worth getting right with professional help.

I-130 Processing Time for Siblings (F4)

A U.S. citizen aged 21 or older can petition for a brother or sister. This is the fourth preference, F4, limited by law to 65,000 visas a year plus any left over from higher categories. It is the longest line in family immigration. The October 2026 Visa Bulletin final action dates show whose turn has arrived:

Those are waits already served by people at the front of the line, not a prediction for a petition filed today. USCIS may leave a sibling petition untouched for years because approving it early changes nothing; the priority date is locked in on the day the petition is properly filed. For how these lines have moved and where they may go, see the Visa Bulletin and Visa Bulletin predictions.

Priority Dates and the Visa Bulletin

For preference categories the receipt date on the I-130 becomes the priority date, your relative's place in line. Federal law sets a floor of 226,000 family-preference visas a year and caps any single country at 7% of the combined family and employment preference totals (25,620 visas). When demand from a country or category exceeds supply, a line forms. The State Department publishes two family charts every month:

• Final action dates: a visa can actually be issued, or a green card approved, when the priority date is earlier than this date.
• Dates for filing: the NVC starts collecting documents, and, when USCIS allows it, an applicant in the United States may file Form I-485. For October 2026, USCIS said family-sponsored applicants must use the dates-for-filing chart.

Final action dates for family-sponsored cases, Visa Bulletin for October 2026 (the first month of fiscal year 2027). The November 2026 bulletin had not been posted when this page was checked on October 14, 2026. Immediate relatives never appear in these charts because their visas are always available.

The Full Timeline: What Happens Before and After the I-130

1. Filing. File online or by mail with the fee ($625 online, $675 on paper, per the fee schedule edition of October 7, 2026). Details in Form I-130 and the I-130 checklist; spouse cases also need Form I-130A.
2. Receipt notice. USCIS issues Form I-797C with a receipt number and receipt date. Online filers see it in their account right away; paper filers get it by mail.
3. Review. Most petitions are decided on the documents. USCIS may send a request for evidence, which adds time, or refer the case to a field office for an interview.
4. Decision. Approval is a finding that the family relationship is real and qualifying. It grants no status by itself.
5. After approval. Consular processing through the NVC, or adjustment of status inside the United States. Both routes are laid out in what happens after I-130 is approved.

For the total, start-to-green-card picture across family and employment routes, see how long it takes to get a green card.

Why I-130 Cases Are Delayed

• The category is not current. For preference petitions this is the main reason, and it is by design.
• Requests for evidence. USCIS counts the whole time from receipt to decision, including the weeks you take to answer. The maximum response window for an RFE is 12 weeks (84 days).
• Interview referral. USCIS requires an interview for a standalone petition when documents remain unreliable after an RFE or notice of intent to deny, when the marriage took place while the beneficiary was in removal proceedings, or when the bona fides of a marriage are in question. The file moves to a field office and waits for a slot.
• Thin marriage evidence. A marriage certificate proves the marriage happened; it does not prove a shared life. Petitions with little joint documentation draw more questions.
• Missing answers. USCIS rejects forms with blank required fields, and it asks petitioners to choose exactly one option in Part 4 (adjustment of status or consular processing). A wrong or missing choice can send the approved file to the wrong agency.
• Filing location errors. USCIS changed the I-130 mailing addresses on October 7, 2026 and is accepting packages sent to the old locations only if postmarked on or before November 9, 2026.
• Policy holds. In December 2025 and January 2026 USCIS placed final decisions on hold for people from the 39 countries named in Presidential Proclamations 10949 and 10998. On August 24, 2026 a federal court in the Northern District of California enjoined those hold memos, and USCIS said it will adjudicate in the normal course while it considers further review. That is the status as of October 14, 2026; it may change while the litigation continues, so families from those countries should check the USCIS alert before relying on it.

What You Can Do if Your Case Is Taking Too Long

Start with the receipt date and the tool. USCIS's case inquiry feature tells you whether your case is "outside normal processing time," a threshold based on how long it took to finish 93% of cases, not 80%. Before that date the agency will not take a general delay inquiry. After it, you can file an e-Request online. Other routes are expedite requests (severe financial loss, urgent humanitarian reasons, certain nonprofit and government interests, or clear USCIS error), help from a congressional office, the CIS Ombudsman at the Department of Homeland Security, and, as a last resort some families pursue with a lawyer, a mandamus lawsuit asking a federal court to order a decision. Each has rules and trade-offs, covered step by step in I-130 case status and delays. There is no premium processing for Form I-130.

Three Worked Examples

Citizen petitioning for a husband living abroad

Filed online in October 2026. Using current figures, a decision at the median would arrive around November 2027, and four out of five similar cases would be finished by late 2028. After approval, NVC case creation was running about three and a half weeks and document review about two months in early October 2026, followed by an interview wait that varies by consulate. Nationals of some countries face separate visa-issuance suspensions under Proclamation 10998, which no processing-time table reflects; that is the State Department's position as of October 14, 2026, and it may change.

Citizen petitioning for a wife who entered on a visa and is in the United States

The couple files the I-130 and I-485 together. USCIS directs them to the I-485 time for their field office; the national median for family-based adjustment was 6.2 months in FY 2026. The I-130 is decided at the same time, usually at the green card interview.

Citizen petitioning for a brother born in the Philippines

Filed in October 2026, the petition gets a priority date in October 2026. The October 2026 bulletin is serving Philippine F4 cases with priority dates before May 15, 2008. Nobody can state how long a 2026 filing will wait, because the line's speed changes each year; the honest answer is "many years, likely well over a decade." USCIS will probably not act on the petition until the priority date approaches.

How This Compares With Other USCIS Forms

For context, the same historical table shows FY 2026 medians of 8.2 months for the fiancé(e) petition (Form I-129F), 22.5 months for removing conditions on a marriage green card (Form I-751), and 7.4 months for naturalization. Sister guides cover N-400 processing time and H-4 EAD processing time.

Processing times are averages of past cases, not promises about yours. Check the USCIS tool again before you make plans around a date, and consider speaking with a licensed immigration attorney or a Department of Justice accredited representative about anything specific to your family.