How the United States granted its green cards through adjustment of status, category by category, across fiscal years 2017 to 2026 — read straight from official USCIS data.
One in two, family-based.
The I-485 splits across six legal categories. One alone — Family — holds half the volume, and where cases pile up is also where the most get denied.
Nine years in motion.
Annual intake by category. Family climbs nonstop, Employment had a single spike — and Cuba appears out of nowhere at the end.
The Cuban boom.
For six years, Cuba was a minor line — between 17,000 and 60,000 applications per year.
Then came 2023.
In four years, the program grew tenfold — and one in every four green cards by adjustment became Cuban.
But cases arrive faster than USCIS can decide them. The Cuban backlog grew 15× to surpass 327,000 pending cases — the second largest in the system, after Family.
Once decided, they almost always approve.
Of cases that reach a decision, humanitarian categories hover at 95-96%. The gap between the most permissive and the strictest category is under 10 points.
1.33 million waiting today.
Pending cases at the close of FY2026 Q1. Family and Cuba — two categories — account for 65% of the queue.
Five things the data taught us.
Family is the volume; humanitarian is the speed.
The 89.8% overall rate blends a large, strict category (Family, ~87%) with smaller, nearly automatic ones (Asylum, Refugee, Cuba: 95-96%). Reporting a single average hides two distinct systems.
The Cuban Adjustment Act is the story of the decade.
10× growth since 2023, now one in every four I-485s, with an approval rate that held at 95%+ — and a backlog that grew 15× to 327K cases.
The Employment spike in 2021 was an artifact, not a trend.
292K applications in one year was the result of unused family visa numbers rolling over to employment during COVID. Worth remembering when modeling the future: Employment lives in a ~110-130K/year band.
Two categories own 65% of the backlog.
Family (536K) by structure — it was always the largest. Cuba (327K) by velocity — cases came in faster than decisions went out. Any wait-time analysis starts here.
Asylum and Refugee adjustment are the safest bets.
95-98% approval, almost never denied — because eligibility was already established at a prior stage (the grant of asylum or refugee status). The I-485 here is more administrative formality than adjudication.
About the I-485
What is the I-485 approval rate?
How many I-485 applications have been filed?
How many I-485 cases are pending today?
Which I-485 category is approved fastest?
231 I-485 rows from the USCIS master file, classified by legal basis according to form title (Cuban / Indochinese / Refugee / Asylum / Employment / Family / Other). Six categories with full coverage across 36 quarters; Indochinese, retired after FY2019 Q1, excluded from rate calculations. Approval rate = approved ÷ (approved + denied). Partial years (FY2017 = Q2-Q4; FY2026 = Q1) noted throughout the report. All figures computed programmatically; none estimated.
36 quarters
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© 2026 · I-485 Report by adjustment basis
Official USCIS data · This report does not constitute legal advice