Key numbers
- 1,144citizenship applications approved at the three offices in April to June 2026, against 17,892 in April to June 2025 (−94%)USCIS Form N-400 data by field office, FY2026 Q3 and FY2025 Q3
- 55,462applications waiting for a decision at the three offices on June 30, 2026, up 77% from 31,392 a year earlierUSCIS Form N-400 data by field office, FY2026 Q3 and FY2025 Q3
- 9.5 monthsnational median time to complete a naturalization application in April to June 2026, up from 5.5 months a year earlierUSCIS All Forms report, FY2026 Q3 and FY2025 Q3 (national, not by office)
- 21%of decisions at the three offices in April to June 2026 were denials (303 of 1,447), against 5% a year earlierUSCIS Form N-400 data by field office, FY2026 Q3 and FY2025 Q3
- 10,365new applications received at the three offices in April to June 2026, 39% fewer than the 16,916 a year earlierUSCIS Form N-400 data by field office, FY2026 Q3 and FY2025 Q3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) publishes, every quarter, how many naturalization applications (Form N-400) each of its field offices received, approved and denied, and how many were still waiting for a decision at the end of the quarter. This study follows the three field offices in the Bay Area and Sacramento region, San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento, for the 11 quarters from October 2023 to June 2026, the latest USCIS has published.
Approved applications in each quarter, including military naturalizations. The table below gives received, denied and pending counts for the same quarters.
Approvals fell and waiting lists grew
In April to June 2026 the San Francisco office approved 338 applications (against 5,506 a year earlier), San Jose approved 317 (against 9,041) and Sacramento approved 489 (against 3,345). Nationally, USCIS approved 57,697 naturalization applications that quarter, 76% fewer than the 241,326 a year earlier, so the decline at the three offices was steeper than the national one.
Pending applications at the three offices reached 55,462 on June 30, 2026: 18,645 in San Francisco, 20,899 in San Jose and 15,918 in Sacramento. That is 2.1 times the 26,244 pending at the end of December 2023. In April to June 2026 the three offices decided 1,447 applications, one for every 38 still pending.
| Field office | Approved, Apr–Jun 2025 | Approved, Apr–Jun 2026 | Change | Pending, June 30, 2025 | Pending, June 30, 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | 5,506 | 338 | −94% | 10,209 | 18,645 | +83% |
| San Jose | 9,041 | 317 | −96% | 9,580 | 20,899 | +118% |
| Sacramento | 3,345 | 489 | −85% | 11,603 | 15,918 | +37% |
| Three offices combined | 17,892 | 1,144 | −94% | 31,392 | 55,462 | +77% |
| United States (all field offices) | 241,326 | 57,697 | −76% | 529,018 | 742,138 | +40% |
Source: USCIS, Form N-400 by category of naturalization, case status and field office, FY2025 Q3 and FY2026 Q3. Counts include military naturalizations. Pending = applications awaiting a decision at the end of the quarter.
Quarter by quarter, October 2023 to June 2026
New applications also fell: the three offices received 10,365 in April to June 2026, against 16,916 a year earlier. The national median time to complete a naturalization application rose from 5.5 months in April to June 2025 to 9.5 months in April to June 2026. USCIS publishes that median for the whole country; its quarterly files do not give it by field office.
| Quarter | Federal fiscal quarter | Received | Approved | Denied | Pending at end of quarter | U.S. median processing time (months) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct–Dec 2023 | FY2024 Q1 | 12,633 | 13,170 | 1,093 | 26,244 | 5.2 |
| Jan–Mar 2024 | FY2024 Q2 | 16,823 | 16,097 | 1,160 | 26,146 | 5.0 |
| Apr–Jun 2024 | FY2024 Q3 | 14,439 | 14,515 | 1,074 | 25,087 | 5.0 |
| Jul–Sep 2024 | FY2024 Q4 | 17,551 | 13,059 | 973 | 28,859 | 4.7 |
| Oct–Dec 2024 | FY2025 Q1 | 15,836 | 11,830 | 652 | 32,145 | 5.5 |
| Jan–Mar 2025 | FY2025 Q2 | 17,079 | 15,221 | 835 | 32,866 | 5.6 |
| Apr–Jun 2025 | FY2025 Q3 | 16,916 | 17,892 | 854 | 31,392 | 5.5 |
| Jul–Sep 2025 | FY2025 Q4 | 15,858 | 11,229 | 998 | 35,179 | 5.7 |
| Oct–Dec 2025 | FY2026 Q1 | 15,256 | 10,801 | 688 | 39,150 | 6.2 |
| Jan–Mar 2026 | FY2026 Q2 | 9,223 | 1,716 | 414 | 46,100 | 7.4 |
| Apr–Jun 2026 | FY2026 Q3 | 10,365 | 1,144 | 303 | 55,462 | 9.5 |
Source: USCIS quarterly Form N-400 data by field office (counts) and USCIS All Forms reports (national median processing time for Form N-400 civilian applications; for fiscal year 2024 USCIS reported one median for all N-400 applications). The federal fiscal year starts on October 1.
| Quarter | Approved, San Francisco | Approved, San Jose | Approved, Sacramento | Pending, San Francisco | Pending, San Jose | Pending, Sacramento |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct–Dec 2023 | 5,936 | 3,863 | 3,371 | 12,158 | 6,608 | 7,478 |
| Jan–Mar 2024 | 7,040 | 5,213 | 3,844 | 10,422 | 7,974 | 7,750 |
| Apr–Jun 2024 | 5,714 | 5,510 | 3,291 | 9,045 | 7,921 | 8,121 |
| Jul–Sep 2024 | 5,449 | 4,384 | 3,226 | 9,332 | 10,325 | 9,202 |
| Oct–Dec 2024 | 5,220 | 3,433 | 3,177 | 9,551 | 12,537 | 10,057 |
| Jan–Mar 2025 | 5,155 | 5,900 | 4,166 | 10,018 | 12,388 | 10,460 |
| Apr–Jun 2025 | 5,506 | 9,041 | 3,345 | 10,209 | 9,580 | 11,603 |
| Jul–Sep 2025 | 4,124 | 3,358 | 3,747 | 11,119 | 12,409 | 11,651 |
| Oct–Dec 2025 | 3,388 | 4,258 | 3,155 | 13,095 | 13,836 | 12,219 |
| Jan–Mar 2026 | 472 | 828 | 416 | 15,684 | 16,455 | 13,961 |
| Apr–Jun 2026 | 338 | 317 | 489 | 18,645 | 20,899 | 15,918 |
Source: USCIS quarterly Form N-400 data by field office.
What this means if you are applying for U.S. citizenship in the Bay Area
- These counts describe offices, not individual cases, and they cannot tell you when your own application will be decided. USCIS posts its current processing-time estimate for each form and field office on its case processing times page.
- USCIS is still accepting and deciding applications at these offices: they received 10,365 new applications and decided 1,447 in April to June 2026. Both numbers were well below the same months of 2025.
- Denials made up 21% of the decisions at the three offices in April to June 2026, against 5% a year earlier. USCIS's quarterly files do not say why applications were denied.
- If USCIS has not decided an application within 120 days after the naturalization interview, federal law lets the applicant ask the federal district court where they live to decide the application or send it back to USCIS with instructions (8 U.S.C. § 1447(b)). For delays at other stages, our page on writ of mandamus lawsuits explains when a federal court can be asked to order USCIS to act.
Method
We downloaded USCIS's quarterly file "Number of Form N-400 Application for Naturalization by Category of Naturalization, Case Status, and USCIS Field Office Location" for each of the 11 quarters from fiscal year 2024, quarter 1 (October to December 2023) to fiscal year 2026, quarter 3 (April to June 2026), from USCIS's immigration and citizenship data page. For the San Francisco (SFR), San Jose (SNJ) and Sacramento (SAC) offices and the national TOTAL row we took the "Total" columns, which add general and military naturalization: applications received, approved and denied during the quarter, and applications pending at the end of it.
Our headline compares April to June 2026 with April to June 2025, the same quarter a year apart, so seasonal swings do not drive the change. Both quarters come from the same USCIS data system (ELIS), named in each file's source note; the fiscal year 2024 files came from earlier systems.
The national median processing time is the figure USCIS publishes for Form N-400, Application for Naturalization (civilian applications), in its quarterly "Number of Service-wide Forms by Quarter, Form Status, and Processing Time" report. USCIS defines it as the median number of months from receipt to completion for the cases completed in the quarter.
A script computes every figure on this page from the downloaded files. A separate check script downloads the files again and confirms that the national totals in the field office files match USCIS's All Forms report for the same quarter.
Sources
- USCIS, Number of Form N-400 Application for Naturalization by Category of Naturalization, Case Status, and USCIS Field Office Location (quarterly files)
- USCIS, Number of Service-wide Forms by Quarter, Form Status, and Processing Time (All Forms report, quarterly files)
- USCIS, Check Case Processing Times
- 8 U.S.C. § 1447(b), Request for hearing before district court
Limits of this data
- USCIS counts applications by the office that handles them. Its files note that an office's location does not show the full area it covers; USCIS assigns applicants to an office by ZIP code (see its field office locator).
- Some applications approved, denied or pending in a quarter were received in earlier quarters, and USCIS notes that pending counts cannot be worked out from earlier reports because of administrative closures and transfers between offices.
- Counts can be revised later. Each figure here is from the file USCIS published for that quarter. The fiscal year 2024 files came from earlier USCIS data systems (PASEXEC and Metricsmart), so changes measured from those quarters may partly reflect the change of system.
- The header of USCIS's April to June 2026 field office file reads "April 1, 2025 - June 30, 2026". Its file name, sheet name (FY26Q3) and query date (July 2026), and USCIS's All Forms report for the same quarter, show that it covers April 1 to June 30, 2026.
- The plan for this study included monthly snapshots of USCIS's processing-time estimates for each office. USCIS's processing-times website blocks automated access, so we could not record them; the processing time on this page is USCIS's national median from its quarterly report.
- The files count applications, not people's reasons or outcomes after a denial, and they do not explain why approvals or receipts changed.
Cite this study
Joya Law Firm, "Naturalization Backlogs at Bay Area and Sacramento USCIS Offices," published November 12, 2026, https://joya.law/research/bay-area-naturalization-wait-times/. Data: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Download the data: bay-area-naturalization-wait-times.csv (quarterly counts for the three offices and the U.S.). The data files are free to reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0); please credit Joya Law Firm and link to this page.