Roughly 3.7 million asylum cases are pending in the United States, split between two federal agencies. About 2.3 million sit in the immigration court system run by the Department of Justice, and another 1.4 million are waiting for initial review at asylum offices run by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Both piles have grown every year for more than a decade, and the average applicant now waits years for a decision.
How the 3.7 Million Cases Break Down
The larger share belongs to the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which runs the nation’s immigration courts. At the end of February 2026, about 2,322,671 people who had filed formal asylum applications were awaiting hearings or decisions before immigration judges. The court’s total active docket is larger still, at roughly 3.3 million cases, but that figure includes non-asylum removal matters.
Most of the court-side asylum cases are “defensive,” meaning the applicant is fighting a deportation charge brought by the Department of Homeland Security. The claim is filed on Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal, as a defense during removal proceedings.1U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal
The second track runs through USCIS, which handles “affirmative” asylum claims from people who are physically present in the United States, are not in removal proceedings, and voluntarily ask for protection. USCIS reports more than 1.4 million pending affirmative applications as of 2026.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. DHS Proposes Rule to Prioritize Americans Safety by Strengthening Screening of Asylum Seekers Affirmative applicants generally must file within one year of their last arrival, though exceptions exist for changed or extraordinary circumstances.3U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The Affirmative Asylum Process
The two tracks feed each other. When a USCIS asylum officer cannot approve an affirmative application and the applicant has no other legal status, the case is referred to an immigration judge for a full hearing. That referral is not a denial. It just moves the claim into the court backlog.4U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Types of Affirmative Asylum Decisions That pipeline is one reason the court docket keeps swelling even when USCIS processes cases faster.
The Statutory Deadline USCIS Is Missing
Federal law requires USCIS to finish adjudicating an affirmative asylum application within 180 days of filing, absent exceptional circumstances.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1158 – Asylum The agency is failing to meet that deadline in the vast majority of cases. Interviews are conducted by asylum officers in a non-adversarial setting rather than a courtroom hearing, but reaching the interview itself can take years.
Why the Backlog Keeps Growing
The core problem is a capacity gap that has widened for over a decade. New filings have surged due to shifting migration patterns and instability in several regions, and neither agency has received the staffing or funding to keep up. In fiscal year 2025, immigration courts issued about 267,284 asylum decisions.6Congress.gov. FY2025 Immigration Court Data: Case Outcomes Set that against 2.3 million pending asylum cases in the courts alone, and even at that pace, clearing the existing queue would take roughly nine years without a single new filing.
A scheduling policy on the USCIS side makes the wait feel worse for long-pending applicants. Since 1995, USCIS has used a “last in, first out” (LIFO) approach, prioritizing the most recently filed applications for interviews.7U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Affirmative Asylum Interview Scheduling The rationale is to process newly arrived migrants quickly before they settle into long waits. The tradeoff is that older applications sit at the bottom of the pile indefinitely. Someone who filed six years ago can watch a person who filed six months ago get an interview first.
Funding structures make this hard to fix. USCIS relies heavily on fee revenue from other immigration applications, and Congress has chronically underfunded the EOIR courts. Neither agency can simply hire its way out of the problem without sustained additional appropriations.
What the Wait Means for Applicants
Asylum applicants cannot work legally in the United States immediately after filing. An applicant can submit Form I-765 requesting an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) starting 150 days after filing the asylum application, but the EAD itself cannot be issued until the application has been pending at least 180 days.8U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Asylum This is commonly called the 180-Day Asylum EAD Clock, and it can be paused for various reasons, including delays caused by the applicant.
Those timelines may change. In early 2026, DHS proposed a rule that would extend the waiting period for an initial asylum-based EAD from 180 days to 365 days, with the stated goal of reducing filings motivated primarily by access to work authorization.9Federal Register. Employment Authorization Reform for Asylum Applicants Applications already pending when the rule takes effect would still follow the current 180-day clock.
Representation is the other pressure point. Federal law gives noncitizens in removal proceedings the right to be represented by an attorney, but the government does not pay for it.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1229a – Removal Proceedings There is no public defender in asylum cases. Applicants must find and pay for their own lawyer or find a nonprofit willing to take the case for free. Private immigration attorneys handling asylum cases typically charge from $150 to $700 per hour, putting full representation out of reach for many people in the backlog. Legal aid organizations and law school clinics fill some of that gap, but nowhere near enough to serve millions.
What Happens at the End of the Wait
The approval rate for asylum in immigration court is lower than many applicants expect. Of the 267,284 asylum decisions issued in fiscal year 2025, only 12% were grants. Denials accounted for 31%, and 54% fell into an “other” category covering administrative closures, withdrawals, and abandonments.6Congress.gov. FY2025 Immigration Court Data: Case Outcomes Many cases in that “other” bucket were not decided on the merits at all. They were closed or shelved for procedural reasons, meaning the applicant’s case was effectively terminated without a ruling on whether they qualified for protection.
For the small share who do win, asylum brings immediate work authorization. USCIS issues a Form I-94 that serves as proof of both asylum status and the right to work, so a separate EAD is not required. Asylees can apply for a Refugee Travel Document if they need to travel abroad, and they become eligible to apply for a green card after being physically present in the United States for at least one year in asylee status.11U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card for Asylees