You filed months ago, and now you are refreshing a browser tab hoping a number moved. If you have searched for my progress USCIS, you want what everyone else wants: a straight answer about when your case gets decided.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) built a tool for exactly that, and the agency expanded it twice in 2023 to cover seven different forms. What it gives you is an estimate, not a promise, and that gap matters more than most people realize.
This guide covers what the tool shows, which forms qualify, how accurate the number is, why the tab sometimes vanishes, and what to do when it does.
What is USCIS myProgress?
USCIS myProgress is a feature inside your USCIS online account that shows personalized estimates of your wait time for major milestones on a pending case, including the final decision. It lives on its own tab, it updates as your case moves, and it costs nothing.
The tool used to be called USCIS personalized processing times, and the agency renamed it myProgress as coverage expanded. USCIS built it to cut down on status inquiries and give applicants a clearer view of the adjudication process.
Most people find it by searching for my progress USCIS rather than by name, which is why the terminology around it feels slippery.
Two things sit on the myProgress tab. The first is an estimated wait time until your case has a decision. The second is a checkmark beside each of three major milestones as you clear them:
- Confirmation that USCIS received your application: USCIS accepts your filing and generates your receipt number, the 13-character case identifier printed on your notice.
- Movement through preprocessing and adjudicative steps: This covers the interior work on your file, including a biometrics appointment, the visit where USCIS collects your fingerprints and photograph, if your form requires one.
- Case decision: This is the final approval, denial, or other disposition.
Which immigration applications myProgress covers
Your form type decides whether you see the tab at all. USCIS added forms in two waves, and coverage is narrower than most applicants assume, especially on the green card side.
| Form | What it is | myProgress coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Form I-765 | Application for Employment Authorization | Covered since July 2023 |
| Form I-131 | Application for Travel Document | Covered since July 2023 |
| Form N-400 | Application for Naturalization | Covered |
| Form I-90 | Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card | Covered |
| Form I-130 | Petition for Alien Relative | Covered |
| Form I-485 | Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status | Family-based and Afghan special immigrant filings only |
| Form I-821 | Application for Temporary Protected Status | Covered since November 2023 |
The I-485 line is the one that trips people up. USCIS myProgress I-485 estimates launched for family based adjustment of status filings and Afghan special immigrant applicants first, and the agency left employment-based adjustment of status out of that expansion. If you filed an employment-based I-485, an empty tab is expected behavior rather than a bug.
Form I-821 estimates arrived in that same November 2023 wave, and Form I-821 filers see the tab regardless of country designation.
USCIS myProgress I-765 estimates are the ones most applicants watch, because a pending Application for Employment Authorization often stands between you and a paycheck. That coverage arrived in the July 2023 wave.
USCIS myProgress I-130 estimates follow the same logic for families waiting on a Petition for Alien Relative, and the I-90 estimate does the same if you are waiting to replace your green card.
How to find the USCIS myProgress tab
You need a USCIS online account before any of this works. The account, sometimes called myUSCIS, is where the agency posts your notices, requests, and the estimates themselves. Follow these four steps:
- Create or log into your account: Go to the sign-up page or log into the account you already have.
- Link the case if you filed on paper: You need the online access code USCIS mails you, plus the receipt number on the same notice, to attach the case. Cases filed online link automatically.
- Select your pending application: Open the case from your account dashboard rather than searching for it externally.
- Open the tab: If your form qualifies and the case is properly linked, myProgress appears alongside your case details with the estimate on it.
Important note: The online access code expires. If yours has lapsed or never arrived, request a new one through your account or by calling the USCIS Contact Center, because a paper filing stays invisible in your account until you make that link.
Setting up USCIS online account myProgress access on a paper filing
You will hit the most friction here, so it helps to know what the account needs from you. The code arrives on the receipt notice for eligible paper filings, and it pairs with the number printed on that same notice. Once you link the case, it behaves like one you file online, estimate included.
USCIS myProgress accuracy: what the estimate can and cannot tell you
Treat your number as a forecast, not a delivery date. USCIS is explicit that estimates rest on case type and historical patterns of similar cases, that they are not a guarantee of timing, and that they may over- or underestimate your actual processing time.
That disclaimer is doing real work. The model behind my progress USCIS estimates cannot see what is specific to your file: a pending background check, an evidence request in the mail, a service center transfer, or a policy change that landed the week after you filed. It knows what cases like yours have historically taken, and nothing more.
The practical read is simple. A stable number means your case is tracking with its cohort. A USCIS myProgress estimated wait time that jumps by months usually means the agency recalculated against fresh historical data, not that something happened to your case. Applicants reported exactly that in late 2025, when estimates widened across several form types.
Three rules keep the number in its lane:
- What the estimate is good for: Rough planning around travel, job start dates, and lease decisions where a few weeks of slack is tolerable.
- What it is not good for: Anything you cannot move. Do not book a wedding, resign from a job, or let an employment authorization document lapse based on it.
- What it never predicts: The outcome. The tool estimates timing, not whether the decision goes your way.
myProgress vs case status: which one to trust
You have two windows into the same file, and they answer different questions. Checking case status online tells you what has already happened. The myProgress tool tells you what is likely to happen next, and when.
Case status online is the authoritative record. It reflects actions the agency has taken: receipt, biometrics, evidence requests, decisions. When the two disagree, the status entry is the fact and the estimate is the guess.
There is one job neither of them can do. A service request is the formal ask for an update on a case that has run past its published window. To find out whether yours qualifies, you still have to visit the public Check Case Processing Times page. Your personalized estimate has no bearing on that eligibility.
USCIS myProgress not showing: what it usually means
Your tab disappeared and nothing else changed, so assuming the worst is reasonable. In most cases the cause is mundane. Work through these in order:
- Your form is not covered: Employment-based I-485 filings, and any form outside the seven listed above, will not show a tab.
- Your case is not linked: A paper filing without a redeemed access code stays disconnected from your account.
- Your case was just decided or transferred: Applicants routinely report the tab vanishing from an approved form while it persists on the others in the same filing group.
- The agency is rebuilding the estimate: Tabs have gone blank in waves, including a widely reported episode in late 2025 when F-1 students, foreign nationals in the United States on academic student visas, lost their work permit timelines. Estimates returned for most of them.
None of this means your case was lost. Your file exists in agency systems whether or not a number renders in your browser, and your receipt number remains the thing that proves it. If your case status shows nothing either, that is worth a call to the USCIS Contact Center. A missing estimate on its own is not.
How to use myProgress USCIS estimates in real life
You will get more out of this tool by checking it less. USCIS recalculates the number against historical data, not against anything you did yesterday, so daily refreshing tells you nothing a monthly check would not.
A workable rhythm looks like this. Check once a month, screenshot what you see, and note the date. When the number changes, you will know whether it drifted or lurched, and a screenshot history beats a memory of what the tab said in April.
Turn on email and text notifications in your account so real events reach you without you going to look.
Then plan against the pessimistic end. If your estimate says eight months, budget for 12 and file any extension or renewal at the earliest date you are allowed. The applicants who get burned are the ones who treated an estimate as a commitment.
What the number is telling you
Your estimate is a reasonable, historically grounded guess about when USCIS will decide your case, and that is more than applicants had a few years ago. Use it to plan, not to predict. When it moves against you, remember that the cases that finish fastest are the ones their filers prepared correctly the first time.
How Lighthouse helps you get to a case decision faster
You can watch an estimate move, or you can shorten the wait that produced it. Most of the delay in an immigration application happens before USCIS ever touches the file, in the weeks spent assembling evidence and the months lost to a preventable Request for Evidence (RFE), the letter USCIS sends when your filing is missing something it needs.
Lighthouse prepares visa and green card applications in under three weeks, with attorney review on every case, so filings go out complete rather than going out fast and coming back with questions.
If USCIS does issue an RFE, Lighthouse prepares the response at no additional charge. Every candidate starts with a free evaluation that identifies the right pathway before any paperwork begins, which is where most timeline damage gets done or avoided.
Start your free evaluation today.
Frequently asked questions on my progress USCIS
Is my progress USCIS accurate?
It is accurate the way a forecast is accurate. Estimates reflect how long similar cases have historically taken, and USCIS states plainly that they are not a guarantee and may run long or short of your real timeline.
Why is my estimate getting longer instead of shorter?
Because USCIS recalculates it against current data on comparable cases. If cases like yours started taking longer, your number will grow even though nothing changed on your file.
Does myProgress work for employment-based green cards?
Not for the I-485 itself. Coverage reaches only family-sponsored and Afghan special immigrant filings. If you file Form I-765 or Form I-131 concurrently, those may still show estimates.
Can my attorney see my myProgress tab?
Not through their own representative access. Practitioners have reported that myProgress is visible only in the account that holds the case, which is why your attorney may quote you a processing time that differs from your tab.
Do requests for evidence change my estimate?
Not reliably. An evidence request is one of the case-specific factors the model cannot account for, which is why a case with an RFE often blows past its estimate.
Do I still need the Check Case Processing Times page?
Yes. It is the only way to determine whether your case falls outside normal processing times and qualifies for a service request, and the agency has kept that function separate from personalized estimates.