Source: US Citizenship and Immigration Services, State Department, Labor Department
Tools: Designed in Figma, hand-coded in chart software, touched up in Illustrator
Notes: Citizens from countries highlighted separately in these charts experience longer waits due to the per-country visa cap.
* **Chart 1:** Timelines reflect the length of each step if processed under FY 2025 conditions. Wait times are historical, not predictive. NIW refers to a national interest waiver. Processing times reflect applicants adjusting status in the US; comparable data for consular processing are not published. Citizens from countries highlighted separately experience longer waits due to the per-country visa cap.
* **Chart 2:** Timelines reflect the length of each step under FY 2025 conditions. Wait times are historical, not predictive, and shown sequentially for clarity. Immediate relatives include parents and children younger than 21. Citizens from countries highlighted separately experience longer waits due to the per-country visa cap. “Apply for residency” processing times reflect adjusting status in the US; comparable data for consular processing are not published.
* **Chart 3:** Timelines reflect the length of each step under FY 2025 conditions. Wait times are historical, not predictive, and shown sequentially for clarity. NIW refers to a national interest waiver. Citizens from countries highlighted separately experience longer waits due to the per-country visa cap. “Apply for residency” processing times reflect adjusting status in the US; comparable data for consular processing are not published.
DrProfSrRyan on
I’m surprised just being a sibling of a US citizen is a valid path to citizenship. Pretty sure that’s not the case here in Germany.
USAFacts on
These charts show how long it can take to become a US citizen depending on your visa category and country of origin. Part of why we built this is because we couldn’t find a holistic viz anywhere. There are calculators and individual time-frame tables, but nothing that ties the entire journey (from petition to visa wait to green card to naturalization) into one view.
We made these using data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the State Department, and the Department of Labor. Every timeline reflects how long each step takes *under FY 2025 processing conditions*. Wait times are *historical*, not predictive — especially the visa-wait portions, which represent how long the people *currently* at the front of the line have been waiting.
The tricky bit was mapping out the exact sequence of steps for each pathway (family, employment, humanitarian aid) and figuring out how to visualize them together. The “ribbon” charts started as a completely different layout (the ribbons flowed upward at one point).
Here’s some context for the data:
* The process to become a US citizen requires someone to first obtain an immigrant visa before applying for residency (green card) and later (up to 5 years) applying for citizenship.
* The biggest factor in this timeline is visa availability. Visas for immediate relatives (parents or kids under 21) and spouses of US citizens aren’t capped, but most other categories are — and no more than 7% of certain visas can go to one country per year. That’s why applicants from India, China, Mexico, and the Philippines often face the longest waits.
* Family ties are the most common path to a green card. In FY 2023, nearly 65% of new green card holders qualified through a US citizen or lawful permanent resident relative. But how long the process takes depends entirely on who that relative is.
* Mexican siblings of US citizens who applied in 2001 – the year that George W. Bush entered the White House – started to become eligible for green cards in September 2025.
* Employment is the second most common path to a green card. In FY 2023, 16.7% of new green cards were issued through jobs or job offers in the US, though roughly half of those went to the workers’ spouses and children rather than the employees themselves.
* Humanitarian paths are the least predictable, which is why they’re not charted here. Refugee/asylum timelines aren’t fully published, so those waits vary widely and can’t be shown the same way.
* Green card holders still have to wait before naturalizing. Based on FY 2025 processing times, the full journey from receiving a green card to becoming a US citizen can take 3 to 6 years.
* There’s no limit on how many people can join the line awaiting a capped visa each year, so those applying now may be entering a much longer queue than those who applied years ago.
* Yes, being born in the US is the fastest timeline to become a citizen.
In contrast it took me 2.5yrs (via employment) to become a naturalized Canadian citizen.
lodestar72 on
Did we leave out Trump’s $5 million bribery vector?
genuine-clover199 on
Okay so visa classes for siblings, parents, extended family, unskilled labor should be eliminated ASAP
z0diark88 on
Is this path to citizenship or path to permanent residency (green card)?
BiBoFieTo on
Imagine waiting 30 years?
Meanwhile it cost me around $10k to renounce my US citizenship. Tough to get in, tough to escape.
engin__r on
I know that this is controversial but five years is an insanely long time to wait for citizenship, let alone thirty years.
Rizak on
Love this chart. What tool did you use?
brotha_eric on
Shouldn’t be a pathway for parents, especially older parents who will end up on medicaid/medicare.
AwesomeAndy on
This doesn’t even include cost. My friend spent several thousand dollars for his Vietnamese wife to get citizenship, not even including trips to visit her, and they wouldn’t even give her a visa until after they were married, since assumed she would enter and stay.
Jaszuni on
Where screenshots from, these are nice visuals. I mean the software that creates it.
geraffes-are-so-dumb on
I adopted two children from Colombia and learned it was the absolute fastest path to citizenship. It still took two years.
Throughout the process, people kept telling them they were “lucky” which is my second least favorite thing that people say to adopted kids, but I let it slide in the context of immigration. We spent a lot of time in offices, but it’s nothing compared to what other folks do for citizenship.
The annoying part is that when my family came over in the early 1900s from Finland, they literally just showed up. How did we go from centuries of just show up to a 30 year wait in some cases?
jemenake on
This is what’s infuriating about the “illegals are cutting the line” notion. It comes from people who can’t tell you how long the lines are nor how many different ones there are nor how one is supposed to navigate them. Granted, these charts are about citizenship, but the ones for visas are similar. Back during his first term, I remember reading that Trump reduced the allowed number of admissions for asylum at our southern border to something like 1,500/yr (that’s right, a whopping 5 per day) and that the _waiting list_ was something like 60k people. So, you could expect to be on the list for 40 years. If you applied when you were 20, you could get admitted just about when your productive working years were coming to a close. Suuuuper.
15 Comments
Source: US Citizenship and Immigration Services, State Department, Labor Department
Tools: Designed in Figma, hand-coded in chart software, touched up in Illustrator
Notes: Citizens from countries highlighted separately in these charts experience longer waits due to the per-country visa cap.
* **Chart 1:** Timelines reflect the length of each step if processed under FY 2025 conditions. Wait times are historical, not predictive. NIW refers to a national interest waiver. Processing times reflect applicants adjusting status in the US; comparable data for consular processing are not published. Citizens from countries highlighted separately experience longer waits due to the per-country visa cap.
* **Chart 2:** Timelines reflect the length of each step under FY 2025 conditions. Wait times are historical, not predictive, and shown sequentially for clarity. Immediate relatives include parents and children younger than 21. Citizens from countries highlighted separately experience longer waits due to the per-country visa cap. “Apply for residency” processing times reflect adjusting status in the US; comparable data for consular processing are not published.
* **Chart 3:** Timelines reflect the length of each step under FY 2025 conditions. Wait times are historical, not predictive, and shown sequentially for clarity. NIW refers to a national interest waiver. Citizens from countries highlighted separately experience longer waits due to the per-country visa cap. “Apply for residency” processing times reflect adjusting status in the US; comparable data for consular processing are not published.
I’m surprised just being a sibling of a US citizen is a valid path to citizenship. Pretty sure that’s not the case here in Germany.
These charts show how long it can take to become a US citizen depending on your visa category and country of origin. Part of why we built this is because we couldn’t find a holistic viz anywhere. There are calculators and individual time-frame tables, but nothing that ties the entire journey (from petition to visa wait to green card to naturalization) into one view.
We made these using data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the State Department, and the Department of Labor. Every timeline reflects how long each step takes *under FY 2025 processing conditions*. Wait times are *historical*, not predictive — especially the visa-wait portions, which represent how long the people *currently* at the front of the line have been waiting.
The tricky bit was mapping out the exact sequence of steps for each pathway (family, employment, humanitarian aid) and figuring out how to visualize them together. The “ribbon” charts started as a completely different layout (the ribbons flowed upward at one point).
Here’s some context for the data:
* The process to become a US citizen requires someone to first obtain an immigrant visa before applying for residency (green card) and later (up to 5 years) applying for citizenship.
* The biggest factor in this timeline is visa availability. Visas for immediate relatives (parents or kids under 21) and spouses of US citizens aren’t capped, but most other categories are — and no more than 7% of certain visas can go to one country per year. That’s why applicants from India, China, Mexico, and the Philippines often face the longest waits.
* Family ties are the most common path to a green card. In FY 2023, nearly 65% of new green card holders qualified through a US citizen or lawful permanent resident relative. But how long the process takes depends entirely on who that relative is.
* Mexican siblings of US citizens who applied in 2001 – the year that George W. Bush entered the White House – started to become eligible for green cards in September 2025.
* Employment is the second most common path to a green card. In FY 2023, 16.7% of new green cards were issued through jobs or job offers in the US, though roughly half of those went to the workers’ spouses and children rather than the employees themselves.
* Humanitarian paths are the least predictable, which is why they’re not charted here. Refugee/asylum timelines aren’t fully published, so those waits vary widely and can’t be shown the same way.
* Green card holders still have to wait before naturalizing. Based on FY 2025 processing times, the full journey from receiving a green card to becoming a US citizen can take 3 to 6 years.
* There’s no limit on how many people can join the line awaiting a capped visa each year, so those applying now may be entering a much longer queue than those who applied years ago.
* Yes, being born in the US is the fastest timeline to become a citizen.
A bit more context and interactive versions of the family and employment charts [here](https://usafacts.org/articles/how-long-can-it-take-to-become-a-us-citizen/).
In contrast it took me 2.5yrs (via employment) to become a naturalized Canadian citizen.
Did we leave out Trump’s $5 million bribery vector?
Okay so visa classes for siblings, parents, extended family, unskilled labor should be eliminated ASAP
Is this path to citizenship or path to permanent residency (green card)?
Imagine waiting 30 years?
Meanwhile it cost me around $10k to renounce my US citizenship. Tough to get in, tough to escape.
I know that this is controversial but five years is an insanely long time to wait for citizenship, let alone thirty years.
Love this chart. What tool did you use?
Shouldn’t be a pathway for parents, especially older parents who will end up on medicaid/medicare.
This doesn’t even include cost. My friend spent several thousand dollars for his Vietnamese wife to get citizenship, not even including trips to visit her, and they wouldn’t even give her a visa until after they were married, since assumed she would enter and stay.
Where screenshots from, these are nice visuals. I mean the software that creates it.
I adopted two children from Colombia and learned it was the absolute fastest path to citizenship. It still took two years.
Throughout the process, people kept telling them they were “lucky” which is my second least favorite thing that people say to adopted kids, but I let it slide in the context of immigration. We spent a lot of time in offices, but it’s nothing compared to what other folks do for citizenship.
The annoying part is that when my family came over in the early 1900s from Finland, they literally just showed up. How did we go from centuries of just show up to a 30 year wait in some cases?
This is what’s infuriating about the “illegals are cutting the line” notion. It comes from people who can’t tell you how long the lines are nor how many different ones there are nor how one is supposed to navigate them. Granted, these charts are about citizenship, but the ones for visas are similar. Back during his first term, I remember reading that Trump reduced the allowed number of admissions for asylum at our southern border to something like 1,500/yr (that’s right, a whopping 5 per day) and that the _waiting list_ was something like 60k people. So, you could expect to be on the list for 40 years. If you applied when you were 20, you could get admitted just about when your productive working years were coming to a close. Suuuuper.