USCIS Chicago Field Office

One of the longest N-400 lines of any field office

Chicago’s naturalization queue is what sets it apart. USCIS’s field office file for April to June 2026 shows:

Source: USCIS N-400 performance data by field office, FY2026 Q3, April 1 to June 30, 2026. USCIS withheld military denials (“not reported”) under its disclosure standards.

Chicago received more than five civilian N-400s for every one it decided that quarter (4,425 against 829). By our count, its 22,685 pending was the third-largest civilian N-400 count of any field office, after Houston and Dallas. Denials were 272 of 829 decisions, or 32.8%, against 18.6% nationally.

For green cards the picture is less extreme:

Source: USCIS I-485 performance data by field office, FY2026 Q3. The total also includes humanitarian cases (asylees, refugees, Indochinese and Cuban refugees). Chicago received 1,097 of those and decided 13 (10 approved, 3 denied), with 10,275 pending.

A large military caseload

Chicago received 652 military N-400s in the quarter, the third-highest, by our count, of the field offices that reported the figure. These are applicants whose eligibility relies on service in the U.S. armed forces. The office approved 389 and had 938 pending.

We cannot compute our ratio exactly here, because USCIS withheld the denials. Using approvals alone, pending was at most 2.4 times the cases decided. Nationally, USCIS’s median for military N-400s was 2.6 months, against 9.5 months for civilian ones (All Forms by Quarter, FY2026 Q3). Both are national figures, not Chicago’s.

The backlog ratio against the country

Our ratio is pending cases divided by cases decided (approved plus denied) in the same quarter. It is our rough indicator from USCIS counts, not a USCIS processing time. A ratio of 27.4 says Chicago held about 27 pending civilian N-400s per decision in April to June; it does not mean 27 months. Rounded to one decimal.

“All field offices” adds the 93 field office rows in the same USCIS files. Seven offices had N-400 denials withheld, which pushes that N-400 figure slightly up. The medians are USCIS’s national months from receipt to completion for cases finished in April to June 2026.

The office and the area it covers

The USCIS locator lists the Chicago Field Office at 101 West Ida B. Wells Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, and marks it as a district office (locator data, Aug 28, 2026 file). It is the only Illinois office in USCIS’s performance files. Check the address on your notice, as USCIS asks. Visiting hours are not published on uscis.gov.

By active ZIP codes in the locator, Chicago covers:

• Northern Illinois: Cook (215 ZIPs), DuPage (54), Lake (33), Will (31), Winnebago (28), Kane (27), La Salle (24), McHenry (19), plus Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Grundy, Jo Daviess, Kendall, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson and Whiteside.
• Northwest Indiana: Lake (32), St. Joseph (27), La Porte (13) and Porter (10).

Elsewhere in Illinois, check your ZIP: in counties such as Sangamon and Adams, the locator sends most ZIP codes to offices outside Illinois, such as St. Louis or Des Moines. Look up your own ZIP in the Field Office Locator.

Interviews, tests and ceremonies in Chicago

You need an appointment to enter; USCIS field offices take no walk-ins. Most visits are interviews you are called to by notice.

At an N-400 interview, the officer asks about your application and gives the English and civics tests unless you are exempt. If you filed on or after Oct. 20, 2025, you take the 2025 civics test: 20 questions from a list of 128, and you need 12 right. Filed before that date, it is the 2008 test: up to 10 questions, 6 right to pass (naturalization interview and test).

Two rules from USCIS’s Field Offices page matter on the day. Phones, video, audio recording and photos are prohibited unless allowed during a naturalization ceremony. Firearms, knives, pepper spray and ammunition are banned from any USCIS facility, even with a permit.

USCIS publishes no oath ceremony venue for Chicago. The ceremony can follow the interview the same day, or you get Form N-445 by mail with the date, time and location (naturalization ceremonies).

For services that cannot be handled by phone, mail or email, such as emergency travel documents or proof of status, the Contact Center schedules in-person appointments. Searching for InfoPass? Today you request the appointment online or call 800-375-5283, live Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm Eastern.

What to do if your Chicago case is slow

1. Check the official range. Pick your form and the Chicago office on the USCIS processing times page. USCIS does not research cases within it (While My Case Is Pending).
2. Outside it? Send a case inquiry through e-Request.
3. Need to move your interview or oath date? USCIS lists rescheduling an interview or an oath ceremony among the requests the Contact Center takes.
4. Urgent? USCIS weighs expedite requests case by case and generally wants documents.

The YourCaseStatus app (coming soon) will alert you when your status changes.

Related pages

• N-400 processing time and I-485 processing time
• Case is ready to be scheduled for an interview
• Other field offices: Newark, Los Angeles, Tampa, Houston
• USCIS case status and our status index