Good news if you're in the queue: unlike some articles still quoting 200-220 cases/day, PermQueue's live data shows the DOL is now processing roughly 641 cases per business day in 2026 — and average wait time has been falling month over month.
What the homepage cards actually show
Current throughput: ~641 cases decided per business day. That's nearly 3x the 200-220/day figure some older analyses still cite.
Annualized, that's roughly 160,000 cases processed — enough to start eating into the backlog rather than just keeping up with new filings.
Direct impact: the average wait time shown on the homepage cards has been dropping consistently over the past several months.
Why other articles still get the number wrong
Many analyses lean on 2024-2025 averages, before the DOL ramped up processing in 2026.
PermQueue's data is pulled straight from the official DOL queue, so it reflects what's happening right now — not what was happening 12 months ago.
What this means for you
If you file PERM now, the realistic outlook is better than the pessimistic 200/day projections suggest. Watch the average wait time card on the homepage for the live trend.
Still true: clean cases (zero RFI) and employers earlier in the alphabet decide faster. If eligible, EB-1 or NIW skip PERM entirely.