What is the difference between processing times and service standards?

We have 2 kinds of processing times:

• historical processing times
• forward-looking processing times

Historical processing times tell you how long it took to process 80% of applications in the past. We update these weekly.

Forward-looking processing times tell you how long we expect it will take us to process an application if we receive it today. We update these monthly.

Service standards are our commitment to process your application in a certain amount of time under normal circumstances. They aren’t updated regularly. Not all programs have service standards.

We report annually on how our actual processing times compare to our service standards.