India, Oct. 22 -- Indian green-card holders seeking US citizenship are facing longer waits as approvals slow and the backlog of pending naturalisation applications continues to grow. According to official US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data reviewed by IANS, the number of pending Form N-400 applications reached 813,453 in August. The agency approved 15,349 applications that month, compared with 16,514 in July and 18,439 in June.

The backlog increased from 744,412 applications in June to 778,489 in July before crossing 813,000 in August. Of the applications pending in August, 513,462 had been awaiting a decision for more than six months, while the average processing time stood at 12.7 months. USCIS received 54,492 new ap...