Where New York hearings are held
9 Social Security hearing offices serve New York. The gap between them is 3.0 months: Buffalo is running at 7.0 months while New York is at 10.0. Which one hears your case depends on your home address, not on anything you choose.
| Hearing office | Avg wait, months |
|---|---|
| Buffalo | 7.0 |
| Long Island | 8.0 |
| New York Varick | 8.0 |
| Syracuse | 8.0 |
| Rochester | 8.0 |
| Albany | 8.5 |
| Bronx | 9.0 |
| Queens | 9.5 |
| New York | 10.0 |
Offices are assigned by where you live, not by where you apply. If you move mid-claim, the case usually transfers.
Your deadline is 60 days, and it is not a New York rule
The appeal deadline is set in federal regulation, so it is the same in every state: 60 days from the date printed on your denial letter. SSA adds 5 days on the assumption the letter took that long to reach you, which is why 65 days is the practical figure.
Miss it and you usually have to start over with a fresh application — losing every month of back pay tied to the original filing date. SSA can accept a late appeal for good cause, but it is a request, not a right.
The wait is the argument for appealing rather than reapplying. A new application puts you at the back of the initial-decision queue. An appeal keeps your original filing date, which is what your back pay is calculated from.
What the wait actually means for a New York claim
The hearing wait is the gap between requesting a hearing and standing in front of a judge. It does not include the months already spent on the initial decision, or the reconsideration stage before it, or the weeks after the hearing while the written decision is drafted.
That is worth knowing before you decide whether to appeal: the honest total is usually longer than the headline number. It is also why the 60-day deadline matters so much — every week you delay is added to a queue that is already long.
If you are earlier in the process, our guide to the first 60 days after a denial covers what happens next in order.
Wait times and office data: Social Security Administration, Office of Hearings Operations public workload files (ssa.gov/appeals/publicusefiles.html), updated monthly. Figures reflect June 2026 and change — check the SSA files for the current position. Disabilift Advocates is not affiliated with the Social Security Administration.