Can I ask why your claim has taken so long, and do you have any idea how long it normally takes?
I believe it matters that I first applied in November 2021, when Covid-19 may still have been slowing things down a bit, though I'm not fully certain of that. When my representative talked to me, I believe he mentioned that it took a year for SSA to make the first ruling, and the first rejection, which he seemed to indicate was quite a while.
One thing that can slow things down is when your doctors' offices don't promptly respond to requests from SSA for your medical records. I was asked by SSA for help getting records from two of my private doctors' offices, since they weren't getting back to them in a timely manner. That also happened again with the same doctor's office when it came time for my case to go to court. I had to request the records twice after my representative had asked for them, which took a total of three week's time from the original request date.
Another thing I suspect is that my case sat around for a lot longer than necessary because a different person started handling my case at our local or state SSA office without my knowledge. I'm even wondering if the first person at SSA who was handling it had left SSA. I hadn't heard from SSA since August of 2022 after I helped them with the records request from my doctors' offices, until I finally called them myself at the end of December or beginning of January in 2023. And that's when I found out I had to deal with somebody completely different there. At that point, enough time had passed that they had to request medical records from my doctors' offices again, another delay. But after I had called and spoke with the new person handling my case, I think it only took a month for me to be rejected. I found out later that they hadn't received records from one of my slow doctor's offices that second time before the first ruling, which irked me. So let's say that first ruling was made at the end of January or start of February 2023.
Because of this, I recommend you call over to SSA yourself every so often to see where your case is at, especially if you don't have somebody else representing you. You can ask whoever is assigned to you at SSA how often checking in with them will be acceptable. It's possible it cost me months of time due to not checking in, especially with SSA's change of personnel.
After that first rejection, I hired Social Security Disability Advisors. I think I only had two months to appeal after that first rejection. So I wasn't calling SSA directly, but going through the advisors I hired. And my advisors could see always where SSA was at with getting my medical records. My advisors had requested to also get records of everything SSA mailed to me from SSA. You can check on how many of your medical records that SSA has received yourself somehow, without calling, but I'm not sure how to do it. In the end it was my hired advisor checking with me and making sure she had gotten all of my medical records for court in enought time for preparation before the court date. And asking me for help if necessary.
You can also check online at anytime to see what step you are at in the application and ruling process if you make an online account with SSA, which I hadn't figured out at first.
I wouldn't be able to guess on average how long it takes for a SSA case to succeed or be completely rejected. I may still need to appeal if I lose my court case. So I can't even be sure of a timeline for myself. The other thing I'm wondering is if SSA caseloads vary from state to state. My guess is there are many factors that can affect how long a ruling takes.