Wyoming Has No Hearing Office of Its Own
Wyoming is the least populous state, about 577,000 people, and SSA does not run an Office of Hearings Operations here. Casper once had one. It no longer does. Wyoming hearing level claims are handled by two out-of-state offices, and which one gets your case depends on the Social Security field office that took your application:
| Your field office | Hearing office that handles your case |
|---|
| Casper, Cheyenne, Riverton, Rock Springs | Salt Lake City, UT OHO, 125 South State Street, Suite 3102, Salt Lake City, UT 84138, 1-877-628-6579 |
| Cody, Sheridan | Billings, MT OHO, 2900 Fourth Avenue North, Suite 500, Billings, MT 59101, 1-877-545-5512 |
These assignments come from SSA's published hearing office jurisdiction listings. You do not get to choose, and you should verify your own assignment on your hearing acknowledgment letter rather than assuming, because OHO periodically redistributes dockets and judges from SSA's national hearing centers also hear cases remotely to balance workloads. If a national hearing center judge is assigned to your case, the statistics for Salt Lake City or Billings will not describe your judge at all.
Practically, the out-of-state office is less of a burden than it sounds. Wyoming hearings are routinely held by telephone or online video, which spares a claimant in Gillette or Jackson a drive to another state. You may request an in-person hearing, and in a state this size that request can add weeks or months while it is scheduled around when a judge is hearing cases near you.
Hearing office numbers, and an honest caveat about them
| Measure | Salt Lake City | Billings | National |
|---|
| Average wait to a hearing | Approximately 8 months | Approximately 9 months | Approximately 8.4 months |
| Cases pending a hearing | Approximately 1,928 | Approximately 1,732 | n/a |
| Active administrative law judges | Approximately 5 | Approximately 8 | n/a |
| Approval rate, dismissals excluded | Approximately 52.5% | Approximately 62.1% | Approximately 57.6% |
Three things you should know before you lean on that table.
First, the approval rate depends entirely on the counting convention. The figures above exclude dismissals from the denominator, so they measure allowances as a share of cases decided on the merits. A different compilation of the same SSA data, DisabilityJudges.com, reports roughly 46 percent for Salt Lake City and 53 percent for Billings for fiscal year 2026, because it uses a wider denominator and a different reporting window. That is a 6 to 9 point gap between two honest readings of the same underlying file. Treat any single approval percentage as a range, and ask what the denominator was before you make a decision based on it.
Second, none of these numbers are Wyoming numbers. OHO reports by office, not by the claimant's state of residence. Salt Lake City's docket is overwhelmingly Utah cases, Billings' is overwhelmingly Montana. Wyoming claimants are a small minority inside both. There is no published Wyoming hearing approval rate, and anyone presenting one has derived it from office data that does not separate out Wyoming.
Third, the per-judge spread swamps the office average. At Salt Lake City, individual judge approval rates run from roughly 31 percent to 85 percent, a 55 point spread. At Billings the spread is wider still. With only five to eight judges per office and a small Wyoming slice of the caseload, the office percentage you see is built on a modest number of cases and moves noticeably from one reporting period to the next. It is a rough prior, not a forecast for your case.
Nationally the hearing stage is getting worse, not better. Pending hearing requests grew from roughly 274,000 in May 2025 to about 361,000 in May 2026, a jump near 30 percent, because faster initial decisions push denials into the appeals queue sooner. That is one more reason a Wyoming claimant, already starting from a nine month initial wait, should put the work into the initial file.
Who Actually Decides Your Wyoming Claim
Social Security handles the non-medical half: work credits, earnings record, identity, and payment. The medical decision is made by a state agency under contract with SSA. In Wyoming that agency is Disability Determination Services, a division of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services.
| Wyoming DDS | Detail |
|---|
| Address | 5221 Yellowstone Road, Cheyenne, WY 82002 |
| Phone | 1-855-953-8691 |
| Fax | 1-800-972-2372 |
| Web | dws.wyo.gov |
A Wyoming DDS disability determination specialist requests records from every provider you listed, orders a consultative examination if the file is too thin to decide, and applies SSA's five-step evaluation alongside a state agency medical consultant. DDS does not take applications from the public and cannot issue a payment. Its only job on your file is the medical decision.
DDS here is a small operation covering a state of 577,000 people across nearly 98,000 square miles. Small agencies are exposed to a single vacancy in a way large state agencies are not, and the state was actively posting disability determination specialist openings through 2026. That is the structural story behind a nine month average in a state with an unusually strong approval rate: the examiners are not stingy, there are not many of them, and the records they need travel a long way.
Reconsideration Is Required in Wyoming
If Wyoming DDS denies your initial claim, your first appeal is reconsideration. You have 60 days from the date on the denial notice, and the file goes back to Cheyenne for review by a different specialist and medical consultant.
You cannot skip it. From 1999 to 2019 SSA ran a prototype test in ten states that sent denied claimants straight to a hearing. Wyoming was never one of them, and SSA reinstated the step in all ten between January 2019 and March 2020. As of 2026 there is no state where you appeal a denial directly to a judge, and a misfiled hearing request gets bounced while the 60 day clock keeps running.
Reconsideration is the weakest stage in the process. Wyoming's reconsideration approval rate has been reported around 10.3 percent, below the national figure near 15 to 16 percent, which is the predictable result of a second examiner reading the same evidence and reaching the same conclusion. The claimants who win here are the ones who added something: records generated after the first decision, a new specialist's findings, or a treating provider's functional assessment. An appeal filed with nothing new attached usually produces a second denial several months later.
What Actually Delays a Wyoming Claim
Medical records that never arrive. This is the single most common reason a claim runs past even Wyoming's long average, and the most fixable. DDS requests records, follows up, then waits. A closed practice, a dead fax number, or a slow records department stalls the file indefinitely.
Distance to care, and to the consultative examiner. If your records do not establish severity, DDS schedules and pays for a one-time exam with a contracted physician or psychologist. That typically adds 4 to 8 weeks. In Wyoming it often adds more, because the nearest contracted examiner may be hours away and appointment slots in Casper, Cheyenne, or across a state line are limited. A missed appointment can add months or produce a denial for insufficient evidence. If the drive is the obstacle, say so when they call, and ask whether a closer examiner or a different date is available.
Care spread across several providers and states. A Wyoming file commonly includes a critical access hospital, a rural clinic, an Indian Health Service facility, and a specialist in Billings, Fort Collins, Salt Lake City, or Denver. Each is a separate records request on a separate timeline, and out-of-state providers are often the slowest to respond.
An unreturned Function Report or Work History Report. These arrive by mail and your case sits open until you send them back. SSA now looks back 5 years of past relevant work rather than 15, and excludes jobs that lasted fewer than 30 calendar days.
Earnings above the SGA limit. For 2026, substantial gainful activity is $1,690 per month for non-blind claimants and $2,830 per month for statutorily blind claimants. Earning above that line while your claim is pending generally produces a technical denial regardless of your medical condition. Wyoming's energy, mineral, ranching, and tourism work is often seasonal, and a few high months can trip SGA even when the annual total is low. Untangling a disputed earnings record takes months.
Address and phone changes. A returned letter or an examiner who cannot reach you is a stalled claim. Report every change the day it happens.
How to Apply, and How to Shorten the Wait
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Gather documents first. Social Security number, birth certificate, prior year W-2s or self-employment returns, military discharge papers if applicable, names and phone numbers for every provider who has treated you, all medications with prescribing physicians, and a 5 year work history with job titles, dates, and the physical and mental demands of each job.
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File the application. Apply online at ssa.gov/applyfordisability, which lets you save and return. You can also call 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778) or schedule an appointment at a Wyoming field office.
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Complete the Adult Disability Report (SSA-3368) carefully. Describe what your condition stops you from doing in specific terms rather than restating a diagnosis. Sign form SSA-827 so SSA and DDS can request your records.
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Send your own records in rather than waiting. Download everything from each provider's patient portal, save as PDFs, and upload through your my Social Security account or send them to your specialist once you have a name. In a state where records travel this far, this is the highest value hour you will spend on the claim.
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Ask your treating provider for a medical source statement. A short form describing specific functional limits, how long you can sit, stand, walk, lift, concentrate, and stay on task, is worth more to a determination specialist than hundreds of pages of treatment notes.
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Call Wyoming DDS at 1-855-953-8691 every three or four weeks and ask which records are still outstanding. Then call those providers yourself. Claimants who chase their own records routinely beat the state average by months.
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Ask about Wyoming SOAR if you have a mental health or substance use condition, or are homeless or at risk of it. SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery is a trained-caseworker model run through the Wyoming Department of Health behavioral health division, and SOAR-assisted applications are approved at far higher rates and faster than unassisted ones.
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If denied, file reconsideration within 60 days at ssa.gov/apply/appeal-initial-determination, and attach something new. Missing the deadline usually means starting a fresh application and losing months of potential back pay.
Wyoming Social Security Field Offices
| City | Address | Phone |
|---|
| Cheyenne | 3001 E. Pershing Blvd., Suite 140, Cheyenne, WY 82001 | 1-866-336-7580 |
| Casper | 150 E. B St., Room 1008, Casper, WY 82601 | 1-866-964-3972 |
| Sheridan | 2268 N. Main St., Sheridan, WY 82801 | 1-866-530-7798 |
| Riverton | 215 Big Bend Ave., Riverton, WY 82501 | 1-866-331-2198 |
| Rock Springs | 79 Winston Dr., Suite 131, Rock Springs, WY 82901 | 1-855-881-0211 |
| Cody | 1285 Sheridan Ave., Suite 265, Cody, WY 82414 | 1-844-345-3522 |
The smaller offices keep limited hours. Riverton and Cody are open only a few days a week. Confirm the address, hours, and appointment requirement with SSA's office locator before driving, especially in winter. SSA asks nearly all visitors to schedule ahead.
Ways to get a faster decision
None of these are automatic, and all depend on your condition and documentation.
Compassionate Allowances (CAL). SSA flags roughly 290 conditions, including many aggressive cancers, ALS, and certain rare pediatric diseases, for immediate review. These are often decided in weeks even in slow states. Name the diagnosis precisely on the application.
Quick Disability Determination (QDD). A predictive model screens incoming claims for a high likelihood of allowance with readily available evidence. QDD claims route to specialized units and can clear in under 30 days.
Terminal illness (TERI). If a condition is untreatable and expected to result in death, or you are in hospice, ask the field office for TERI handling.
Dire need. If you lack food, medicine, or shelter, or face eviction, foreclosure, or a utility shutoff, request dire need processing in writing and attach proof.
Military casualty cases. Service members disabled while on active duty on or after October 1, 2001 get expedited handling.
If your claim passes a year with no decision, a congressional caseworker inquiry is a legitimate next step. Wyoming's single House member and both senators maintain in-state offices that handle SSA casework, and SSA generally responds within a few weeks.
Money and Coverage While You Wait
Wyoming has no state temporary disability insurance program. Only a handful of states run one, and Wyoming is not among them. There is no state agency that will replace your wages during a nine month wait. If you have private short-term disability coverage through an employer, file that claim immediately rather than waiting on the federal decision.
Wyoming has not expanded Medicaid, which matters a great deal across a long wait. Childless adults ages 19 to 64 do not qualify on low income alone, and parents face a limit near 43 percent of the federal poverty level. Roughly 9,000 residents sit in the resulting coverage gap. Two realistic paths exist:
- Medicaid for the aged, blind, and disabled, which follows SSI financial rules: income near the federal benefit rate of $994 per month for an individual in 2026 and a resource limit of $2,000 for an individual or $3,000 for a couple. You do not have to wait for an SSA decision to apply.
- Marketplace coverage with subsidies through healthcare.gov, which in a non-expansion state requires household income of at least 100 percent of the federal poverty level. Below that line, and outside the disabled and aged rules, is the gap.
Programs that do not require a disability determination and can start paying long before SSA decides: SNAP, LIHEAP for heating assistance, WIC, and POWER (Wyoming's TANF cash program) if you have children in the household. For the income limits on each, see our Wyoming benefits guide.
If you are eventually approved for SSI rather than SSDI, Wyoming adds a small state supplement, about $20 per month, paid automatically to eligible recipients based on data SSA sends the state. You do not apply for it separately. Details are in our Wyoming SSI state supplement guide.
The Five Month Waiting Period Is Separate From Processing Time
Even after approval, SSDI carries a statutory five month waiting period running from your established onset date, so your first payable month is the sixth full month after onset. In Wyoming that period has almost always elapsed before a decision arrives, which is one of the few consolations of a slow state: approval generally means immediate payment plus back pay rather than another five month wait. SSDI back pay can reach up to 12 months before your application date depending on onset.
SSI has no five month waiting period, but SSI back pay only runs to the month after you applied. That is a direct argument for filing the day you believe you qualify rather than waiting to assemble records. Your SSDI monthly amount is calculated from your own lifetime earnings record, not from any state rate, so two Wyoming claimants with the same diagnosis can receive very different checks.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does disability take in Wyoming in 2026?
About 277 days, roughly nine months, for an initial decision, against a national average of 188 days in August 2026. That places Wyoming in the slowest tier of states. A claim that is denied and goes through reconsideration and then a hearing commonly takes 24 to 30 months from filing to a judge's decision.
Why is Wyoming slower than the national average?
Capacity, not strictness. Wyoming DDS is a small Cheyenne office covering nearly 98,000 square miles, and it was recruiting determination specialists through 2026. On top of that, Wyoming files depend on records from rural clinics, critical access hospitals, tribal health facilities, and specialists in other states, and nothing can be decided until those records arrive. Wyoming's approval rate is one of the highest in the country, so the delay is a throughput problem rather than a stingier standard.
What are my odds of approval in Wyoming?
At the initial level, roughly 44.9 percent in 2024 and 44.6 percent in 2023, which ranked Wyoming ninth nationally and sits well above the national rate near 37 percent. At reconsideration, Wyoming has been reported near 10.3 percent. At the hearing level there is no Wyoming-specific published figure, because SSA reports hearing statistics by office rather than by claimant state.
How long is the wait for a disability hearing in Wyoming?
Roughly 8 months if your case goes to Salt Lake City and roughly 9 months if it goes to Billings, based on SSA hearing office data for the 12 months ending July 2026, with a national average near 8.4 months. Add another 1 to 3 months for the written decision after the hearing.
Which hearing office handles a Wyoming disability case?
Wyoming has no hearing office. Claims filed through the Casper, Cheyenne, Riverton, and Rock Springs field offices go to the Salt Lake City OHO. Claims filed through Cody and Sheridan go to the Billings OHO. Judges from SSA's national hearing centers also hear cases remotely, so confirm your assignment on the acknowledgment letter instead of assuming. Hearings are usually held by phone or video regardless.
How long does reconsideration take in Wyoming?
Nobody can tell you precisely, because SSA does not publish a state-level reconsideration breakdown. The national average was 208 days in May 2026, down from 246 days in May 2025. Practitioners in Wyoming generally describe four to seven months. Treat any precise Wyoming reconsideration figure you see online as an estimate rather than published data.
Does Wyoming have state disability benefits while I wait?
No. Wyoming has no state temporary or short-term disability insurance program. Your options during the wait are private short-term disability coverage if you have it, SNAP, LIHEAP, WIC, POWER if you have children, and Medicaid for the aged, blind, and disabled if you meet its income and resource limits.
Can I check the status of my Wyoming disability claim?
Yes. Use your my Social Security account at ssa.gov/myaccount, call 1-800-772-1213, or call Wyoming DDS directly at 1-855-953-8691. The national 800 number can confirm where your file sits but cannot discuss the medical review. DDS can. Ask specifically which records are still outstanding, then chase those providers yourself.
Does hiring a representative make a Wyoming claim faster?
No representative moves you up the queue. What representation changes is the completeness of your record and your odds at a hearing. Representatives work on contingency, and SSA caps the fee agreement amount at 25 percent of past-due benefits or $9,200, whichever is less. Given Wyoming's unusually high initial approval rate, getting help with the first application rather than only after a denial is worth considering.
What should I do while waiting for a Wyoming disability decision?
Keep treating with your providers, because gaps in treatment get read as improvement. Keep earnings under the 2026 SGA limit of $1,690 per month. Answer every DDS letter within days. Upload your own medical records instead of waiting for DDS to collect them. And apply now for the programs that do not require a disability finding: SNAP, LIHEAP, WIC, POWER, and aged, blind, and disabled Medicaid if you may qualify.
