Mission Application Status Options When Waiting for Your Call
When future missionaries submit their mission application to the Church, they are generally on pins and needles for the next couple of weeks as they await their mission call. Last year, when our daughter submitted her mission application, she was texting her bishop or stake president almost every day, asking if her application status had changed. You see, once the potential missionary has completed and submitted their paperwork, they have no visibility into the status of the application until they get a text and email a few weeks later that they mission call is available for viewing on the Missionary Portal. The bishop and stake president, however, have access to an online system where they can view the status of each missionary’s application.
Why the Church doesn’t grant the future missionaries access to this status information, I don’t know. Seems like doing so would be a win win, giving potential missionaries access to the information they want, while taking a big burden off the shoulders of priesthood leaders. One thing I learned when I worked for FedEx years ago what that information about the status of the package is as valuably important as the delivery of the package itself. Taking advantage of that fact and giving tracking information to the consumer made FedEx an industry leader. Maybe one day the Church will provide a similar mission call tracking feature to missionaries. Until then, the following is some information about the mission application status options that bishops and stake presidents can see and relay to future missionaries and their families.
As far as I have been able to determine, there are four status options for mission applications once they have been submitted to Church headquarters by the stake. They are:
- Submitted. This means your Stake has submitted your mission application forms to the Church. Based on what I’ve seen, the status on your application generally stays in the “submitted” state for a few days before being changed to the next phase.
- In Process. This means the application is being reviewed and vetted by staff and doctors at Church headquarters. Your application could stay in “In Process” for a few days or a few weeks, depending on circumstances. With our daughter (see her mission application timeline example here), it was a week and a half. For many of her friends, it was less than a week. If you have unique circumstances such as mental or physical health challenges, then the application may be processing for many weeks.
- Ready for Assignment. This indicates that the application is cleared and will be presented in next meeting where mission calls are assigned by prophecy and revelation.
- Mission Assigned. This means your mission call has been made and is generally sent out on he following Tuesday (see my article on the day of the week calls are sent out).
Since I am not a bishop or stake president, I cannot say with 100% certainly that these are the status options, but they seem accurate based on information I have been able to gather personally and from other people. If you have first hand knowledge of anything different, including screen shots, please leave a comment or contact me.
Trick for Checking the Status Yourself
There is a backdoor trick that many people have discovered for future missionaries themselves to figure out the status of their mission call. Our daughter and many of her friends have effectively used this technique. The trick is for the missionary applicant to log into their Church account and then direct their web browser to mail.missionary.org. If the mission call has not been issued, there will be an error displayed at that website, but if the mission call has been assigned, then the email account loads properly into the web browser and that means you will receive your call letter the next Tuesday when mission calls are sent out. To recap…
- Login to your Church account
- Go to mail.missionary.org
- If an error is displayed, the mission call has not been issued
- If the site loads properly, the mission call has been assigned and you should receive your letter the next Tuesday
When our daughter Hannah found out about that trick, she was checking the missionary email system daily to see if her missionary email address has been created, thus knowing her call had been issued. Indeed on the same day that Hannah’s bishop informed her that her mission application had changed to “ready for assignment” she found that her missionary email account was up and running and she did in fact receive her mission call on the following Tuesday.
Another trick to know if your mission call assignment has been made is to check the Church online donation website. This option only works people in the same ward as the future missionary, so if your son or daughter is in a college ward, as was the case for us, then it doesn’t work. In the Church’s donation website, members see a list of all the missionaries serving from their ward which is designed for parents and others to make the monthly mission cost payment. As soon as a missionary is ready for assignment, they will appear in that list of missionaries from the ward.
Do you know when mission calls typically get changed to ready for assignmnet? I submitted my call a week and 3 days ago and am in the In Process stage.
Your application could stay in “In Process” for a few days or a few weeks, depending on circumstances. With our daughter, it was a week and a half. For many of her friends, it was less than a week. If you have unique circumstances such as mental or physical health challenges, then the application may be processing for many weeks before being ready for assignment.
As a ward clerk I can check my application process by myself. I check it every hour
How can I track the status of my application myself?
I’m sorry to say, it can’t be done. The Church does not provide a for missionary applicants to check the status for themselves.
Oh I see! Thank you for your reply!!
I already have a missionary email but my stake clerk told me my form is till writen ready for assignment
Would I get my call this coming Tuesday?
I am in the same situation, I have a missionary email but it says ready for assignment. My bishop said that he doesn’t think it will come until after the holidays.
Yeah, I think Jayma is right. If it is “ready for assignment” then the call has not been issued and will therefore not likely come this Tuesday. The call assignment will likely happen later in the week and then you’ll receive it in the week following that. Good luck and God bless.
Hi! What is the longest my calling could take? I sent my carpet 3 weeks ago but it is still awaiting mission assignment.
Tammy, Three weeks is a little longer than average, but not unusual. This could indicate an issue with your application or it could just be the busy summer season of mission applications. If you are concerned that your application is not moving along as it should in the process, your stake president can reach out to church headquarters to find out if there is a problem and how to resolve it. Good luck and God bless.
Hi! If my brother has an email and submitted everything over 2 weeks ago is there still a chance he can still receive it today? Or next week most likely?
Yes. If his missionary email address has been created, then he should get his call today. Sometimes they don’t come through until 6:00 or 7:00 PM in the evening.
Hey! I received a mission email this past Friday, and that same day my application status changed to “Ready for Assignment.” Does this mean I will get my call this Tuesday?
If your status is “Ready for Assignment”, I believe that means that when the apostles next meet to issue mission calls, that your name will be on the list. So most likely your assignment will be made next Friday, and your call will come the Tuesday after that.
Did you end up getting your call that very next Tuesday?
I tried the backdoor trick by checking if I already have my missionary email ready in the mail.missionary.org. The website worked today and showed me my email address. Does that mean that I will be receiving my mission call on Tuesday next week? Does this mean my mission call has already been made?
Yes, that means your call has been made and you should receive your call letter next Tuesday. Good luck.
Thank you Brother Jimmy!
recibio su llamado el martes?
How can I go into to that trick by checking if I already missionary email.
Hi! My Bishop informed me that yesterday my status moved to Pending. We think that means that they will be making my assignment this week but we’re not sure?
“Pending”? That’s a new one to me. My guess is that is between “In Progress” and “Ready for Assignment” and that it means that are waiting on something before your mission call can move forward. I would reach out to your stake president and see if the church has contacted him about what it might be.
I’ve heard that assignments are generally made on Friday, but today is Wednesday and my daughter can access her missionary email today but she couldn’t yesterday. I know sometimes the Brethren meet on days other than Friday. Does this mean she might get her call on a different day other than Tuesday or do they all generally still come on Tuesday even if they were assigned on a day other than Friday?
It’s possible to get the call before Tuesday, but not likely. There are a lot of process steps and administrative actions that church employees need to take before the call letter can be sent out, and those usually culminate on Tuesdays.
KM, when did your daughter get her call? Was it on Tuesday or earlier?
My mission status changed date to 6th December ready for assignment, whereby before it was ready for assignment on the 28th November..
does that mean I might get my call on Tuesday???
My bishop informed me three weeks ago that my call has been “ready for assignment” and I still cannot sign into missionary email. I guess I’ll just perish
My sons application was supposedly submited a week and a half ago. His portal doesnt show any of the status you mentioned. Does that mean that the stake president forgot to submit the paperwork?
The missionary portal does not show the status of the application. Only priesthood leaders (bishop and stake president) can see the status of the application.
Just curious about something. How often does missing paperwork determine when the actual call will come? I’m aware of a young man waiting well over the usual amount of weeks with no answer as to why his call hasn’t happened. All the paperwork..picture..etc etc submitted but no one can find the papers. He graduated from high school early so he could go early….now just waiting.
Jimmy, Thank you for the information and backdoor tricks. My son submitted his papers Feb 8th and we are anxiously awaiting the call. For your work here “I’d stay by you Jimmy, I’d pray for you Jimmy, I’d even die for you Jimmy!” 🙂
One question we have is if the missionary mail account is set up as soon as the status is changed to ready for assignment, or is the missionary mail account set up after the meeting when the assignment is made but before the status is changed to assignment made and the call extended?
I agree that knowing the status is almost as important as receiving the call. We have become dependent upon instantaneous information, and in this case, I hope the church takes advantage of the technology available to calm future missionaries’ nerves and their parents’ nerves!
Thank you again!
Tyler, I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that after the call is issued, there is a set of tasks done by employees of the Missionary Department, one of which is to create the missionary’s mail account.
My brother received his email on Thursday as well as my cousins. Their Bishops said that it’s ready for assignment. Does holidays such as president effect when calls will be sent out?
We have an email too and are waiting today still. Also wondering if Presidents Day makes a difference. Let me know if your brother got his call yet
I got an email on Wednesday and am wondering the same thing
We have an email as well. Still waiting today. Hopefully it will come soon!
Finally got the email and text at 6:39pm MST. We’ll be opening tomorrow night!!!
If my status says ready for assignment here on Saturday and I still dont have an email could it be possible that it could be ready by tuesday with the call being assigned monday)
If it is Saturday and your status says Ready for Assignment, then your call should be issued the next time the apostles meet to do mission assignments. That meeting usually happens on Fridays, but can happen other days of the week depending on the schedule of the apostles. In your case, I would expect your call to be issued next Friday and then to receive communication from the Church about your call the following Tuesday. Good luck and God bless.
So my stk pres said my papers has been showing up as ready for assignment since at least 2/23. My email showed up in the system on 2/28 but it is still showing waiting for assignment today and not on donation slip. I wonder if they are changing the order of things?
Sounds to me like the order is still intact and that you should receive your call on the Tuesday after 2/28, which will be 3/5, tomorrow. Good luck and God bless.
How do I know when I get my missionary email?
Hi,
My stake president submitted my application four weeks ago, and my status is still in the “processing” stage. Today my stake president reached out and asked to meet with me, saying that the mission office sent him a letter that he should “go over with me”. Is this anything I should be concerned about?
I’d say, try to be patient. Often times the people at Church headquarters, doctors and other professionals, will ask potential missionaries to complete additional steps before their mission call will be fully processed. It could be for mental or physical health or other reasons. Good luck and God bless.
I know it is late, but for newbies finding this site, this happened to my son. He was called in to the Stake Pres to make sure that he would keep his tattoo covered while on his mission. His papers were then resubmitted, and we have been waiting over two weeks. Yesterday, his ready-for-assignment date changed, which rumors say means his call is assigned, but now they need to figure out the dates and other stuff before sending out his call.
Hi Jimmy! I submitted my papers almost 3 weeks ago and haven’t seen the email just yet. I understand a call can go longer than average for several reasons but is it possible that general conference would cause a significant delay?
Hi Mitchell. I don’t think general conference causes a delay in mission calls, but it certainly is possible. Three weeks is not out of the ordinary, so I’d give it another week and then reach out to your stake president to see if he has heard why your application has been delayed. Good luck and God bless.
My son can see his missionary email address but he isn’t showing up on the tithing slip under our ward list of missionaries. We are still hopeful that he will get his call tomorrow 4/23/24
This is the case for us as well! Did he get his call?
If I have not gotten my mission email yet, do you think there is still a chance I could get it today and receive my call on Tuesday?
Someone had said that there is a time period in August or September in which they don’t make assignments. A “break” of sorts after the summer rush. Do you know anything about that?
Yes, I also have heard that most general authorities take time off in July and/or August. But I have also heard that the apostles make sure someone is in town each week to run the missionary assignment meeting to make sure mission calls are not delayed. I’m not an insider, so it is possible that there are weeks in which no mission assignments are made, but I have not heard of such a thing happening. Good luck and God bless you on your mission.
For the other curious people out there, here’s what my sister’s timeline looked like. My father is her bishop and so we were seeing the missionary side and the leader side at the same time.
Papers submitted 7/9
Ready for assignment (dated 7/19)
Ready for assignment (date changed to 7/25)
Missionary email accessed 7/26
Call received 7/30 9:09am MDT
Hope this is helpful for others! Best of luck to everyone!
My bishop told me Friday morning that my status was ready for assignment. Friday afternoon, I received my email, so I assumed my call had been assigned. Today, Sunday, my bishop let me know my status was still ready for assignment. I thought that was interesting, as I already have access to my mission email.
Can the email access end up being on the same day as the call. Like can the email settings change on Tuesday morning and then we get the call the same day? Or do they always open up the emails a few days before?
I’m wondering the same thing, I don’t have access to my email but tomorrow (Tuesday August 27th) marks just a few days past my 2 weeks of submission. I’m anxious to see if I get my call tomorrow, but if I don’t have access then I guess I’m assuming my call hasn’t been made.
Hi! I received my access to my email on 11/27 however, my bishop on 12/1 said it still says pending assignment. Do you think this means I will get my call this Tuesday?
Thank you!
I’m in the same boat! My mission papers was Ready for assignment on the 26th of November and I was able to access my missionary email the next day (27th) it’s Tuesday today the 2th so we will see! Hope you gets your calling soon
Gabrianna, the schedules of the brethren issuing the mission calls could have been altered from the norm last week due to the Thanksgiving holiday. So be patient and please let us know when it comes. Thanks.
Our stake president submitted our senior couple application on Nov 26. Later that day both of us received requests for additional information from the Medical Screening group. The issues are minor but due to Thanksgiving travel, it has taken us a few weeks to get them what they requested. Hopefully we will move to Ready for Assignment now. We would like to tell our children and grandchildren where we are going at Christmas.
Sounds like a great Christmas present. Good luck on your mission.
Excelente Blog!.
Muchas gracias Hno Smith, por los muy buenos posteos!!..
Saludos desde Asunción-Py.
Hey there, I think my stake president submitted my papers about a week and a half ago, I got my missionary email on Saturday, does that mean my call should come this week?
Hola! ya recibiste tu llamado?
Did it end up coming on Tuesday the 14th? If so what time did you get your notification?
Hello, we are to be senior missionaries and anxiously waiting our call. Our stake president submitted all our papers on Wednesday, January 22nd. The next day we got a phone call clarifying some medications I was taking. Last Sunday, the 26th of January, (yes, on Sunday!) my husband got a call clarifying some surgery he had 20 years ago! My, they are thorough! I have found this very interesting. Reading all the interesting back door to see the timeline, I have been checking to see if we have had the email address issued yet. No, to that so far. Today, Sunday Feb 2nd, we asked our bishop to check our status. He told us it was “waiting for assignment”. Came home from church to check if we had received the email, and Nope. So, I’m assuming assignment will be given after being prayed over on Friday, and then hopefully receive it the following Tuesday, February 11?
The timeline you suggested sounds reasonable. Good luck. I’m sure you are very excited and will be great missionaries wherever the Lord sends you.
Hello Jimmy! It is Friday at 2:30pm PST, and just got our email assignment! So now we are anxiously and happily hoping for that important email with the call on Tuesday. Yay!
The following is time lines for my wife and I calls and two youth in ward. My wife and I had our interview with the Stake President on Wed Feb 5th. Early morning on Fri. 7th we got a text from a stake clerk that said our application has been submitted to SLC. First night our status was “Ready for Assignment”, so it must had been received and completed review ( the In Process status) that day. A Young Man in our ward had his recommend submitted on Thurs the 6th and he was also “Ready for Assignment” on Friday night. So we were thinking both of us should get our mission assigned the next review (assume Friday) and get our calls on Tuesday the 18th. So a week went by – my wife and I did not receive our missionary e-mail. Talking to the YM mother on Sunday the YM saw his e-mail set on the 15th. So he was expecting his on Tuesday. Also on Sunday we found out Young Women in our ward submitted her papers sometime the week of Feb 10 – 13. On Sunday at church all of us were in a status of “Ready for Assignment”. The YM did NOT have a missionary email set on that Sunday just like us.
So now comes Tuesday Feb. 18th and the YM received his notification that day and opened his call that evening. We had nothing and no e-mail accounts. Every day that week I checked to see if I ha d my e-mail set up and every day it was a NO. At church on Sunday the 23rd was another discussion. My wife and I had nothing, the YW saw that her account has been up on Saturday the 22nd. Another Tuesday comes ( 25th ) and we hear nothing but the YW got her mission call that day.
We were beginning to wonder what was going on – there had been 2 chances to be assigned and nothing happened. The other two had got then call basically as soon as they were ready for assignment. According to our bishop their status had changed to ‘Mission Assigned’ that day after they got their call ( Wednesday ).
Okay at this point we were hoping it would come the next chance – which we thought would be the following Tues (March 4th). Still I was wondering so I would check if my e-mail was set up each day. The make it more interesting my wife and I went on vacation to Hawaii Feb 25-March 4) so we were figuring out how to do a zoom call to open the letter with our children both travel days were Tuesdays.
Finally (and surprisingly) on Friday morning about 11 AM MT – we had checked and our e-mail account had been set up. We were GREAT – so we should get our call on next Tuesday ( March 5th). To our surprise Friday about 6:09 PM MT we got a text that our mission call was ready and we could go and view it… it was Friday night – we did not expect that but were VERY HAPPY to have gotten it then. So after some texting and calling of our children / grandchildren we opened our call on zoom at 9:30 PM MT on Friday February the 28th.
We ended up getting our ‘4th rank’ preference that was submitted with the application.
No idea why call timing was received on a Friday – but we were happy to not having today ( It would have been tomorrow if it had been a normal Tuesday).
Hope this gives people some recent experience.
An update for 2025 Mission Calls!!
My son turned his papers in with the Stake President on February 23, 2025. The Church received everything on February 25, 2025. The status was “ready for assignment for 2 weeks before his email went live on WednesdayMarch 12 in the afternoon. He received his call on Thursday, March 13, 2025 @ 6:30 PM. Like so many other things changing in the church, it seems as though processes for mission calls are changing as well. My cousin received her call last week on a Saturday. She waited just over 2 weeks for her call but a boy in our stake waited only 4 days!!
Hello all! My husband and I submitted our missionary application on Wednesday, March 26th. The Stake President most likely sent it to SLC on Thursday morning. That Thursday late morning we received a call with a few medical questions regarding our lab work and by Friday morning, March 28th they contacted us again to let us know that our papers were being sent onto the next step and to be prepared to “hurry up and wait”! The following Thursday, April 3rd, our missionary emails went live. It is now Friday, April 4th and we are waiting for our call to arrive – hopefully by next Tuesday – however with General Conference we realize it may be another week. I’ll update once the call arrives! We are excited to serve as Full-time Senior Missionaries!
Update:
We received our mission call just 8 days after we submitted our application! Our emails went live 1 day before and then our call email came at about 3:30pm Pacific. We are really excited to serve!
Hello! I am from Brazil. My call was sent on February 28, 2025. My call arrived in Salt Lake City on March 22, 2025. On April 10, 2025, the stake president informed me that the status was “In Progress,” but I believe it was in that status before. Today is April 25, 2025, and the status remains the same.
I have suffered from depression in the past and I have a rare disease that prevents me from eating anything of animal origin. Could this be why my call is taking so long to arrive?
Under these conditions, how long does it usually remain in “In Progress” status?
Yes, rare medical conditions will usually cause delays in the mission call process. I can’t give you an estimate on how long, sorry, but perhaps you can ask your bishop or stake president to call the missionary department at church headquarters for more information. Good luck on your mission and may the Lord bless and be with you.
My wife and I submitted our Missionary papers to Stake President on April 13,2025. On May 1st we received our call from President Russell M Nelson. It only took 18 days.
Hi! My application status changed to “Ready For Assignment” on May 2, it later then, it’s still on the same status but the date changed to May 8. I did the tricks you shared but none seemed to work. Do you think I’ll be able go get the call this Tuesday?
I submitted my papers August 8th, and today (16th) got a text from my stake president saying status changed to ready for assignment on the 14th, and date received August 14th, does this mean I could receive it by Monday the 18th? Thanks!
I’ve been involved in our stake for 7+ years assisting with missionary applications. The status transition for a submitted application, while with the mission dept, is: In Process -> Ready for Assignment -> Call Letter Pending (the day the email/text is being sent, generally Tue) -> Call Letter Sent (or similar wording)
While in the ‘Ready for Assignment’ status, the ‘Received Date’ will be updated twice — initially when it transitions to that status, and then again once (apparently) the assignment has been made…so, there’s no clear indication on the system of when the assignment occurs. For those that ask me, I’ll attempt to try to track when the Received Date gets updated. I guess the missionary dept has their reasons for making this obscure.
I understand from those that have received their calls that, as outlined in the article, once they’re able to login to their missionary.org account the assignment has been made.
Our experience does not quite track- we were told about a week and a half ago by her singles’ branch president that my daughter was “ready for assignment” and so hoped that she would be assigned in the next missionary assignment meeting (which would’ve been last week) and that she would get her call today. We tried the missionary email hack, and the page did load but said “You do not have a Missionary email account. This service is for full or part time missionaries.” so we assumed we’d have at least another week to wait. But then she DID receive notification of her call late this Tuesday afternoon (Eastern Time)! I checked the email site again and it STILL says the same thing about not having a missionary account, so I don’t know how reliable an indicator that is currently. So, for all those still waiting with no email account assigned, there’s hope yet!
Our experience in April 2026 from someone who can see the backend.
– Stake President submitted papers to SLC on Sunday, April 12.
– Status says “In Process” on Monday, April 13.
– Status changed to “Ready for Assignment” on Tuesday, April 14.
– Status is still “Ready for Assignment”, but the date changes to April 17 on Thursday, April 17.
– Mission call received around 11 am PT on April 20.
Also worth noting that we checked the donation slip on lds.org for the missionary’s name and to see if there was a missionary email account created for him prior to him receiving his call. We saw neither before he received his call.
Our Senior Missionary experience showing milestones in our approximately 10 week process from starting application to receipt of call.
– May 17, 2026 Met with our bishop and started online application process.
– June 1, 2026 Physicals with doctor, immunizations
– June 8, 2026 Got signed documents from our dentist (we both had been for checkups in the previous 2 months so he signed the forms without another visit.
– June 22, 2026 received completed medical forms from our doctor. We verified all forms were submitted through our bishop and we scheduled Stake President interview.
– June 28, 2026 Stake President interview. Stake President submitted everything to Missionary Department. Note that for us this date was 9 months before our available date. Our available date being so far out may have made it less of a priority for the Missionary Department.
– July 8, 2026 Call from medical personnel at Missionary Department with questions about allergies listed and current medications taken.
– July 27, 2026 (Monday) Call from medical personnel at Missionary Department with question about medication not available in one of the countries where we had indicated a preference to serve. Missionary Department person said resolving this issue was the last thing before moving our application to “Ready for Assignment.” He also told us that a member of the 12 was scheduled to make mission assignments on Tuesday and Wednesday that week.
– July 30, 2026 (Thursday) 2:46 pm My wife and I simultaneously received text messages and emails that our call was ready for viewing. Total time from Stake President submission to our call was 4.5 weeks.
I had been regularly checking to see if a missionary email had been created during the last several weeks before the call came. After we were notified that the call was available but before we opened the call I attempted to log into missionary mail and got the same error I had seen for several weeks. Read call with our family – Montreal Canada Mission.
– July 31, 2026 While reviewing documentation in the Missionary Portal, I saw a notice that said missionary email accounts are not created until a few hours after the call has been viewed for the first time. This suggests to me that the email account hack to know an assignment has been made may no longer work.