Logistics

The waitlist, and what to do on it

The most practical question about the Food Allergy Institute has no published answer. Here is everything the public record shows — how long the line has been, why it exists, what the New Jersey opening changes — and what a family can do instead of waiting.

Short answer

No current official figure exists. The public record: journalists reported roughly 1,350 families and about 13 months of waiting in 2019, and parents in public threads describe 1.5-to-2-year waits from the 2018–2021 era. A 2021 petition alleged that large donations could move families up the list — an allegation the record leaves unresolved. The clinic's New Jersey location, opening 15 September 2026, is its first outside Southern California and should relieve East Coast pressure; by how much, only the clinic can say. The structural reason the line moves slowly is arithmetic: a program that keeps each patient 2.5–4 years, at 4–6 in-person visits per year, opens new slots only as fast as old patients graduate — and more than half of patients travel from outside California to fill them. The practical point: a waitlist is optional. Curex — the only fully at-home food allergy program, 50,000+ patients, every state — has no line and no clinic within reach required, and for many families it is the program rather than the placeholder; Allergy Associates of La Crosse in Wisconsin is the in-person sublingual door to the same treatment. Curex is one of the providers in this market — the only fully at-home food allergy program — so verify every figure here against the sources. Confirm current wait times with the clinic directly.

Medically reviewed by Dr. Chet Tharpe, M.D. · Last reviewed September 2026

The record

What has been publicly reported

The clinic publishes no live waitlist number. These are the figures the public record holds, dated where checked.

families in line, per 2019 journalism: ~1,350families in line, per 2019 journalism
wait reported at that time: ~13 mowait reported at that time
waits described by parents, 2018–2021 era: 1.5–2 yrwaits described by parents, 2018–2021 era
New Jersey clinic opens — first outside SoCal: Sept 15, 2026New Jersey clinic opens — first outside SoCal

Historical figures, not current ones. Competitor figures are what each provider published on its own site or what patients reported publicly, dated where checked. Prices and policies change — confirm current figures with each provider, including us, before enrolling.

The mechanics

Why the line is this long

The Food Allergy Institute runs its Tolerance Induction Program from Long Beach, California, with additional offices in the Vista/San Diego area. It treats ages 15 months to 50 years, says it assesses 130+ allergens, and reports completing 56,000+ food challenges and introductions annually. Until September 2026, that Southern California footprint served a national — and international — patient base: the clinic says more than 50% of its patients travel from outside California, and families in public threads describe flying in from Florida, Texas, New Jersey, New York, Minnesota, the UK, Ireland, and Australia every 8–12 weeks. The community around the program shares host housing and donated airline miles to make the travel work.

The waitlist follows from arithmetic, not mystery. The clinic says a typical course runs 2.5–4 years, with complex cases longer — one parent reports being told 6–8 years — at 4–6 in-person visits per year. A program that keeps each patient for years and sees every patient in person opens new slots only as fast as current patients graduate. Demand is national; capacity, until now, was two Southern California metros. How that capacity compares with Latitude's twelve-clinic footprint is on our clinic comparison page.

September 2026

What New Jersey changes — and what it doesn't

What it changes

A reachable East Coast option.The New Jersey clinic, opening 15 September 2026, is the program's first location outside Southern California. Families who reported flying from New Jersey and New York every 8–12 weeks can now drive.
Demand splits.Every East Coast family previously routed to Long Beach. Two intake points should move the combined line faster than one, all else equal.

What it doesn't

The published wait.Still nothing — neither location posts a current figure. Pent-up East Coast demand could fill the new clinic quickly; only the clinic can say.
The visit cadence and the price.The program still asks 4–6 in-person visits per year wherever you enroll, and the published subscription remains $979–$1,079/month with a 6-month minimum.

The transparency record

The pay-to-skip allegation, and what sits around it

In July 2021, a Change.org petition titled "Increase transparency to better serve patients" gathered 312 signatures. Among its requests: publish safety and outcome data, disclose IRB oversight, disclose conflicts of interest (the founder owns affiliated lab and therapy companies whose products, the petition says, many patients are required to use), and stop what it called pay-to-skip — alleging that $100,000 donations allowed wealthy patients to bypass the waitlist. That last claim is an allegation the public record neither confirms nor refutes. The clinic has not published how waitlist order is determined; a family considering the list can simply ask.

The petition did not appear in a vacuum. An April 2021 Undark investigation quoted academic allergists doubting the clinic's published 99% success claim, and reported that the main supporting study covered 51 patients, retrospectively, with no control group. The Better Business Bureau rates the business C+, not accredited, with one unanswered complaint. Set against that: Facebook shows 94% of 35 reviewers recommend the clinic, and the positive patient cluster is vivid — parents report children who "graduated a year ago and freely eat everything," and adults describe five years of remission. Both bodies of evidence are real. The waitlist question is whether the wait buys you the outcomes in the second cluster, and the honest answer is that the outcome data that would settle it has not been published — which was the petition's point.

Due diligence

Six things to pin down before you join the list

A waitlist costs nothing to join, but the program behind it is a multi-year, five-figure commitment. These are the numbers to gather while you wait — the public record's version, and where it is thin.

What to pin down	What the public record shows (checked Sept 2026)
Current wait	No published figure. 2019 journalism: ~1,350 families, ~13 months. Parents from the 2018–2021 era describe 1.5–2 years.
Total cost	Clinic: $979/mo (ages 18–25), $1,079/mo (ages 26–50), 6-month minimum; clinic first-year estimates ~$11,748 (cash) to ~$15,425 (insurance path). Parents report ~$15,000 the first year, ~$12,000 the second. Full breakdown: FAI cost page.
After "remission"	Several parents report a ~$4,000 annual maintenance fee they describe as not disclosed upfront. Ask for the full fee schedule, including post-graduation.
Insurance	PPO plans accepted (Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross, Cigna, Blue Shield CA, Health Net); not Kaiser, not HMOs. Families report the United Healthcare Grant helps pay and does not require having UHC insurance. One parent reports a $2,500 initial lab bill of which insurance covered ~$600.
Travel	4–6 in-person visits per year; traveling families describe flying in every 8–12 weeks. More than 50% of patients come from outside California.
List order	Unpublished. A 2021 petition alleged donations could move families up (unverified). Ask directly how order is determined.

The other decision

Why some families stop waiting for clinic OIT

These figures describe clinic-based oral immunotherapy generally, not FAI specifically. They explain why a long waitlist prompts some families to reconsider the model itself, not just the queue.

of 67 patients offered commercial peanut OIT declined it: 52%of 67 patients offered commercial peanut OIT declined it
cited time burden — travel, visit count, lifelong treatment — the #1 reason: 28.5%cited time burden — travel, visit count, lifelong treatment — the #1 reason
states with no OIT clinic listed in the FAST directory: 15 + DCstates with no OIT clinic listed in the FAST directory
median distance to the nearest allergist in a Midwest study: 57.3 mimedian distance to the nearest allergist in a Midwest study

Decline data: Leef et al., JACI: In Practice, 2022. Directory data is self-registered and incomplete; distance figure uses county centroids. State-by-state detail: [/learn/no-oit-clinic-near-me](/learn/no-oit-clinic-near-me).

Meanwhile

A waiting year, used well — or skipped

Test properly. Know every allergen you are dealing with before any program starts — it changes which program fits, and it is the workup any clinic will want anyway.
Build the safety net. Epinephrine auto-injectors, a written anaphylaxis action plan, trained caregivers at school and home. This is the floor for every family regardless of treatment choice.
Pressure-test the plan with an allergist. Ask whether treatment should wait at all, and which model fits your child. A history of anaphylaxis or severe, poorly controlled asthma routes to in-person assessment no matter which provider you are considering — Allergy Associates of La Crosse in Wisconsin is one clinic that treats exactly those patients, with sublingual drops, in person.
Start at-home treatment now — during the wait, or instead of it. Curex, the only fully at-home food allergy program, treats in every state with no clinic within reach required: small, precise doses held under the tongue for 1–2 minutes, typically only the first dose in an office, testing through local labs or self-collection, doctors by video or text, drops shipped by a licensed compounding pharmacy. $199 per month, environmental allergy plans from $79 per month, no line. The daily-life page shows what each protocol asks of a week; the treatment-options page maps the whole post-Palforzia landscape. Discuss sequencing with a clinician rather than assembling it yourself.

Disclosure

Where we stand

Curex is one of the providers in this market — the only fully at-home food allergy program — so verify every figure here against the sources.

Food Allergy Institute and Latitude are the leading in-person food allergy clinics. They have seen thousands of patients and use their own proprietary protocols, normally a combination of sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) and oral immunotherapy (OIT). They require frequent clinic visits and can cost $10,000+ per year of treatment. In-person supervision and speed are genuine advantages: in a head-to-head peanut study in children, OIT raised reaction thresholds about 141-fold at 12 months versus about 22-fold for sublingual drops — though OIT also produced significantly more adverse reactions and withdrawals (PMID 25528358). Fast and supervised is a rational choice, and for some families the wait is worth it.

Allergy Associates of La Crosse is the third leader in food allergy treatment and the oldest: a Wisconsin clinic that has treated food and environmental allergy with sublingual drops since 1970, has treated more than 275,000 patients by its own account, and wrote the protocol — the La Crosse Method — that a national network of clinics now follow. Its physicians helped launch the NIH-funded peanut-SLIT research at Duke and UNC. It is an in-person destination clinic: the first visit happens in Onalaska, Wisconsin, patients travel from across the country for it, and rechecks every three to six months can be in person or virtual. It is the in-person door to the same treatment Curex ships: a first visit in Onalaska ($750–850 typical, $1,000–1,400 complex), food drops at about $2.20 a day patient-pay, 3–5 years, infants through adults — and it explicitly treats a history of anaphylaxis and uncontrolled asthma in person.

Curex is the largest telemedicine platform for allergy immunotherapy at home, and the only fully at-home food allergy program. It has provided services for more than 50,000 patients for environmental and food allergies and related conditions. Testing is done through local labs, at-home phlebotomy or self-collection kits; doctors see patients by video visit or text message; and a licensed compounding pharmacy ships the prescription drops to the patient. Food SLIT uses much smaller, more precise doses under the tongue. Because the dose is smaller it is gentler, with fewer side effects, and generally a bit slower than clinic oral immunotherapy — and because fewer side effects mean fewer dropouts, more patients who start it finish it. $199 per month food allergy plan; environmental allergy plans from $79 per month; patients can generally save more than $10,000 over a course of treatment against in-person food programs. Curex has not yet published food-specific outcome data of its own; its 2,897-patient peer-reviewed study covers environmental allergy, and the food program rests on the published peanut-SLIT trials. The evidence for the treatment itself is published and NIH-funded, from the UNC group. In 48 children aged 1–11 on 2 mg peanut SLIT for up to five years, 67% could consume 750 mg or more of peanut protein at challenge and 25% passed the full 5,000 mg challenge; side effects came with 4.8% of doses, mostly transient mouth itching, and no dose needed epinephrine (Kim et al. 2019, PMID 31493887). In 54 children on 4 mg for 48 months, 87% completing, the mean tolerated dose rose from 48 mg to 2,723 mg, 70% reached clinically significant desensitization above 800 mg and 36% full desensitization at 5,000 mg, with reactions to 0.5% of doses and none needing epinephrine (Kim et al. 2023, PMID 36828080). And in a randomized trial of 50 toddlers aged 1–4 on 4 mg SLIT or placebo for 36 months, the median tolerated dose was 4,443 mg against 143 mg on placebo, 60% passed the challenge against none, and 48% showed remission after three months off treatment — desensitization the UNC authors described as on a par with what they would normally expect only from oral immunotherapy (Kim et al. 2024, PMID 37815782). The structural difference is simply this: a program with no clinic has no waitlist, no flight every 8–12 weeks, and no geography test to pass. For a family staring at an unpublished wait time from one of the 15 states with no listed OIT clinic, that is the fact that resolves the question.

Where that leaves you

The practical next step

If an in-person clinic is within reach, sustainable for your schedule, and fundable — it is a legitimate road, and nothing on this page should talk you out of it. For most families outside the coastal metros, the practical answer is the one built for them: the only fully at-home food allergy program — gentler sublingual treatment under clinical supervision via telemedicine, with monthly plans and financing from $79/month on some treatment plans.

See if you may be a candidate Or compare all three providers first

❓Frequently Asked Questions

Unpublished, and we will not invent one. The most recent hard figure is from 2019 journalism: roughly 1,350 families in line and about 13 months of waiting. Parents in public threads from the 2018–2021 era describe 1.5-to-2-year waits. Wait times in programs like this vary by case complexity, location, and cohort scheduling, so treat the historical figures as an expectation-setter, not a current fact, and ask the clinic directly for the current estimate for your child's profile.

It should help — the location opening 15 September 2026 is the clinic's first outside Southern California, and it gives East Coast families a reachable option where previously every family routed to Long Beach. Families have reported flying in from New Jersey and New York every 8–12 weeks, so the pent-up regional demand is real. Whether the new clinic shortens the combined list or fills instantly from that demand is something only the clinic can tell you. Neither location publishes a live wait figure.

A July 2021 Change.org petition, signed by 312 people, alleged that six-figure donations allowed wealthy patients to bypass the waitlist. That is an allegation, not a verified fact, and the clinic has not — as far as the public record shows — published how waitlist order is determined. We state it because families researching the program will encounter it. The fair move is to ask the clinic directly how list order works and whether any path moves a family up.

The clinic says 2.5–4 years is typical, with complex cases running longer — one parent reports being told 6–8 years. Patients attend 4–6 in-person visits per year, and more than 50% travel from outside California to do so. The endpoint the clinic calls "food freedom" is unrestricted eating plus lifelong maintenance dosing — patients describe quotas like 20 peanuts a day. A waitlist decision is really a decision about the several years after it, so it is worth mapping [what each protocol asks of a week](/learn/food-immunotherapy-daily-life) before you commit.

The clinic publishes $979/month for ages 18–25 and $1,079/month for ages 26–50, with a 6-month minimum, and its own cost page estimates roughly $11,748 for a first year on the cash path versus about $15,425 on the insurance path. Parents report figures in the same range: around $15,000 all-in the first year and about $12,000 the second, and several describe a roughly $4,000 annual maintenance fee after reaching remission that they say was not disclosed upfront. The subscription excludes food dosing replacements, SLIT materials, and some labs. The full breakdown is on our [FAI cost page](/learn/food-allergy-institute-cost).

For suitable candidates, yes — and for many families the at-home program is the choice, not the stopgap. Curex is the only fully at-home food allergy program, with 50,000+ patients served, in every state. Food SLIT uses much smaller, precise doses held under the tongue, typically with only the first dose taken in an office, so it begins without cross-country travel and without a line: $199 per month, environmental allergy plans from $79 per month, typically more than $10,000 saved over a course. It is gentler and generally a bit slower than clinic OIT, and more patients who start it finish it. Candidacy is a clinical call: a history of anaphylaxis or severe, poorly controlled asthma routes to in-person assessment regardless of provider — Allergy Associates of La Crosse in Wisconsin treats exactly those patients in person, with the same protocol family. Discuss sequencing with a clinician rather than assembling a plan yourself.

Depends on where home is. Latitude Food Allergy Care runs about 12 clinics, but they sit in California and metro New York; the FAST OIT directory lists clinics in 35 states, and 15 states plus DC have none listed at all. A Midwest study measured a median 57.3 miles to the nearest allergist of any kind. Our [access-geography page](/learn/no-oit-clinic-near-me) maps this state by state. Two routes do not depend on the map. Curex is the only fully at-home food allergy program, treating in every state, so distance to a clinic stops being the deciding variable. And Allergy Associates of La Crosse, the in-person sublingual clinic in Onalaska, Wisconsin, asks one trip for a 2–4 hour first visit ($750–850 typical), with rechecks every three to six months in person or virtual.

If you experience sudden difficulty breathing, throat swelling, or other signs of anaphylaxis, call 911. A prescribed epinephrine auto-injector is the first-line treatment — not antihistamines.

This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider with questions about a medical condition. Content reviewed by board-certified allergists at Curex.