New York State e-file acceptance

[IDENTICAL105]

To whom it may concern: My Federal return was marked accepted by the IRS on 2/12/2/1. However, as of this writing, 2/16/21-2:22 EDT, my NYS return is still marked "Pending". My experience is that NYS "accepts" reurns within 24-36 hours after the IRS acceptance. Accordingly, my query is: Why has my return not been accepted by NYS, despite the fact that my federal return was accepted over 96 hours ago? I have read various other responses concerning this state acceptance issue, but I have not yet seen an explanation as to why the states are taking so long after IRS acceptance this season. COVID is a convenient answer but electronic acceptance does not require personnel at a brick and mortar location. Thank you for your more detailed response.

[adegty]

I have the same issue with California return. It is still pending, while Federal was accepted. I called the tax board and they told me to wait couple of days and send them duplicate if  it  is still pending.

[DavidD66]

State tax returns are not transmitted to the state until after the Federal return has been accepted.  In addition, state e-files take longer than federal to be processed.  State returns are transmitted to the IRS, and then the IRS forwards the return on to the state.  The bottleneck may be with the  IRS.  As long as your return is not "rejected" there is nothing to be concerned about at this point.