Objective Investigate the influence of the perioperative waiting time on postoperative survival of patients with esophageal cancer.Methods We enrolled 299 patients with stageⅠ~Ⅲ esophageal cancer from the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Subei People’s Hospital from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015. The method of multivariate analysis is the COX regression analysis to model the effect of the perioperative waiting time on OS rate. The nonparametric tests (K-W test) and Spearman were used to analyze factors influencing the perioperative waiting time.Results The median duration of the follow-up for patients in this study is 74 months (IQR 69-79 months). The 1-year, 3-year and 5-year survival rates of patients with perioperative waiting time less than 10 days were 92.30% vs 77.40% vs 67.20%, respectively. The 1-year, 3-year and 5-year survival rates were 93.80% vs 67.20% vs 54.70% , with the waiting time more than 10 days. The result showed that Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), clinical stage , lymph node metastasis, operation time and perioperative waiting time were the independent factors for postoperative survival of esophageal cancer patients (P<0.01). Moreover, the rot-map model constructed by risk factors including perioperative waiting time had higher predictive power.Conclusions The perioperative waiting time can affect the survival of patients with esophageal cancer after surgery.