People downgrade from EB-2 to EB-3 and upgrade back again depending on which way the visa bulletin moved that month. What almost nobody looks at first is how the two categories differ as petitions — before any of that.
48,398
EB-2 filed FY2026
24,646 pending
37,339
EB-3 filed FY2026
10,488 pending
4.1%
EB-2 denial share
of decisions made
1.2%
EB-3 denial share
of decisions made
Both categories, year by year
| Fiscal year | EB-2 filed | EB-2 approved | EB-3 filed | EB-3 approved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | 48,398 | 22,780 | 37,339 | 26,535 |
| FY2025 | 116,183 | 61,011 | 77,332 | 55,940 |
| FY2024 | 114,020 | 77,517 | 73,200 | 63,820 |
| FY2023 | 93,146 | 81,274 | 58,797 | 56,873 |
| FY2022 | 84,474 | 77,952 | 54,842 | 52,608 |
| FY2021 | 70,596 | 65,852 | 86,175 | 83,016 |
| FY2020 | 67,605 | 63,305 | 40,547 | 37,875 |
| FY2019 | 78,232 | 73,286 | 46,052 | 41,452 |
| FY2018 | 69,987 | 65,746 | 39,033 | 34,602 |
| FY2017 | 70,239 | 65,774 | 37,066 | 31,871 |
USCIS I-140 receipts by preference
The thing neither column shows is the wait that actually decides an EB-2 or EB-3 case for an Indian or Chinese applicant: the visa queue after approval, which is set by per-country caps and not by how fast USCIS adjudicates.
Source — USCIS, Form I-140 Receipts and Current Status by Preference and Country. Public domain.
Every figure above is read from the USCIS quarterly data release and rebuilt each time a new one is imported — this piece was last rebuilt 20 minutes ago. Nothing here is legal advice, and ImmigrationAll is not affiliated with USCIS or any government agency.