Employment preference · FY2026

I-140 EB-1 for Brazil

Priority workers: people of extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and multinational executives and managers.

1,567

Petitions filed

FY2026 born in Brazil

364

Approved

in the same year

32.5%

Denied, of decisions

175 denials

1,028

Pending

still awaiting a decision

How long an I-140 takes

USCIS reported a median processing time of 3.4 months for I-140 in FY2026 Q2 — for the form as a whole. The agency does not publish a separate processing time for EB-1, or for any other preference, so no page on this site claims one.

What it does publish per preference is the volume: how many petitions were filed, approved, denied and left pending, by fiscal year and by country of birth. That is everything below.

EB-1 does not require a labour certification, which is why it is filed directly and why its volumes move with policy rather than with the job market.

Year by year for Brazil

Fiscal years, by the year the petition was received.

Fiscal year	Filed	Approved	Denied	Denial share	Pending
FY2026 (part year)	1,567	364	175	32.5%	1,028
FY2025	2,984	1,189	488	29.1%	1,307
FY2024	2,075	1,238	345	21.8%	492
FY2023	1,725	1,339	285	17.5%	101
FY2022	1,178	1,000	165	14.2%	13
FY2021	1,063	891	165	15.6%	7
FY2020	1,082	906	172	16.0%	4
FY2019	1,023	849	171	16.8%	3
FY2018	1,315	1,057	253	19.3%	5
FY2017	1,356	1,149	201	14.9%	6
FY2016	1,044	915	124	11.9%	5
FY2015	759	684	69	9.2%	6
FY2014	505	430	70	14.0%	5

A petition received in one year is often decided in a later one, so approvals and denials in a row do not add up to that row's filings. The most recent year is partial — it runs only to the end of the quarter this release covers.

What EB-1 approvals were granted under

FY2026 approvals born in Brazil. USCIS reports the sub-category only for petitions it approved, so there is no denial figure at this level.

Multinational Executives or Managers 204

Aliens with Extraordinary Ability 105

Outstanding Professors or Researchers 55