Employment preference · FY2026

I-140 EB-2 for Brazil

Professionals holding an advanced degree, people of exceptional ability, and national interest waiver petitions.

2,767

Petitions filed

FY2026 born in Brazil

210

Approved

in the same year

23.6%

Denied, of decisions

65 denials

2,492

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-2, 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-2 is the most oversubscribed employment category for India and China. For those countries the visa queue after approval, not this petition, is what determines the wait.

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)	2,767	210	65	23.6%	2,492
FY2025	6,690	652	890	57.7%	5,148
FY2024	7,988	1,992	3,501	63.7%	2,495
FY2023	6,911	3,529	2,999	45.9%	383
FY2022	4,209	2,779	1,356	32.8%	74
FY2021	2,882	2,038	805	28.3%	39
FY2020	2,311	1,604	692	30.1%	15
FY2019	2,040	1,331	701	34.5%	8
FY2018	1,271	895	372	29.4%	4
FY2017	649	572	72	11.2%	5
FY2016	582	555	24	4.1%	3
FY2015	357	340	17	4.8%	0
FY2014	362	338	24	6.6%	0

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-2 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.

Professionals with Advanced Degrees 167

National Interest Waiver 43