Employment preference · FY2026

I-140 EB-2 for China

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

7,374

Petitions filed

FY2026 born in China

3,237

Approved

in the same year

5.5%

Denied, of decisions

190 denials

3,947

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 China

Fiscal years, by the year the petition was received.

Fiscal year	Filed	Approved	Denied	Denial share	Pending
FY2026 (part year)	7,374	3,237	190	5.5%	3,947
FY2025	18,411	9,616	2,587	21.2%	6,208
FY2024	17,441	12,829	1,873	12.7%	2,739
FY2023	13,115	12,562	444	3.4%	109
FY2022	10,356	9,976	278	2.7%	102
FY2021	10,020	9,485	277	2.8%	258
FY2020	11,051	10,523	342	3.1%	186
FY2019	11,009	10,424	410	3.8%	175
FY2018	8,393	8,018	310	3.7%	65
FY2017	6,586	6,282	250	3.8%	54
FY2016	7,815	7,518	239	3.1%	58
FY2015	5,359	5,203	130	2.4%	26
FY2014	4,256	4,093	139	3.3%	24

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 China. USCIS reports the sub-category only for petitions it approved, so there is no denial figure at this level.

Professionals with Advanced Degrees 2,568

National Interest Waiver 669