Employment preference · FY2026
I-140 EB-3 for Brazil
Skilled workers, professionals with a bachelor's degree, and other (unskilled) workers.
1,485
Petitions filed
FY2026 born in Brazil
1,194
Approved
in the same year
1.6%
Denied, of decisions
19 denials
272
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-3, 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-3 movement can run ahead of or behind EB-2 depending on the month and country of birth, which is why some applicants downgrade between them.
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) | 1,485 | 1,194 | 19 | 1.6% | 272 |
| FY2025 | 2,691 | 2,327 | 74 | 3.1% | 290 |
| FY2024 | 2,022 | 1,883 | 57 | 2.9% | 82 |
| FY2023 | 2,114 | 2,036 | 56 | 2.7% | 22 |
| FY2022 | 1,792 | 1,690 | 94 | 5.3% | 8 |
| FY2021 | 1,493 | 1,413 | 75 | 5.0% | 5 |
| FY2020 | 1,190 | 1,106 | 77 | 6.5% | 7 |
| FY2019 | 1,208 | 1,119 | 84 | 7.0% | 5 |
| FY2018 | 828 | 775 | 50 | 6.1% | 3 |
| FY2017 | 635 | 601 | 26 | 4.1% | 8 |
| FY2016 | 433 | 401 | 31 | 7.2% | 1 |
| FY2015 | 207 | 178 | 24 | 11.9% | 5 |
| FY2014 | 147 | 126 | 16 | 11.3% | 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-3 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.