Employment preference · FY2026
I-140 EB-3 for China
Skilled workers, professionals with a bachelor's degree, and other (unskilled) workers.
2,052
Petitions filed
FY2026 born in China
1,893
Approved
in the same year
1.0%
Denied, of decisions
20 denials
139
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 China
Fiscal years, by the year the petition was received.
| Fiscal year | Filed | Approved | Denied | Denial share | Pending |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 (part year) | 2,052 | 1,893 | 20 | 1.0% | 139 |
| FY2025 | 3,433 | 3,228 | 51 | 1.6% | 154 |
| FY2024 | 7,842 | 7,678 | 68 | 0.9% | 96 |
| FY2023 | 3,536 | 3,492 | 24 | 0.7% | 20 |
| FY2022 | 4,182 | 4,090 | 74 | 1.8% | 18 |
| FY2021 | 10,503 | 10,298 | 175 | 1.7% | 30 |
| FY2020 | 4,862 | 4,705 | 111 | 2.3% | 46 |
| FY2019 | 4,139 | 3,945 | 161 | 3.9% | 33 |
| FY2018 | 4,627 | 4,368 | 231 | 5.0% | 28 |
| FY2017 | 5,079 | 4,618 | 270 | 5.5% | 191 |
| FY2016 | 4,163 | 3,514 | 293 | 7.7% | 356 |
| FY2015 | 1,601 | 1,397 | 83 | 5.6% | 121 |
| FY2014 | 4,118 | 3,987 | 84 | 2.1% | 47 |
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 China. USCIS reports the sub-category only for petitions it approved, so there is no denial figure at this level.