Employment preference · FY2026
I-140 EB-3 for India
Skilled workers, professionals with a bachelor's degree, and other (unskilled) workers.
5,869
Petitions filed
FY2026 born in India
5,505
Approved
in the same year
0.9%
Denied, of decisions
48 denials
316
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 India
Fiscal years, by the year the petition was received.
| Fiscal year | Filed | Approved | Denied | Denial share | Pending |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 (part year) | 5,869 | 5,505 | 48 | 0.9% | 316 |
| FY2025 | 10,344 | 9,993 | 167 | 1.6% | 184 |
| FY2024 | 10,391 | 10,148 | 188 | 1.8% | 55 |
| FY2023 | 12,761 | 12,486 | 246 | 1.9% | 29 |
| FY2022 | 16,959 | 16,495 | 442 | 2.6% | 22 |
| FY2021 | 49,323 | 47,964 | 1,289 | 2.6% | 70 |
| FY2020 | 9,457 | 9,020 | 424 | 4.5% | 13 |
| FY2019 | 11,839 | 11,162 | 659 | 5.6% | 18 |
| FY2018 | 8,646 | 8,048 | 581 | 6.7% | 17 |
| FY2017 | 9,216 | 8,594 | 612 | 6.6% | 10 |
| FY2016 | 10,674 | 9,942 | 716 | 6.7% | 16 |
| FY2015 | 6,846 | 6,252 | 583 | 8.5% | 11 |
| FY2014 | 4,174 | 3,826 | 342 | 8.2% | 6 |
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 India. USCIS reports the sub-category only for petitions it approved, so there is no denial figure at this level.