Employment preference · FY2026

I-140 EB-3 for Vietnam

Skilled workers, professionals with a bachelor's degree, and other (unskilled) workers.

4,902

Petitions filed

FY2026 born in Vietnam

4,573

Approved

in the same year

0.8%

Denied, of decisions

35 denials

294

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 Vietnam

Fiscal years, by the year the petition was received.

Fiscal year Filed Approved Denied Denial share Pending
FY2026 (part year) 4,902 4,573 35 0.8% 294
FY2025 7,701 7,250 58 0.8% 393
FY2024 3,706 3,598 41 1.1% 67
FY2023 1,999 1,955 20 1.0% 24
FY2022 780 756 18 2.3% 6
FY2021 742 701 23 3.2% 18
FY2020 730 673 45 6.3% 12
FY2019 871 780 76 8.9% 15
FY2018 774 628 94 13.0% 52
FY2017 1,220 692 194 21.9% 334
FY2016 567 364 101 21.7% 102
FY2015 79 78 0 0.0% 1
FY2014 47 45 2 4.3% 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-3 approvals were granted under

FY2026 approvals born in Vietnam. USCIS reports the sub-category only for petitions it approved, so there is no denial figure at this level.

Unskilled Workers 4,390
Professionals with Baccalaureate Degrees 101
Skilled Workers 82