USCIS released Form I-140 data for the third quarter of fiscal year 2026 on September 8, covering petitions adjudicated between April and June. The numbers show the two main self-petition routes to an employment-based green card moving in opposite directions: the National Interest Waiver improved sharply, while EB-1A extraordinary ability deteriorated to its worst quarter of the year.
For the NIW, USCIS approved 3,835 petitions and denied 3,103 in Q3 — an approval rate of 55.3%. That is the first quarter of FY2026 in which NIW approvals outnumbered denials. The trend across the fiscal year is consistently upward: 42.5% in Q1, 48.1% in Q2, then 55.3% in Q3. For a category that spent much of the past two years in a widely reported decline, this is a meaningful reversal.
EB-1A went the other way. USCIS approved 1,348 extraordinary ability petitions in Q3 and denied 2,832 — a 32.2% approval rate, down from 41.8% in Q2 and 47.5% in Q1. Denials now outnumber approvals by more than two to one. Across the first three quarters of FY2026, the agency approved 5,232 EB-1A petitions and denied 7,620.
The contrast with employer-sponsored EB-2 is stark. Petitions filed under the standard advanced-degree category (E21), which require an approved PERM labor certification and an employer sponsor, were approved 12,154 times against just 323 denials in Q3 — a 97.4% approval rate. The scrutiny driving EB-1A denials is concentrated in the self-petitioned categories where the applicant must prove their own merit rather than an employer’s need.
The backlog is the other story. NIW petitions pending a decision reached 96,297 at the end of Q3, up from 89,307 at the end of Q2 and 82,935 at the end of Q1 — a 16% increase in six months, even as adjudications rose. With 13,831 new NIW petitions received in Q3 against 6,938 decisions issued, receipts continue to outrun capacity, and waiting times should be expected to lengthen further.
One caveat on reading these rates: USCIS reports approvals and denials issued during a quarter, not outcomes for a cohort of petitions filed together. Cases decided in Q3 were largely filed months or years earlier, so a quarterly rate reflects what the agency worked through in that window as much as the quality of recent filings. Even so, the divergence between NIW and EB-1A is large and sustained across three consecutive quarters, and it is a reasonable signal for anyone choosing between the two categories that the evidentiary bar for extraordinary ability is being applied more strictly than the national interest standard.
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Source: 1Point3Acres (一亩三分地)