EB-1A and NIW Have Become Significantly Harder 获批率持续下降

USCIS’s I-140 data shows a clear trend: both EB-1A and NIW have become significantly harder over the past year.

USCIS scrutiny is getting tougher.

Longer processing times and steadily declining approval rates are making the “file first and see what happens” approach much less worthwhile than it used to be.

Using approvals ÷ decided cases (approvals + denials):

• EB-1A: 66.9% approval rate in FY2025 → 44.7% in FY2026 Q1–Q2

• NIW: 55.2% in FY2025 → 45.5% in FY2026 Q1–Q2

EB-1A has seen a fairly steady decline, while NIW has been more volatile. But by early FY2026, both are sitting around the mid-40% range.

These numbers do not mean a strong case has only a 45% chance of approval. They include all cases decided in that quarter, even older filings and petitions with very different levels of evidence.

For EB-1A and NIW, strong evidence has always mattered.

Now, how the case is framed, documented, and presented upfront matters even more.