EB-2 NIW Approval Data: Where to Find Official USCIS Statistics

What USCIS actually publishes, and what it doesn't

USCIS publishes counts, not predictions. Its official datasets report how many I-140 petitions were received, approved, denied, or left pending, broken out by fiscal year and quarter, by immigrant classification code, and sometimes by service center or country of chargeability. These are aggregate administrative statistics — the same kind of data USCIS reports to Congress and uses for internal workload management.

What these tables do not give you is a probability for any individual petition. USCIS does not publish an "approval rate" that isolates factors like occupation, degree field, evidence type, publication count, or citation history. A quarterly approval/denial ratio for a classification code reflects thousands of petitions with different fact patterns, filed by petitioners with different levels of preparation, represented or not, at different points in policy interpretation. Dividing approvals by total decisions in a given quarter produces a number, but that number describes a cohort, not a case.

The distinction that matters

Treat every figure from these sources as a description of past agency throughput — how many cases moved through the system and how they were resolved in aggregate. None of it is a forecasting tool for a specific filing. If you use this data at all in your own preparation, use it to understand volume, processing patterns, and where to find primary sources — not to estimate your own odds before filing.

The USCIS Reports and Data page

USCIS publishes its underlying datasets through a section of uscis.gov variously labeled "Reports and Data" or "Immigration and Citizenship Data." Because USCIS periodically reorganizes its website, treat the exact menu path as approximate and use the site's search box if the navigation below has shifted.

Step-by-step navigation

1. Go to uscis.gov and locate the "Data" or "Tools" menu in the main navigation bar.
2. Select "Immigration and Citizenship Data" (or the current equivalent label).
3. Look for a subsection titled "Employment-Based" or "All Employment-Based Petitions."
4. Within that subsection, find the recurring report titled something like "Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker" — this is the primary dataset covering EB-2 filings, including the NIW subcategory.
5. Separately, note the "H-1B" and "Employment-Based Visa Statistics" tables nearby; these are distinct from I-140 data and cover nonimmigrant petitions or visa issuance rather than immigrant petition adjudication, so do not substitute one for the other.

Filtering the report

Most of these reports are posted as downloadable spreadsheets rather than live filters, so filtering happens after download, not on the page itself. When you open a file:

• Check the column or field listing the classification code — EB-2 filings under NIW are typically marked with a distinct classification symbol from PERM-based EB-2 filings.
• Confirm the fiscal year and quarter labeled in the filename or header row before using the data, since USCIS posts these on a rolling basis and older files remain archived alongside current ones.

Reading the I-140 data tables correctly

Once downloaded, the I-140 tables are typically formatted as multi-tab Excel workbooks or flat CSVs with one row per classification per country of birth, per fiscal year and quarter.

Typical column structure

Expect columns along these lines:

• Fiscal year / quarter
• Classification symbol (e.g., E21, E22, E23 — USCIS's internal codes for EB-2 subcategories)
• Country of birth
• Receipts
• Approvals
• Denials
• Pending at end of period

Country-of-birth breakdowns exist because of per-country visa limits, not because USCIS is tracking outcomes by nationality for petitioners' benefit — don't over-read that column.

Isolating NIW rows

NIW petitions fall under the EB-2 preference category but are filed under a distinct basis (no labor certification, no PERM). Some tables include a classification symbol specific to NIW filings; others do not distinguish and simply report all

USCIS Immigration and Citizenship Data dashboard tool

In addition to static Excel/CSV downloads, USCIS periodically maintains an interactive dashboard under its Reports and Data section. The exact name has shifted over time (it has appeared as an "Immigration and Citizenship Data" hub with embedded tools), so search the site for "data dashboard" or "interactive data" rather than relying on a bookmarked link.

Using the dashboard

1. Navigate to the Reports and Data landing page and look for a tool labeled for employment-based petitions or Form I-140 data.
2. Select the fiscal year and quarter you want, then filter by form type (I-140) and, where offered, classification code for EB-2 and NIW.
3. Some dashboards let you further filter by country of birth, service center, or case status (pending, approved, denied). Apply only the filters relevant to your recordkeeping — over-filtering can shrink the sample to a size too small to display for privacy suppression reasons.
4. Review the on-screen table or chart before exporting to confirm the classification breakdown you selected actually appears in the results.

Exporting and saving

Most dashboards include a CSV or Excel export button. Download the raw data rather than a screenshot, since the underlying file typically retains column headers and metadata about the query parameters. Save the export immediately with a dated filename (see the tracking system in the next section) so you can trace back exactly what filters produced it if the dashboard's categories change in a later refresh.

USCIS Ombudsman and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) sources

The Ombudsman's annual report

The Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman publishes an annual report to Congress, available on dhs.gov, that discusses systemic processing issues, backlog trends, and case-type-specific commentary. It occasionally references I-140 processing patterns, including employment-based backlogs by service center. Treat this as narrative and contextual, not as a statistical table — it supplements, but does not replace, the numeric data published by USCIS itself.

Filing a FOIA request

When you need data more granular than what USCIS publishes — for example, NIW-specific approval and denial counts broken out by service center and quarter — file a request through the USCIS FOIA portal at uscis.gov/about-us/freedom-of-information-and-privacy-act-foia. USCIS accepts requests electronically through this portal.

When drafting the request, specify:

1. Form type — Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker.
2. Classification — EB-2 National Interest Waiver, distinguished explicitly from other EB-2 filings.
3. Date range — exact fiscal years or quarters sought.
4. Service center or field office — if you want jurisdiction-specific figures rather than nationwide totals.
5. Format — request data in spreadsheet or table form if possible, to avoid receiving unstructured narrative responses.

FOIA responses take time and are not guaranteed to contain the exact breakdown requested; check the portal for current processing expectations rather than assuming a fixed turnaround.

USCIS Policy Manual and processing time pages as context

Raw counts of receipts, approvals, and denials mean little without the eligibility framework that produced them. Two other USCIS resources supply that context, though neither is a statistics source in itself.

USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 6, Part F

This section of the Policy Manual sets out how USCIS evaluates national interest waiver requests, including the three-prong framework adjudicators apply. Reading it alongside the data tables helps explain why classification symbols and grouping conventions appear as they do in published reports, and why a table lumping all EB-2 filings together may obscure NIW-specific patterns. Treat the Policy Manual as background for interpreting terminology and structure, not as a predictor of outcomes.

Case Processing Times page

For current-cycle timing, use the Case Processing Times tool on uscis.gov, searchable by form (I-140) and service center. This tool reports a range or median based on recently completed cases, updated on a rolling basis, and is distinct from the historical fiscal-year datasets described earlier.

Keeping both in view

Both pages change without advance notice: the Policy Manual is revised through technical updates, and processing time figures shift with each data refresh. When citing either for personal reference, record the retrieval date alongside the note, and always check the live page directly rather than relying on a screenshot, summary, or previously saved figure.

Organizing what you find: a simple tracking table

Because USCIS revises reports, changes dashboard categories, and periodically republishes data with corrections, keep your own log of everything you pull. Treat each download as a dated snapshot rather than a permanent figure.

Sample tracking table

Fill in only what the source actually reports; leave cells blank rather than estimating.

File-naming convention

Use a consistent pattern so files sort chronologically and by category:

USCIS_[FormType]_[Classification]_[FiscalYear][Quarter].csv

Examples: USCIS_I140_EB2NIW_FY2024Q3.csv, USCIS_Dashboard_EB2ALL_FY2023Q4.csv, USCIS_FOIA_EB2NIW_FY2019-2023.pdf

Practical habits

1. Store the original downloaded file unaltered; do your analysis in a copy.
2. Record the exact URL and page title in a notes column or separate log, since site navigation changes.
3. Re-download annually if you're tracking trends over multiple years, rather than reusing an old file for a new fiscal year row.
4. Keep this log for personal reference and organization only — it is not something USCIS reviews or requests as part of your petition.

Common mistakes when citing or interpreting this data

Treating an aggregate ratio as a personal probability

Dividing a fiscal year's approvals by receipts produces a population-level statistic, not an estimate of what will happen to any individual filing. These figures aggregate cases with widely varying evidentiary strength, filing years, and adjudicators. Do not present this ratio, to yourself or anyone else, as a predictor of a specific petition's outcome.

Mixing NIW with PERM-based EB-2 filings

When a table reports EB-2 as a single classification without separating the National Interest Waiver symbol from labor-certification-based filings, do not merge the two in your own notes as though they describe the same population. If the source doesn't break them out, say so explicitly rather than presenting a combined figure as NIW-specific.

Citing outdated fiscal year data as current

USCIS reports lag behind the present quarter, and older files remain posted alongside newer ones. Always record and cite the fiscal year and quarter of the data you're using, and check whether a more recent release has since been published before treating any figure as current.

Relying on third-party compilations instead of the primary source

Blog posts, forum summaries, and aggregator sites sometimes reformat USCIS data, occasionally introducing errors or stripping out the classification detail needed to interpret it correctly. When citing a figure, trace it back to the original USCIS report or dataset and cite that source directly, not the secondary write-up that quoted it.