NIW Bearings

NIW filings by country of birth

USCIS reports how many EB-2 national-interest petitions it received and approved each quarter, by the petitioner’s country of birth. These are the 118 countries with at least 25 petitions received across the window. Receipts and approvals are counted separately — a quarter’s approvals include petitions filed earlier, and denials are not published by country — so they sit side by side and are never combined into an approval rate.

USCIS petition-stage filing flows — Form I-140, EB-2 national-interest waiver, counted by the petitioner’s country of birth. This is the filing population, not the appeal record shown elsewhere on the site.

NIW approval rate · national
55.3%
most recent quarter (FY2026 Q3)
66.3%
cumulative (since FY2023 Q1)

Share of decided NIW petitions that were approved — nationwide, across all countries, reflecting the petitions decided each quarter, not those filed in it. USCIS does not publish denials by country of birth, so there is no per-country NIW rate; this national figure is the only NIW rate USCIS publishes. Implied wait near 6.3 years. (S27)

Hover or tap a country — its approval rate and filing flows appear here.
NIW petitions received< 100100–499500–1,9992,000–7,9998,000+no data
Shading is filing volume — not an approval rate.

Peak country volume 25,399 received. The complete, sortable figures for every country are in the table below.

Every country, in full

Country of birthReceivedApproved
China25,3999,995
India18,3875,833
Brazil13,6811,734
Pakistan8,5271,522
Nigeria7,7122,212
Iran7,5982,712
Colombia5,752762
Bangladesh5,5692,008
South Korea5,5222,044
Venezuela5,496425
Mexico3,088458
Taiwan2,144883
Ghana2,047656
Nepal1,836802
Vietnam1,130493
Egypt1,091444
Canada1,086438
Russia1,082334
Ecuador1,058154
Turkey960388
Ukraine899164
Peru888158
Argentina688181
United Kingdom668253
Germany527190
Sri Lanka521268
Kenya519128
Philippines514105
France496195
Italy493215
Chile47790
Republic of Turkiye472225
Saudi Arabia468164
Jordan460176
Ethiopia450164
Dominican Republic44778
Japan438227
Kazakhstan43071
Spain411162
Israel380148
Lebanon358158
Cameroon28577
Honduras26147
Bolivia25223
Haiti25127
Jamaica21743
South Africa21751
Thailand21284
Uganda21163
Zimbabwe20745
United Arab Emirates20472
Malaysia20292
Poland20162
Greece193102
Uzbekistan18524
Iraq18277
Indonesia15756
Mongolia15730
Hong Kong14660
Soviet Union14641
Kyrgyzstan14121
Kuwait14035
El Salvador13921
Syria13938
Azerbaijan13546
Australia12544
Costa Rica12325
Nicaragua11710
Rwanda11442
Belarus11333
Romania11340
Morocco11145
Libya11030
Singapore11043
Sudan10836
Guatemala10117
Trinidad and Tobago9931
Armenia9834
Algeria9729
Yemen9328
Georgia8323
Belgium8228
Hungary8126
Netherlands7837
Panama775
Albania7617
Tunisia7426
Ireland7235
Tanzania7115
Serbia7025
Turkmenistan703
Burma6823
Portugal6832
Sweden6716
Congo (Kinshasa)6012
Afghanistan5815
CôTe D'Ivoire5516
Uruguay5410
Switzerland4915
Qatar4818
Austria4421
Oman4417
Bulgaria4215
Cambodia4013
Angola374
Cuba375
Zambia377
Sierra Leone369
Moldova3513
New Zealand358
Denmark3313
Tajikistan3312
Democratic Republic of the Congo324
Croatia3111
Paraguay316
Malawi305
Guyana295
Bahrain2611

Source: USCIS quarterly EB-2 NIW receipts and approvals by country of birth (9 quarters). Places with fewer than 25 receipts across the window are not shown. (S65)