How to Read USCIS I-140 Data and Inventory Tables

01

What Official I-140 Data Are Available?

The USCIS data catalog publishes tables of “approved employment-based petitions awaiting visa availability,” reporting I-140, I-360, and I-526/E petitions by category and country of birth. The latest version accessed by this site was for FY2026 Q3 (as of June 2026, accessed in July 2026). The FY2009–2019 I-140 receipts and approvals table and the April 2018 inventory table cited by the community at the time remain accessible, but they are historical snapshots.

The FY2009–2019 table lists totals, approvals, denials, and “pending/other” by fiscal year of receipt; it describes petition adjudication outcomes, not the number of green cards issued.

02

The Most Important Table Notes

The FY2026 Q3 table notes that approval counts represent only principal beneficiaries and exclude family members; petitioners may file multiple petitions, so the same person may be counted more than once; people who have already obtained permanent resident status or citizenship are excluded; and priority-date comparisons are based on Chart A of the June 2026 Visa Bulletin. The 2018 table likewise states that derivative beneficiaries are excluded.

This means that the inventory tables may understate the number of visa numbers ultimately needed because they exclude family members, while also overstating the actual number of people because of duplicate petitions.

03

Why Not Use “EB-1 × 2.3, EB-2/3 × 2.0”?

A 2020 community document recommended using fixed factors (approximately 2.3 for EB-1 and approximately 2.0 for EB-2/3) to convert the number of principal applicants into total demand, and to account for people “whose priority dates are current but whose I-485 applications have not yet been approved.” The official tables do not provide a ratio of family members to principal beneficiaries and also note that duplicate petitions may exist. Any fixed multiplier is therefore an external assumption, not official data.

This site does not use fixed multipliers and does not recommend third-party estimation websites as factual sources. Readers who make their own estimates should state their assumptions and update them as new official data become available.

04

The Difference Between Approved Petitions, Pending Petitions, and Green Cards

I-140 approval establishes only that the classification requirements are met; a visa number must also become available, and approval through Form I-485 or consular processing is required to become a permanent resident. Pending I-140 petitions are not included in the “approved petitions awaiting visa availability” table. The phenomenon discussed in the community—“people whose priority dates are current but whose I-485 applications have not been approved still taking up visa numbers”—is reflected in the official tables in that these people have been removed from the inventory but have not yet appeared in annual issuance statistics. The two tables use different counting criteria and cannot simply be added to or subtracted from each other.

05

The Effect of Upgrades, Downgrades, and Duplicate I-140 Petitions on the Statistics

The same person may first have an EB-2 I-140 petition and then file an EB-3 I-140 petition (or vice versa), retaining the earliest priority date as permitted by law. The official notes acknowledge that one person may have multiple petitions, which is one reason inventory counts may include duplicates. When reading these figures, treat them as “petition counts,” not “numbers of people.”