EB-1 Approval Rate

If you are weighing an EB-1 petition right now, the odds you are working with are not the odds you read about two years ago. The EB-1A approval rate fell to 47.5% in the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, down from 66.9% across all of fiscal 2025. That is a drop of nearly 20 points in roughly twelve months, and it should change how you think about evidence, timing, and which subcategory you file under.

This guide breaks the current EB-1 approval rate down by subcategory, explains why the aggregate figure hides more than it reveals, and covers what the data suggests about building a petition that survives review.

What the EB-1 approval rate is right now

Your starting point should be the most recent quarter, not the headline annual figure. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reported an EB-1A approval rate of 47.5% for Q1 of fiscal year 2026, covering petitions decided between October and December 2025. That is down from 53.4% in Q4 of fiscal 2025.

The full-year picture looks considerably better. Across fiscal year 2025, the overall EB-1 approval rate was 81.2%, while the extraordinary ability subcategory came in at 66.9%. The gap between those two numbers is the most useful thing in the entire dataset, and it exists for a reason worth understanding before you file.

Why the headline number misleads you

Two things distort the EB-1 approval rate you will see quoted most often, and both work in your favor once you know how to read around them. The first is aggregation. The second is how the denominator gets defined.

The EB-1 visa covers three green card subcategories with sharply different outcomes, so a blended figure describes almost no one accurately. In Q3 of fiscal 2025, EB-1B ran at 97.2% and EB-1C at 97.6%, while the EB-1A category sat at 66.6%. Averaging those produces a number that fits none of the three.

The denominator matters just as much. In that same quarter, USCIS received 62,186 petitions in this employment-based immigration category, approved 34,794, denied 6,864, and left 20,528 pending. Measured against adjudicated cases, that is an 83.5% approval rate. Measured against every petition in the system, it falls to roughly 56%.

Important note: Check whether any published rate counts pending cases in its denominator. Rates that include them understate your real odds, because pending cases have not been decided against you. When you compare sources, confirm you are comparing adjudicated-case rates to adjudicated-case rates.

EB-1 approval rates by subcategory

Your EB-1 visa subcategory predicts your outcome more reliably than your field, your country of birth, or your filing date. The table below shows the most recent USCIS figures available for each. The Q1 fiscal 2026 release broke out extraordinary ability petitions but not the other two, so the remaining rows reflect Q3 of fiscal 2025.

The pattern holds across every quarter USCIS has published. EB-1B and EB-1C run 30 to 50 points above the extraordinary ability route, and the reason is structural rather than legal.

Both of those categories require an employer or institution to sponsor you, which means someone has already vetted your record before USCIS opens the file. When you self-petition, the officer has no external judgment to defer to and evaluates your evidence cold.

Why EB-1A approval rates dropped so sharply

If you plan to file on your own behalf, you are entering the one lane where the practical standard has visibly tightened. Approval rates in this category moved from 70.5% in fiscal 2023 to 60.7% in fiscal 2024, recovered to 66.9% across fiscal 2025, then fell to 47.5% in Q1 of fiscal 2026.

Three forces sit behind that decline:

• Filing volume: EB-1A petitions rose roughly 50% year over year in fiscal 2025 as applicants shifted away from the H-1B lottery and the national interest waiver. The backlog here reached an all-time high of about 16,000 pending cases.
• Agency capacity: USCIS closed Q1 of fiscal 2026 with 11.3 million cases pending, 17% more than a year earlier, while completing 41% fewer cases than in the same quarter of fiscal 2025.
• Evidentiary scrutiny: Adjudicators are pressing harder on whether your record demonstrates sustained acclaim rather than a checklist of qualifying activities.

None of this altered the legal standard. What changed is how much documentation it now takes to clear it.

Where EB-1A petitions actually fail

You can satisfy the eligibility criteria on paper and still receive a denial. That outcome traces to Kazarian v. USCIS, the 2010 decision that split review of these cases into two distinct stages.

In the first stage, the officer counts. Do you meet at least three of the ten regulatory criteria, such as published media coverage about your work, judging the work of others, original contributions of major significance, or a high salary relative to your field?

In the second stage, called the final merits determination, the officer steps back and asks whether your evidence as a whole places you among the small percentage at the very top of your field. Most denials happen here, not in the counting stage.

This is why raw totals fail you. Ten papers with 40 citations read very differently from three papers with 900 citations, and the officer is assessing influence rather than volume. Letters of recommendation that praise your field's importance without tying it to your specific, measurable contribution rarely change that assessment.

What an RFE or NOID does to your odds

If a Request for Evidence lands in your inbox, your case is not over, but your position has weakened. Requests for evidence are common in the EB-1A category, and each one typically adds two to three months to your processing time while the file sits outside active adjudication.

A Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID) is more serious. A NOID means the officer has already reviewed your evidence, reached a preliminary conclusion against you, and is giving you a final opportunity to rebut it before issuing a denial.

The strategic response to both is the same: front-load the petition. Submit the strongest version of your record at initial filing rather than holding material in reserve. Every RFE cycle costs you months, and a NOID hands a fresh officer another opportunity to disagree with your framing.

How the EB-1 visa compares to EB-2 NIW and the O-1 visa

Your real decision is rarely one category or nothing, so it helps to see where the adjacent green card and work visa options currently stand. Two are worth comparing before you commit.

The EB-2 NIW approval rate ran at 42.6% in Q1 of fiscal 2026, up from 35.7% the prior quarter but well below the 55.2% recorded across fiscal 2025. USCIS adjudicated 5,586 EB-2 NIW petitions that quarter, approving 2,380 and denying 3,206.

That marked the second consecutive quarter in which NIW approvals were outnumbered by denials. If you have been treating the NIW as your safer fallback, the numbers no longer support that assumption.

The O-1 visa tells a different story. O-1A approval rates held at 91.0% in Q1 of fiscal 2026 after staying above 90% throughout fiscal 2025. It grants temporary status rather than permanent residency, but it rests on a comparable evidentiary theory, which makes it a practical bridge while you strengthen your record.

What actually moves your approval odds

You cannot control the backlog or the adjudication climate, but you can control what reaches the officer's desk. The variables that correlate with approval stay consistent across the data:

• Depth over breadth: Independent citations, documented adoption of your methods by other teams, and measurable commercial or clinical impact carry more weight than a longer publication list.
• Specific support letters: Letters that quantify your critical role on a named project beat letters that describe your field in general terms.
• Category fit: If you qualify for a sponsored subcategory, the approval data strongly favors filing there instead of petitioning on your own behalf.
• Verifiable evidence: Press coverage in outlets with documented reach, awards with published selection criteria, and salary benchmarked against your role and region.
• Realistic timing: Premium processing delivers a 15-business-day decision on EB-1A petitions, but it does not change the standard applied to your evidence.

Review the USCIS Form I-140 page for current filing fees and premium processing details, and check the USCIS immigration data reports for quarterly figures as they are released.

Conclusion

The EB-1 approval rate is falling, but the only number that should drive your strategy is the one attached to your subcategory. If your record fits one of the sponsored subcategories, the data says file there. If the extraordinary ability route is your realistic path, treat the final merits determination as the actual test and build a record designed to survive it.

How Lighthouse helps you build a stronger EB-1 petition

Your green card case is a documentation problem before it is a legal one. The evidence has to be gathered, organized, and framed so that the final merits determination lands in your favor rather than against you.

Lighthouse prepares EB-1A, EB-1B, and EB-1C petitions with attorney review included in every case, and typically completes preparation in under three weeks rather than the months a traditional firm takes. If USCIS issues an RFE, Lighthouse prepares the response at no additional charge.

Every candidate starts with a free eligibility evaluation, so you can confirm which subcategory fits your record before you commit to a filing strategy.

Start your EB-1 evaluation today.

Frequently asked questions on the EB-1 approval rate

What is the current EB-1 approval rate?

The EB-1A approval rate was 47.5% in Q1 of fiscal year 2026. For fiscal year 2025 as a whole, the overall EB-1 approval rate across all three subcategories was 81.2%, and the extraordinary ability figure was 66.9%.

Why is EB-1A lower than the other two subcategories?

The other two require employer sponsorship, so a university or company has already assessed your qualifications before the petition reaches USCIS. The EB-1A visa lets you self-petition, which means the officer evaluates your record without any institutional endorsement to rely on.

Does premium processing improve your approval chances?

No. Premium processing shortens your wait to 15 business days, but USCIS applies the same evidentiary standard either way. It gives you a faster answer, not a better one.

How many citations do you need to qualify?

There is no threshold in the regulations. Officers weigh independent citations as evidence of influence rather than counting to a number, so a smaller body of heavily cited work often reads more persuasively than a long list with light citation activity.

Does working with an immigration attorney change your odds?

The available data does not isolate representation as a variable, so treat any specific claimed uplift with caution. What the denial patterns do show is that petitions failing at the final merits stage tend to be poorly framed rather than genuinely unqualified, which is where experienced preparation matters most.

Can you file EB-1A and EB-2 NIW at the same time?

Yes. Filing both is permitted and reasonably common, particularly given that NIW approvals have fallen below 50%. Each petition is adjudicated independently, and if both are approved you can pursue adjustment of status using whichever priority date is more favorable.