The honest state of EB2-NIW — September 2026

Crowdsourced cases, tracked against USCIS · counts shown · frozen as of September 2026. Not official USCIS statistics.

What these numbers are built on

Every figure here comes from real EB2-NIW cases that filers shared with NIWStats — 777 in all, of which 619 are receipt-backed, meaning we read their status and outcome directly from USCIS. None of this is a USCIS-wide statistic; it's the picture from these shared cases.

The three headline figures each draw from the cases in the weeks up to September 2026, so they show that month's picture rather than an all-time average:

The pools overlap and each is a slice of the 777 shared cases, not the whole book — a group is shown as a share only when it holds enough cases to read as one. How we collect & count →

Most cases don't get a straight yes or no

Of 162 EB2-NIW premium first actions we tracked (the ~6 weeks up to September 2026), 118 were a Request for Evidence and 44 went straight to a decision — about 73%, roughly 7 in 10, were an RFE.

The honest read: an RFE feels like bad news, but it isn't a denial — it's USCIS asking for more, and it starts a second clock. In the September 2026 window, an RFE was closer to the norm than the exception: worth planning for, not panicking over. RFE rates by field →

Your profile changes the odds

Filed the same week, two petitioners get different answers — and it often isn't luck, it's the profile. Among the 118 cases we tracked to a decision between Jul 2026 and Sep 2026, teal marks the approved share:

Research profiles were approved 50 of 67 (75%); industry profiles 11 of 33 (33%) — research was about 2.2× as likely to be approved, more than twice. This is the real NIW picture, split by profile — not a blended average. Approval rate, in full →

How long it's really taking

Across 170 tracked premium cases (the ~6 weeks up to September 2026), USCIS's first action landed a median of ~43 business days from the I-907 receipt — the middle half between day 42 and 44. Business days, not calendar days.

When that first action is an RFE, it starts a second clock: a median of ~38 business days from the day you respond to the decision. So an RFE doesn't just add a letter — it adds a whole second clock, on top of the wait for the RFE itself. Premium processing timing →

NIW only, split by profile

Most trackers blend every I-140 category together — EB1A, EB3, employer-sponsored EB2. Those tidy "approved on day 25" cases you've seen are usually not NIW, and blended numbers make NIW look faster and easier than it is.

We show NIW only, split by profile. It's a more honest mirror — sometimes a more sobering one — but it's the one that reflects your case instead of someone else's. Every figure here carries its count, and a slice too thin to read stays a count, never a percentage.

EB2-NIW, September 2026 — FAQ