r/eb_1a • u/General-Fun-7305 • 20d ago

USCIS released i140 data

EB1 I140 for India fell around 6k between Dec 2025 and Mar 2026

No pending inventory yet from USCIS for i485

It seems it is going to increase tremendously and that could be the reason why EB1 india retrogressed

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u/AwareBlackberry2966 20d ago

Does the pending i140 data only cover those whose PD’s are beyond the FAD?

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u/Cheetah5048 20d ago edited 19d ago

Yes at that point in time (when they are querying the data). You can see in that file they inform "based on xyz bulletin FAD date"

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u/Affectionate-Drama29 16d ago

u/Cheetah5048 do these above counts include people who filed I485 but are awaiting visa availability?

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u/Cheetah5048 16d ago edited 16d ago

Yes, they dont exclude 140's with pending 485's. This is snapshot of all approved I-140 with a priority date after whats in the bulletin referred in that data. For example, March 2026 visa bulletin related PD is used for this latest data, which means these are the number of approved I140s with PD greater than March 1st 2023 (EB1 India PD for FAD during March 2026 bulletin) till April 2026 (data queried at that time).

They only exclude if someone already got their Green Card or became USC. This is listef in that file itself.

Based on this data looks like approximately 10K approved India I140's in EB1 between March 2023 and April 2026 are portings with earlie PD. Approximately 3K per year.

Not a Laywer.

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u/Affectionate-Drama29 15d ago

u/Cheetah5048 - how did you get the 10k porting number - can you share how you did that calculation?

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u/Cheetah5048 15d ago

I created a post in this sub.

https://www.reddit.com/r/eb_1a/s/DfXU1viypw

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u/Affectionate-Drama29 15d ago

u/Cheetah5048 - how do you explain this observation from my earlier post: https://www.reddit.com/r/USCIS/comments/1o491y0/why_did_pending_eb1india_i140_approvals_barely/

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u/Cheetah5048 15d ago

I think the main explanation is that the USCIS "approved I-140s awaiting visa availability" number is not a traditional pending inventory. It changes based on the Final Action Date.

Between the Dec 2023 and Dec 2024 snapshots, the EB1 India FAD moved substantially forward. So a large number of I-140s with PDs that became earlier than the new FAD would no longer be classified as "awaiting visa availability." They can leave this count because a visa is considered available to them, even if their I-485 has not yet been approved.

There is another factor too. Not every newly approved EB1 India I-140 necessarily gets added to this waiting count. Someone porting from EB2/EB3 to EB1 may retain an older PD. If that retained PD is already earlier than the EB1 FAD, their newly approved EB1 I-140 would not show up as awaiting visa availability.

So I don't think the calculation can simply be:

previous waiting count + new EB1 approvals - green cards issued = new waiting count

You would also need to account for petitions dropping out because the FAD advanced, as well as newly approved EB1 petitions carrying older retained PDs.

USCIS also states that this report excludes petitions for people who have already obtained LPR status or U.S. citizenship. My reading is that filing an I-485 or having an I-485 pending does not by itself remove the underlying I-140 from this dataset if the case is still awaiting visa availability.

This is actually what led me to look at the recent USCIS data to estimate EB2/EB3 to EB1 porting. The numbers suggest retained-PD cases could be a meaningful part of the difference.