Lynn Ding
Jan 16, 2026
Why I-140 application increase rapidly？
I am wondering why the case number of I-140 increased so rapidly, which has caused the processing time reached almost 2 years. Is it because too many SDE joined NIW application? What's the percentage of software engineers in NIW application？Are you are SDE？
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Tong PoJan 16, 2026
not only developers. in 2.5 years that I have been following this category I have seen everything and more.
Lynn DingJan 16, 2026
Could you share more insight？ @Anto A
find ebJan 16, 2026
@B B but they didn’t start to go to the US this year
Lynn DingJan 16, 2026
@B B Thank you for the sharing. So the huge increase was caused by the increase of international students inside and outside of US? My guess is the layoff of SDEs. Becaue the trends of layoff and niw surge matches.
Tong PoJan 16, 2026
@B B is right. also many aggressive lawyers specially from South America promised eb2 niw green card as a piece of cake. back in 2021-2023 that was very easy to get the approval because of the Biden administration policy very favorable to immigration (stem degree -> niw almost automatic), but now the new administration closed the floodgate.
Tong PoJan 16, 2026
@Lynn Ding I don't think the layoff of sde is the reason of this backlog. those are mostly Indians who have their specific category. it's really mostly the Biden administration as I said above, plus the premium processing which started the backlog, plus other things like the end of COVID etc.
i guess USCIS has its monthly target of i140 to process and it's overwhelmed and very behind, but I agree that 2 years is insane.
