A method, a system, an apparatus, and a computer program product are presented for loading LDIF ((Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Data Interchange Format) data into a directory. A single reader thread reads entries from an LDIF file; each entry is associated with a priority value, e.g., the priority value for an entry may be based on the number of delimiters in the distinguished name within the entry. Multiple loading threads concurrently add the entries into an LDAP directory in accordance with their associated priority values. The entries are added to the LDAP directory in an order of highest indicated priority to lowest indicated priority; entries that are associated with priority values that indicate equal priority are considered to be equivalent for the purposes of ordering the entries, so entries that have equal priority may be added to the LDAP directory in any order.