EB-3 Visa: Requirements, Filing Sequence, and Wait Times

The EB-3 visa requirements come down to three things: a permanent, full-time U.S. job offer that fits one of three worker categories, an employer willing to sponsor you and prove no qualified American is available for the position, and a priority date that eventually becomes current on the monthly Visa Bulletin. The category receives 28.6 percent of all employment-based green cards each year, but per-country caps mean the wait ranges from about two years for most nationalities to more than a decade for applicants born in India.¹

The Three Worker Categories and What Each Requires

Federal law splits EB-3 into three subcategories, and which one applies to you determines both the evidence you need and how long you are likely to wait.²

Skilled workers. The offered job must require at least two years of training or work experience, and the position must be permanent, not seasonal. Electricians, specialized cooks, and medical technicians are typical examples. Relevant post-secondary education can count toward the two-year threshold.³

Professionals. You must hold at least a U.S. bachelor’s degree or its foreign equivalent, and the job must be one that normally requires that degree. You cannot substitute years of experience for the degree in this subcategory. Software developers, accountants, and teachers commonly qualify here.³

Other workers. The job requires less than two years of training or experience and must still be permanent. Housekeepers, farm workers on permanent operations, and food-processing workers fall here. This subcategory is capped at 10,000 visas per fiscal year, which produces the longest backlogs of any EB-3 group.²

In all three, the job has to match your actual qualifications. USCIS will not approve a skilled welding position for someone whose experience is in bookkeeping, no matter how strong the rest of the case looks.

What Your Employer Has to Prove

EB-3 is employer-driven. You cannot self-petition. Before the immigrant petition is even filed, the Department of Labor must certify that hiring you will not displace a qualified American worker or push down wages in your occupation and area. This certification is known as PERM.⁴

Prevailing Wage and Recruitment

Your employer first requests a prevailing wage determination from the Department of Labor, setting the minimum salary based on your occupation and location. Your employer must commit to paying at least that amount from your start date onward.⁴

The employer then advertises the position and documents the results. If a qualified, willing, and available U.S. worker applies, the employer must consider them, and any rejection has to be documented with legitimate, job-related reasons. Sloppy recruitment records are one of the fastest ways to trigger a PERM denial in an audit.

Ability to Pay

Your employer must also show it can pay the offered wage from the date the PERM application was filed through the date you receive permanent residency. USCIS looks at net income or net current assets from federal tax returns, audited financial statements, or annual reports. If the employer is already paying you a salary at or above the offered wage, that satisfies the requirement.

How Long PERM Takes

As of February 2026, the Department of Labor reports an average of 503 calendar days for analyst review of a PERM application.⁵ Cases pulled for audit take longer. Add in the months of pre-filing recruitment, and the PERM stage alone often runs close to two years before the immigrant petition can even be filed.

Documents You Need to Assemble

Your side of the file is built on two things: credentials and work history.

Diplomas, transcripts, and professional licenses are the foundation, with official English translations for anything issued in another language. Foreign degrees need a credential evaluation from a recognized service confirming they equal a U.S. degree at the appropriate level.

Work experience is proved through detailed letters from prior employers on company letterhead. Each letter should list your exact job title, dates of employment, and duties. For the skilled worker subcategory, these letters are how you prove the two-year experience threshold. Generic letters that do not describe what you actually did draw scrutiny from USCIS adjudicators.

If you are adjusting status inside the United States, you also need a medical examination on Form I-693 completed by a USCIS-designated civil surgeon. As of December 2, 2024, USCIS requires the completed I-693 to be submitted with your I-485; filing it later can get the I-485 rejected outright.⁶

The Filing Sequence

Once PERM is certified, your employer files Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, with USCIS.⁷ In most cases, the date the PERM application was filed becomes your priority date, your place in line for a visa number.

Your employer can pay for premium processing by filing Form I-907, which guarantees USCIS will act on the I-140 within 15 business days for all three EB-3 subcategories.⁸ “Act on” means approve, deny, or issue a request for evidence within that window. It does not guarantee approval.

After I-140 approval, you wait for your priority date to become current on the monthly Visa Bulletin. If you are already in the United States on a valid status, you then file Form I-485 to adjust to permanent resident status. When a visa number is immediately available at the time the I-140 is filed, you can file the I-485 concurrently, saving months.⁹ If you are outside the country, your case goes through consular processing at the National Visa Center, which schedules an interview at a U.S. embassy or consulate.

How Long the Wait Really Runs

The category-wide annual allocation works out to roughly 40,000 visas in a typical year, plus any spillover from EB-1 and EB-2.² On top of that, no single country’s nationals can receive more than 7 percent of the total employment-based visas issued in a fiscal year.¹⁰ That 7 percent cap is what creates the enormous backlogs for applicants born in India and mainland China.

As of the June 2026 Visa Bulletin, the EB-3 final action date for India sits at December 15, 2013. Indian-born applicants who filed PERM after that date are still waiting. Applicants from most other countries had a final action date of around mid-2024.¹¹ The “other workers” subcategory has its own squeeze from the 10,000-visa cap: the May 2026 Visa Bulletin showed an “other workers” final action date of February 1, 2022 for most countries, over two years behind the skilled worker and professional dates.¹²

Retrogression is the other timing risk. When more people apply in a category or country than there are visas available, the cutoff date on the Visa Bulletin moves backward instead of forward. This often happens toward the end of the federal fiscal year in September as issuance approaches the annual caps. If retrogression hits after your I-485 is already filed, your case goes on hold at the National Benefits Center until numbers open up. You can still apply for work authorization (Form I-765) and travel permission (Form I-131) while the I-485 sits pending.¹³ Checking the Visa Bulletin every month is how you know where you stand.

Changing Employers While You Wait

You are not locked in for the full multi-year process. Under the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act (AC21), you can change jobs or employers and keep your green card application alive if three conditions are met: your I-485 has been pending for at least 180 days, your I-140 has been approved (or is later approved), and the new job is in the same or a similar occupation as the one on your original petition.¹⁴

To use portability, you file Form I-485 Supplement J confirming either that your original job offer is still valid or that you have a qualifying new one.¹⁵ USCIS looks at the totality of circumstances when deciding whether jobs are “same or similar”: duties, required skills and education, DOL Standard Occupational Classification codes, and wages. A promotion or lateral move in the same field generally qualifies. A career change does not.¹⁶

The timing gap matters. If you change employers after I-140 approval but before the I-485 is filed, AC21 portability does not apply, and a new employer generally has to start PERM and I-140 from scratch, though you may be able to keep your original priority date.

Spouses and Children

Your spouse and unmarried children under 21 can receive green cards as your derivative beneficiaries. They are included in your I-485 filing (or consular processing) and get permanent resident status at the same time you do.⁹ Each family member files a separate I-485 with its own fee, medical exam, and biometrics. Children who turn 21 during the process risk aging out, though the Child Status Protection Act freezes their age under certain circumstances.

If You Already Have an EB-2 Petition

If you have an approved EB-2 petition but the EB-2 backlog for your country is worse than the EB-3 backlog, your employer can file a new I-140 requesting EB-3 classification using the same PERM labor certification, as long as the certified ETA Form 9089 is still valid. A new PERM is not needed when the employer remains the same. You keep the priority date from your original EB-2 filing.

This move is most common for Indian-born applicants, where EB-3 dates have at times run ahead of EB-2 dates. The tradeoff is that visa bulletin movement is unpredictable, so many applicants keep both an EB-2 and EB-3 petition active at once rather than choose.

1
U.S. Department of State. Annual Limit Reached in the EB-3 and EW Categories
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Employment-Based Immigration: Third Preference EB-3
4
eCFR. 20 CFR Part 656 – Labor Certification Process for Permanent Employment of Aliens in the United States
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Processing Times
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Report of Immigration Medical Examination and Vaccination Record
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. How Do I Request Premium Processing?
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Concurrent Filing of Form I-485
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1152 – Numerical Limitations on Individual Foreign States
11
U.S. Department of State. Visa Bulletin for June 2026
12
U.S. Department of State. Visa Bulletin for May 2026
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Visa Retrogression
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1154 – Procedure for Granting Immigrant Status
15
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 5 – Job Portability after Adjustment Filing and Other AC21 Provisions
16
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. How USCIS Determines Same or Similar Occupational Classifications for Job Portability Under AC21