EB-3 Wait Time by Country: Cutoff Dates and Cross-Chargeability

The EB-3 wait time by country runs from about two years for most of the world to roughly 12 to 13 years for people born in India, based on the June 2026 Visa Bulletin. The gap exists because federal law caps how many employment-based green cards any one country can receive in a year, so applicants from high-demand countries stack up in a queue while applicants from lower-demand countries move through in something close to normal processing time.

Current EB-3 Cutoff Dates by Country

The Department of State publishes cutoff dates each month in the Visa Bulletin. If your priority date is earlier than your country’s cutoff, a visa number is available and you can move forward. If it’s later, you wait. Here are the Final Action Dates for EB-3 skilled workers and professionals in the June 2026 bulletin:

India: December 15, 2013 — roughly 12 to 13 years behind
China (mainland born): August 1, 2021 — roughly 5 years behind
Philippines: August 1, 2023 — roughly 3 years behind
Mexico: June 1, 2024 — roughly 2 years behind
All other countries: June 1, 2024 — roughly 2 years behind

For someone born in India filing a new PERM labor certification today, a green card is realistically more than a decade away. Someone from a country without a major backlog might reach the finish line in two to three years total, once administrative processing is added.¹

The bulletin also publishes a second chart, Dates for Filing, which sometimes lets applicants submit paperwork earlier than the final action date. Under that chart in June 2026, EB-3 is listed as “C” (current, no backlog) for most countries and Mexico. China shows January 1, 2022, India shows January 15, 2015, and the Philippines shows January 1, 2024. Filing early doesn’t shorten the wait for the green card itself; it only means the paperwork can go in sooner.¹

Other Workers Face Longer Waits Than Skilled Workers

EB-3 is split into two tracks on the bulletin. Skilled workers and professionals sit on one line. “Other workers,” meaning unskilled positions that require less than two years of experience, sit on a separate, slower line. Federal law caps the other workers subcategory at 10,000 visas per year, and that number has been reduced to roughly 5,000 since 2002 because of offsets required by the Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act. For fiscal year 2026, the reduction is limited to about 150 visas.¹

June 2026 Final Action Dates for other workers:

India: December 15, 2013
China (mainland born): April 1, 2019
Philippines: November 1, 2021
Mexico and all other countries: February 1, 2022

Compared to the skilled and professional track, other workers from most countries face an additional two or more years of backlog. For Chinese-born applicants, the other workers cutoff sits more than two years further behind the skilled worker line. If your job qualifies as unskilled labor, that statutory cap is the main reason your wait runs longer than a coworker’s would.²

Why Country of Birth Drives the Wait

EB-3 receives 28.6 percent of the total worldwide employment-based visa allocation each fiscal year, plus any unused numbers from the EB-1 and EB-2 categories.² On top of that, no single country can receive more than 7 percent of the total employment-based visas issued in a year.³

That 7 percent ceiling is what produces the huge backlogs for India and China. Both countries generate far more EB-3 applicants each year than their share of visas can absorb, so a queue forms and grows. India’s line is especially long because the gap between demand and supply has compounded for more than a decade. Countries with fewer applicants rarely bump against the cap, so their lines move at close to the pace of overall visa availability.

The country that counts is where you were born, not where you hold citizenship or currently live. Immigration law calls this “chargeability.” An applicant born in India who holds Canadian citizenship is still charged against India’s quota.⁴ When demand from a country exceeds its allocation, the State Department sets a cutoff and only priority dates earlier than that cutoff can proceed. When the dates freeze or slide backward, that’s retrogression.

Cross-Chargeability Through a Spouse

If you were born in a backlogged country but your spouse was born in a country with a shorter line, you may be able to use your spouse’s country of birth instead of your own. This exception, called cross-chargeability, can cut years off the wait. An Indian-born applicant married to someone born in Canada, for example, could potentially charge the visa to Canada’s allocation.

The rule works asymmetrically for children: a child can be charged to either parent’s country of birth, but a parent cannot use a child’s birthplace. Cross-chargeability only helps if the spouse’s country actually has a better EB-3 cutoff, and the spouse must be immigrating as a derivative beneficiary. For applicants from India or China, it’s worth checking early.

Upgrading From EB-3 to EB-2

For applicants stuck in a long EB-3 line, moving to EB-2 is one of the most common ways to speed things up. EB-2 cutoff dates are often more favorable, especially for Indian-born applicants. The upgrade requires a new PERM labor certification and a new I-140, and both the applicant and the job must meet the stricter EB-2 requirements, typically a master’s degree or a bachelor’s plus five years of progressive experience.

The advantage is priority date retention. Federal regulations let you carry your original EB-3 priority date forward to the new EB-2 petition, provided the earlier I-140 was approved and wasn’t revoked for fraud, a material error, or an invalidated labor certification.⁵ If your I-485 is already pending on the EB-3 petition, you can request a transfer of underlying basis (interfiling) to move onto the EB-2 category without starting a new adjustment application. A visa number has to be immediately available in EB-2 for your priority date and country for the interfile to go through.

Protecting Children From Aging Out

Once your I-140 is approved, your spouse and unmarried children under 21 can seek green cards with you as derivative beneficiaries.⁶ For a family from India, a child who is six when the petition is filed will be near adulthood before a visa becomes available. If a child turns 21 before then, they no longer count as a “child” for immigration purposes and lose derivative eligibility.

The Child Status Protection Act offers a partial cushion. Instead of using the child’s actual age, CSPA calculates an adjusted age: the child’s age on the date a visa becomes available, minus the number of days the I-140 was pending before approval. If that adjusted age is under 21, the child still qualifies. The child must remain unmarried and must seek permanent residence within one year of a visa becoming available.⁷

Even so, the math often doesn’t stretch far enough for families in the longest backlogs. If the I-140 was decided in six months, CSPA only subtracts six months from the child’s age, which isn’t much against a 12-year wait. This pressure pushes many Indian families toward EB-2 upgrades or cross-chargeability specifically to outrun a child’s 21st birthday.

Tracking Your Own Wait Each Month

Your place in line is set by your priority date. For most EB-3 applicants, that’s the date the Department of Labor accepts a PERM labor certification for processing. For positions that skip labor certification, such as certain Schedule A occupations like registered nurses, the priority date is the date USCIS receives the Form I-140.⁸

To track where you stand, compare that date to the Visa Bulletin every month. Two charts matter. The Final Action Dates chart tells you when a visa can actually be issued, which is what controls the green card itself. The Dates for Filing chart tells you when adjustment or immigrant visa paperwork can go in, often earlier than the final action date.⁹

Each month, USCIS announces which chart it will accept for new filings. When supply is loose, USCIS designates the Dates for Filing chart. When supply is tight, it sends applicants back to the Final Action Dates chart. A “C” on either chart means the category is current with no backlog for that country. A calendar date means the category is oversubscribed and only priority dates earlier than the listed date can proceed. Dates can jump forward, stall, or move backward within a fiscal year based on demand, which is why the check has to happen every month rather than once a year.

One boundary worth noting: EB-3 covers three groups of workers, and they don’t all move together. Skilled workers need at least two years of training or experience. Professionals need at least a U.S. bachelor’s degree or its foreign equivalent. Other workers cover positions requiring less than two years of training or experience and sit on the separate, slower line described above. All three normally require the employer to first obtain a PERM labor certification, unless the job is a Schedule A occupation that the Department of Labor has pre-certified as short of U.S. workers.⁶¹⁰ Which of those buckets your job falls into decides which cutoff date you’re actually watching.

1
U.S. Department of State. Visa Bulletin For June 2026
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1152 – Numerical Limitations on Individual Foreign States
4
U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual. 9 FAM 503.2 – Chargeability
5
eCFR. 8 CFR 204.5 – Petitions for Employment-Based Immigrants
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Employment-Based Immigration: Third Preference EB-3
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Child Status Protection Act (CSPA)
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Visa Availability and Priority Dates
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Adjustment of Status Filing Charts from the Visa Bulletin
10
U.S. Department of State. Employment-Based Immigrant Visas