There are five different employment-based categories of US green cards. The EB-3 is the third category, so it is often referred to as the third preference. The third preference category is for three different types of workers: skilled workers, professionals, and “other workers.” The skilled worker category is for someone who has had at least two years of experience or training in his or her profession. A “professional” has at least a bachelor’s degree or an equivalent degree. “Other workers” perform unskilled labor requiring less than two years experience. Jobs for these categories need to be non-seasonal; there is a specific non-immigrant (temporary) visa for seasonal jobs.
The EB3 category requires that the sponsored foreigner will be coming to the U.S. to perform work in a permanent position where the employer has demonstrated to the U.S. Department of Labor that a good faith search for a U.S. worker yielded no qualified applicants.
If you are interested in immigrating to the US in the EB-3 category, the first step is for your prospective employer to file an application for labor certification with the US Department of Labor. Your employer also needs to demonstrate that he or she can pay your offered wages. An employer can use a tax return, an audited financial statement, or an annual report to prove ability to pay.
There are only 40,000 EB-3 green cards available every year. Of these, 10,000 are for unskilled workers. There are many employers interested in hiring workers in this category. As a result, the wait for a visa in this category is currently about 3-4 years and can be as long as 10 years or more for nationals of India.
Qualifying as a professional is usually assumed to translate to a degree no higher than a bachelor’s degree and up to five years’ experience. Workers with higher degrees or more than five years of experience should look at their options; they may qualify in the EB-2 category, which takes less time to process.
The skilled worker category includes professions such as chefs and stonemasons as well as many professions for which the training is a trade school. The training required varies by job in this category, and it is a good idea to verify the specific training requirements for a specific profession on the U.S. Department of Labor website.
The qualifications for each of the categories in the third preference are sometimes open to interpretation. If you have questions about qualifying, we would be glad to help – contact us today to learn more!
English 
Español 
العربية