Visas and the queue

EB-3

Also called EB3, third preference, employment-based third preference.

EB-3 is the employment-based third preference immigrant category, covering skilled workers whose job requires at least two years of training or experience, professionals holding a bachelor's degree, and other workers in unskilled jobs requiring less than two years, each of whom needs a permanent full-time job offer from a US employer.

What it decides

The employer files Form I-140 and must hold a labor certification approved by the Department of Labor, except in the Schedule A occupations DOL has already found short of US workers: professional nurses and physical therapists in Group I, exceptional ability in the sciences or arts and in the performing arts in Group II. The category takes 28.6 percent of the worldwide employment-based level plus any visas the first and second preferences do not use, and no more than 10,000 of those may go to other workers, which is why that subcategory queues longest of the three. Because the job offer is the petition, losing the job normally ends the case. 8 CFR 245.25 lets an applicant whose Form I-485 has been pending 180 days or more move to a same or similar occupation and keep the petition valid, but that rule reaches only petitions filed under section 204(a)(1)(F), so it never covers an EB-5 investor, whose petition needs no employer in the first place.

Governed by 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(3), which sets the three subcategories, the 28.6 percent share plus spillover, the 10,000 limit on other workers and the labor certification requirement; 8 CFR 204.5(l) for the regulatory definitions and 8 CFR 245.25 for portability and its limit to section 204(a)(1)(F) petitions; USCIS, Employment-Based Immigration: Third Preference EB-3, last updated 17 June 2026, for the permanent full-time job offer requirement and for the two Schedule A groups. That USCIS page carries neither the 28.6 percent share nor the 10,000 limit, both of which are statutory.

Where this is explained properly

Pages here that go into eb-3 rather than mentioning it.

Related terms

PERM labor certificationPERM labor certification is the Department of Labor process in which a US employer must show both that no able, willing, qualified and available US worker exists for the job and that hiring the foreign worker will not depress wages or working conditions, and it stands in front of most EB-2 and EB-3 green cards but is not required for EB-5 at all.
EB-2 national interest waiverA national interest waiver is a grant under 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(2)(B)(i) that lets someone who already qualifies for the employment-based second preference self-petition on Form I-140, because USCIS has waived the job offer, and with it the labor certification, on the ground that the person's proposed endeavor serves the national interest.
Form I-140Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, is the USCIS immigrant petition for the employment-based first, second and third preferences, covering extraordinary ability, outstanding researchers, multinational managers and executives, advanced degree and national interest waiver cases, skilled workers, professionals and other workers. An EB-5 investor never files it.
Priority dateA priority date is the date USCIS properly receives a complete, signed and paid Form I-526 or I-526E, and it fixes the investor's place in the visa queue for their country of chargeability and their EB-5 category.
BacklogBacklog is the demand already waiting ahead of an investor in the same visa category, the same country of chargeability and, since the 2022 set-asides, the same reserved or unreserved pool, which must be worked through before a visa number reaches them.

Checked against primary sources on 10 August 2026. Back to the glossary