USA
What the EB-2 asks of you
To meet the EB-2 visa requirements, you need an advanced degree or exceptional ability in the sciences, arts or business. You also need a US employer offering a permanent, full-time job that requires that level of qualification.
The EB-2 green card is the employment-based second preference category, so it leads to permanent residence, not a temporary work visa. In most cases your employer first clears PERM, the Department of Labor’s test of the US job market, and then files Form I-140 for you. The one exception is the National Interest Waiver, which lets you file on your own.
Below are the two qualifying routes, what the job itself has to require, the dates and letters that prove your experience, and what your employer has to show. A profile table at the end helps you see which route fits your background.
EB-2 visa requirements at a glance.
The EB-2 has two qualifying routes, and you only need one.
| Requirement | Advanced degree route | Exceptional ability route |
|---|---|---|
| Education | A US master’s degree or higher, or a foreign equivalent | A degree helps as one criterion, but isn’t required |
| Experience | None for a master’s; five progressive years after a bachelor’s | 10 years of full-time work counts as one criterion |
| Extra test | None | Three of six criteria, then a final review of the whole record |
| The job | Must require an advanced degree at minimum | Must require exceptional ability |
Both routes need a certified PERM and a petition filed by your US employer, unless the job falls under Schedule A.
The EB-2 advanced degree: a master’s, or a bachelor’s plus five years.
If you hold a master’s degree, you likely meet the education part of the EB-2 requirements already. An advanced degree is any US academic or professional degree above a bachelor’s, or a foreign degree evaluated as its equivalent.
You can hold one in two ways. The first is a master’s degree or higher. The second is a bachelor’s degree followed by at least five years of progressive experience in your specialty, which the regulation treats as the equivalent of a master’s.
Degrees that count as advanced for the EB-2.
In practice, a master’s degree, an MBA, a law degree, a medical degree or a PhD each counts as an advanced degree.
If your specialty customarily requires a doctorate, a master’s won’t do, and you’ll need a US doctorate or its foreign equivalent.
Foreign degrees and the credential evaluation.
If you earned your degree abroad, you’ll need a credential evaluation. That’s a report from an evaluation service or a school official that compares each foreign degree with a US one. USCIS can give it weight, but it’s only advisory, and the officer makes the final call.
The advanced degree route rests on one degree. A foreign bachelor’s has to be equivalent to a US bachelor’s on its own. Two shorter diplomas added together, or a diploma topped up with work experience, generally don’t count.
That’s why a three-year bachelor’s degree, common in India and parts of Europe, needs a careful look before your employer files anything. Some evaluations find a three-year degree equal to a US bachelor’s, others don’t, and a master’s earned on top of it can change the answer.
- Your diploma and full transcripts, with certified English translations where needed
- A credential evaluation that explains, course by course, how each foreign degree maps to a US degree
- Proof of when the degree was complete, such as a final or provisional certificate with its date
- An evaluation that states a conclusion without showing its reasoning carries little weight with the officer
- A provisional certificate can set the date your degree counts from, if you had already finished every requirement by then
The bachelor’s plus five years of progressive experience.
If you’re relying on a bachelor’s, the five years have to come after graduation, in your specialty, and show progress. Progressive means the work grew in responsibility or complexity over time, so five years in the same entry-level role is a weak fit.
Here’s how the dates work. If you finished your bachelor’s in June 2019 and started work that month, you reach five post-degree years in June 2024. A PERM your employer filed before then can’t rely on this route for you.
Work you did before graduating doesn’t count toward the five years, and neither does experience in a field unrelated to your degree. That rules out internships during your studies.
EB-2 exceptional ability: three of six criteria, then a final review.
If you don’t hold an advanced degree, or your degree doesn’t match the job, exceptional ability is the other way into the EB-2. It suits people whose record in their field is strong.
USCIS reads the evidence in two steps. First, your documents have to meet at least three of six criteria in the regulation. Then the officer looks at everything together and decides whether it shows expertise well above others in your field.
The six EB-2 exceptional ability criteria.
The ruleThe term exceptional ability is defined as a degree of expertise significantly above that ordinarily encountered in the sciences, arts, or business.
USCIS Policy Manual, vol. 6, pt. F, ch. 5
In plain terms, you have to stand out against others in your own occupation, not against everyone. Each of the six criteria is one kind of evidence, and you need three. One document can sometimes support two of them.
| Criterion | What usually proves it | What falls short |
|---|---|---|
| Academic record | A degree, diploma or certificate in the field of your ability | A credential in an unrelated subject |
| 10 years | Employer letters showing 10 years of full-time work in the occupation | Part-time or overlapping roles counted as full years |
| License | A license or certification to practice the profession | A course certificate anyone can earn by attending |
| Salary | Pay above others in your occupation, shown against wage data | A good salary with no comparison to your field |
| Memberships | Membership in professional associations | Counts at step one, but open groups weigh little later |
| Recognition | Awards or formal recognition from peers, government or industry bodies | Praise in letters written only for the petition |
If a criterion doesn’t fit your occupation, you can offer comparable evidence instead. You have to explain why the standard criterion doesn’t apply to your work.
The EB-2 final merits review after the three criteria.
The second step is the final merits review. The officer asks whether the whole record shows you’re above others in your field. Qualifications that most people in your field hold can’t show that.
A degree on its own is never sufficient evidence of exceptional ability, because the statute says so. Recognition dated to the time the work happened also carries more weight than letters written for the petition.
Building an EB-2 exceptional ability record.
Officers give more weight to evidence that shows where you rank in your field. A salary means more next to a published wage survey, and a membership means more when the association admits people on merit.
- Employer letters on letterhead that state your dates, hours and duties
- Salary records set against published wage data for your occupation and area
- Awards, articles or official recognition dated to when the work happened
- License or certification records from the body that issued them
- Seek recognition that is independent of your employer, such as an industry award or an invitation to review others’ work
- Join a professional association that admits members on qualifications, not just a fee
- Keep dated records of contributions as they happen, such as adopted methods, published results or client outcomes
The EB-2 job requirement: what the role itself must demand.
If you hold an advanced degree, the job your employer offers still has to require one. At minimum, the role must call for an advanced degree or its equivalent, and the industry must normally fill it with someone who has one.
Your employer sets the category through the minimum requirements it writes on the PERM application. A role that needs a master’s, or a bachelor’s plus five years, supports an EB-2. A role that needs only a bachelor’s doesn’t, even if you hold a PhD.
The Policy Manual uses nursing as its example. Many nurses hold advanced degrees, but a staff registered nurse job usually doesn’t require one, so it doesn’t support an EB-2. Nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist and nursing director roles generally can support an EB-2.
Your employer can’t set higher requirements just to reach EB-2. Under 20 CFR 656.17, the requirements must be what the occupation normally asks for. The Department of Labor checks that against O*NET, its public database of occupations, which sorts every job into five Job Zones by how much preparation it needs.
Here’s how that plays out. For most professional jobs in Job Zone 4, such as many software and engineering roles, a master’s requirement sits inside the usual range. A bachelor’s plus five years usually goes above it.
When a requirement goes above the range, your employer has to document a business necessity, meaning it shows the requirement is essential to doing the job in its business. That can draw an audit, a closer review of the PERM by the Department of Labor. Jobs in Job Zone 5, which usually need graduate school, fit either route.
Proving the EB-2 job requirement.
The ruleMere possession of an advanced degree or its equivalent is not sufficient for establishing a beneficiary’s eligibility for this classification.
USCIS Policy Manual, vol. 6, pt. F, ch. 5
In plain terms, your degree only counts for the EB-2 when the job itself demands it. The PERM is where that demand is written down and tested.
- A PERM whose minimum education is a master’s degree, or a bachelor’s plus five years
- Job duties that match a professional role at that level
- Evidence that similar roles in your industry ask for the same degree
- Requirements that read as if they were written around your résumé
- Requirements above what the occupation normally sets, with no business reason given
- An alternative requirement below the EB-2 level, such as a bachelor’s plus two years, which lowers the job’s real minimum
EB-2 experience requirements: letters and the PERM filing date.
Timing matters here. Your degree and every year of experience the job requires must already exist on the day your employer files the PERM. That filing date also becomes your priority date, which sets your order in the queue for a green card number.
The same goes for any license, certification or special skill the PERM lists: you have to hold it on that date and prove it. Experience you pick up while the case moves forward doesn’t help this PERM. If you were a few months short when it was filed, the petition fails on that point, even if you’d qualify by the time USCIS decides.
EB-2 experience letters: what each one must state.
Experience letters are how you prove those years. Under 8 CFR 204.5, each letter has to come from a current or former employer or trainer. It has to give the writer’s name, address and title, and a specific description of the duties you performed.
In practice, the letter should be on the company’s letterhead and signed by someone who can speak to your work, such as a manager or someone in HR. It should also state your exact start and end dates, whether you worked full-time, and your job title.
If a former employer has closed or won’t cooperate, USCIS will consider other documents, such as contracts, pay records or a letter from a former supervisor. USCIS weighs those substitutes case by case.
- One letter per employer, covering every month you count toward the requirement
- Exact dates, hours per week and a description of duties for each role you held there
- The name, title and contact details of the person who signs
- Collect the letters before the PERM is filed, because a year you can’t document later leaves the petition short
Experience gained at your sponsoring employer.
If you’ve worked for your sponsoring employer for a while, those years usually can’t count toward the job’s requirements. The Department of Labor’s rule is that an employer can’t ask applicants for experience you didn’t have when it hired you.
There are two exceptions. The first is work in a role that wasn’t substantially comparable to the sponsored job, meaning you spent less than half your time on the same duties. A real move from analyst to manager can qualify, while the same job under a new title doesn’t.
The second is rarer: your employer shows it’s no longer feasible to train a new worker for the job. That needs its own evidence and is weighed by the Department of Labor.
The EB-2 employer’s side: PERM and the ability to pay.
Your employer has EB-2 requirements of its own: a certified PERM and proof that it can pay the offered wage. Both have to hold for the petition to be approved.
For the PERM labor certification, your employer sets the job’s requirements and gets a prevailing wage from the Department of Labor. That’s the minimum the job must pay for that occupation and area. It then advertises the role and shows that no qualified US worker applied.
For the ability to pay, your employer has to show it could pay the wage from your priority date until you get the green card. The proof is annual reports, federal tax returns or audited financial statements. A company with 100 or more workers may be able to offer a statement from a financial officer instead.
USCIS looks for net income, or net current assets, at least equal to the offered wage. An employer that has filed for several workers has to show it can cover every one of those wages. For a small or young employer, net income may not cover the wage. Proof that it already pays you that wage, or its bank and payroll records, can support the case.
Some jobs skip the Department of Labor’s certification step. Schedule A is the Department’s list of occupations it has already found short of US workers. Under Schedule A Group II, an employer files directly with USCIS for people of exceptional ability in the sciences or arts, including college and university teachers. Its test is stricter than the EB-2 criteria: widespread acclaim and international recognition, shown through at least two of seven forms of evidence.
EB-2 eligibility by profile: which route fits.
Your EB-2 eligibility usually rests on a master’s degree, or a bachelor’s plus five years, with a job that requires it. The table shows how five common profiles usually sort.
| Your profile | Likely route | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| US master’s or PhD | Advanced degree | The job must require the advanced degree, not just accept it |
| Bachelor’s plus six years | Bachelor’s plus five | Five of those years come after graduation and grow in responsibility |
| Three-year bachelor’s | Uncertain | A credential evaluation decides whether the degree stands alone |
| No degree, 12 years | Exceptional ability | Three criteria first, then the final review of the whole record |
| Nurse with an MSN | Usually not EB-2 | An advanced practice or leadership role can support an EB-2 |
A profile that fits more than one row usually takes the advanced degree route, because it rests on documents rather than a judgment about your standing.
The check is free, it takes a few minutes, and the result appears without an account. Check your eligibility and see which EB-2 route your degree and experience support.
Common questions
There is no fixed dollar figure. The employer must offer at least the prevailing wage the Department of Labor sets for the occupation and work location, and must be able to pay it from the priority date until the green card is approved. So the figure depends on the job and the city.
The new degree does not count for that PERM, because qualifications are measured on the day the PERM is filed. To use the master’s for an EB-2, the employer generally needs a new PERM filed after the degree is complete, with a job that requires it.
Yes, but it is harder. PERM requires a real job opening, and when the worker owns part of the company or is related to its owners, the Department of Labor checks closely that the job is open to US applicants.
No. Exceptional ability is a lower standard than the extraordinary ability required for the EB-1A. It takes three of six criteria and, in most cases, a job offer and PERM. The EB-1A has its own 10 criteria, a higher standard, and no employer requirement.
No, not through a typical staff nursing job, because a registered nurse position generally does not require an advanced degree. Nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist and nursing leadership roles can. The minimum requirements in the PERM decide it, not the nurse’s own degree.
No. A spouse and unmarried children under 21 follow the main applicant’s approved petition as derivatives, in the E-21 and E-22 categories. They do not need a degree, experience or a job offer of their own to get green cards alongside the main applicant.
Sources
- Employment-Based Immigration: Second Preference EB-2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Show all 5 sourcesShow fewer sources
- USCIS Policy Manual, Vol. 6, Part F, Ch. 5, Advanced Degree or Exceptional AbilityU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- Policy Manual, Volume 6, Part E, Chapter 9: Evaluation of Education CredentialsU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- 8 CFR 204.5: Petitions for employment-based immigrantsLegal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
- 20 CFR 656.17: Filing applications for permanent labor certificationLegal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
2–3 years
$12,000–$19,500
