USA
The EB-3 visa requirements in short
To meet the EB-3 visa requirements, you need a US employer that sponsors you for a permanent, full-time job. You’ll also have to meet every requirement that job lists. Those requirements then decide which of three groups the case falls into: professionals, skilled workers or other workers, the group the law calls unskilled.
The EB-3 green card is a permanent residence category, the third of the employment-based preferences. Before anything reaches USCIS, the employer gets PERM approval, the Department of Labor’s check that no qualified US worker wants the job. It then files Form I-140, the immigrant petition. If the job requires a master’s degree, or a bachelor’s plus five years of experience, it can qualify for the EB-2 instead.
Below, each group gets the rule as USCIS writes it and the documents that prove it, followed by what the employer has to do and a table of common backgrounds.
EB-3 visa requirements at a glance.
Each EB-3 case sits in exactly one of these groups, and the job on offer decides which.
| Requirement | Professionals | Skilled workers | Other workers |
|---|---|---|---|
| The job requires | A US bachelor’s degree or a foreign equivalent | At least two years of training or experience | Less than two years of training or experience |
| You must hold | That degree, in the field the job names | Every year of training or experience the job lists | Whatever the job lists, which can be nothing |
| Your proof | An official college record and transcripts | Letters from trainers or employers | Letters only if the job lists training or experience |
| Green cards a year | Part of about 40,000 for the EB-3 | Part of about 40,000 for the EB-3 | No more than 10,000 of that total |
All three groups need a job offer from a US employer, a certified PERM or a Schedule A filing, and an I-140 filed by that employer.
What jobs qualify for an EB-3 visa?
Any job a US employer offers on a permanent basis can support an EB-3. The minimum requirements your employer lists for that job on the PERM set your EB-3 category. Those minimums are the least the employer will accept from any applicant, US or foreign. The Department of Labor certifies them, and USCIS later holds you to them.
The job’s own requirements decide your EB-3 group.
The ruleThe determination of whether a worker is a skilled or other worker will be based on the requirements of training and/or experience placed on the job by the prospective employer…
8 CFR 204.5(l)(4)
This rule decides between the skilled and other worker groups by looking at the job. Professionals are sorted by a different test, the degree their job requires.
What counts is the training or experience the job asks for, whether that’s months of formal training, years of work, or a mix of both. Your future employer writes those requirements on the PERM, so you don’t choose your group, and your résumé doesn’t either.
So two kitchen jobs at the same restaurant can land in different groups. A head cook position whose PERM asks for two years of experience is a skilled job. A line cook position that asks for six months of training is an other-worker job.
Degrees work the same way. If you hold a master’s degree and the job only requires a bachelor’s, you file as an EB-3 professional, because the PERM sets the bar.
Once the PERM sets your group, it also sets what you have to prove. You need every requirement it lists. The USCIS Policy Manual gives an example: if the PERM asks for “2 years college and 2 years experience,” a bachelor’s degree without the two years of experience won’t qualify.
You also have to hold those requirements on the right day, the day the employer files the PERM. That filing date then serves as your priority date, which fixes where your case stands in the green card line.
The employer can’t write the PERM any way it likes, either. The Department of Labor compares the requirements with the preparation level that O*NET, its public occupation database, lists for that kind of work. Anything above that level needs a business necessity, proof that the job can’t be done without it. It can also bring an audit, a closer review of the PERM.
EB-3 professionals: a bachelor’s degree the job requires.
A job that requires a bachelor’s degree puts you in the professional group. You’ll need a US bachelor’s degree or a foreign degree of the same level, and the PERM has to list that degree as the minimum.
A mix of schooling and work points the case to the skilled worker group.
The ruleEducation and experience may not be substituted for a bachelor’s degree.
USCIS, Employment-Based Immigration: Third Preference EB-3
For the professional group, nothing stands in for the degree. A diploma shorter than a bachelor’s, years of work in the field, or both together don’t add up to one, however many years you’ve put in.
The degree itself has to be a US bachelor’s or a foreign degree of the same level. A master’s or a PhD meets it too.
If your record is a mix like that, your case isn’t over. When the PERM accepts that kind of equivalence, the Policy Manual says you may qualify as a skilled worker instead. Raise it with your employer before the PERM is written, because its wording decides which group is open to you.
EB-3 professionals with a degree from abroad.
For a degree earned abroad, the standard proof is a credential evaluation, prepared before the employer files. The evaluation is a written comparison of your diploma and transcripts with US degrees, prepared by a private service. The USCIS officer can rely on it or set it aside, because the Policy Manual treats it as advisory.
A three-year degree from India or much of Europe is the one to evaluate with the most care, since a US bachelor’s generally takes four years. Get it done before the PERM is written, so the job’s requirements match what your degree can support.
- An official college or university record showing the date your bachelor’s degree was awarded and your field of study
- Full transcripts, with certified English translations where needed
- A credential evaluation for any degree earned outside the US
- The degree’s field matters as well as its level, so it should match the field or fields the PERM names
- Each translation needs the translator’s statement that it is complete and accurate, and that they can translate from that language
EB-3 skilled workers: at least two years of training or experience.
If you have at least two years of training or experience in your trade, the skilled worker group fits when the job also requires those two years. You don’t need a degree for this group unless the PERM lists one.
Schooling and training count toward the EB-3 skilled worker’s two years.
The ruleSkilled workers are persons who are capable of performing skilled labor and whose job requires at least 2 years training or experience, not of a temporary or seasonal nature.
USCIS, Employment-Based Immigration: Third Preference EB-3
The PERM asks for the two years first, and your letters from the people who trained or employed you then show you have them.
The job also has to be permanent and year-round, so summer, holiday and one-off project work don’t qualify.
USCIS adds that relevant post-secondary education may count as training. If you finished a two-year technical program in your trade, that schooling can cover the requirement.
- Letters from employers or trainers that together cover the full two years, with start and end dates
- School records and the certificate issued, when part of the two years is training at a college or trade school
- Any license or certificate the PERM lists, already valid on the PERM filing date
- If the PERM accepts experience in a related occupation, letters from that work count too
- Time in the same job with your sponsoring employer usually can’t count toward the two years
EB-3 experience letters: the details each one needs.
The regulation asks for letters from the employers or trainers themselves. Each one names the person who signs it, with their address and title, and describes the duties or the training in specific terms.
You prove whatever the PERM spells out. If it asks for two years as a welder, your letters have to show two years of welding. If it also lists a welding certificate, you need that certificate too.
If you’re requesting a letter, ask for it on company letterhead, with exact start and end dates, the job title and whether the work was full-time. When a former employer has shut down or won’t write one, you can explain why and offer pay slips, contracts or tax records in its place.
- A letter with no exact dates, or with job titles but no description of the duties
- A letter from a coworker or a friend rather than from the employer or trainer
EB-3 unskilled workers: jobs that need less than two years.
The other workers group covers jobs that need less than two years of training or experience. The job can require no degree and no experience at all, or a short period of training.
Other workers meet whatever the PERM lists, within a smaller yearly cap.
The ruleOther workers (also called unskilled workers) are persons capable of performing unskilled labor whose job requires less than 2 years training or experience, not of a temporary or seasonal nature.
USCIS, Employment-Based Immigration: Third Preference EB-3
The rule uses two names for one group, other workers and unskilled workers, and both follow the same requirements.
Even here, you meet whatever the PERM lists. If it asks for three months in food preparation, you need a letter that covers those three months. The seasonal limit applies too, so summer work at a resort can’t be the job behind your green card.
Other workers also share a smaller pool, at most 10,000 of the EB-3 green cards each year. For that reason, the group has its own line in the Visa Bulletin, the monthly chart that shows whose turn has come. Because the limit is smaller, that line can sit years behind the one for skilled workers and professionals.
- A letter covering any training or experience the PERM lists, with dates and duties
- Any certificate or license the job requires
- A job with no training or experience requirement needs no experience letters at all
- The annual limit counts green cards, so the PERM and the I-140 can be approved while the case waits for its turn
Schedule A: EB-3 nurses and physical therapists.
If you’re a registered nurse or a physical therapist, the EB-3 has a shorter way in for you. Your occupation is on Schedule A, the Department of Labor’s list of occupations it has already found short of US workers. The employer skips the PERM recruitment and job ads. It files the I-140 straight with USCIS, with the labor certification form attached for USCIS to decide.
Your group still follows the job. A nursing position that requires a bachelor’s degree is a professional job, and one that requires a two-year nursing degree is a skilled one.
You still have to show you’re qualified for the occupation, with one of the credentials Schedule A names.
- For a nurse: a certificate from the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS), a full and unrestricted license in the state of employment, or a passing NCLEX-RN result
- For a physical therapist: proof that you hold every qualification needed to sit that state’s licensing exam
- Your nursing or therapy degree and transcripts, with a credential evaluation if the degree is from abroad
EB-3 sponsorship: your employer’s side.
Your employer has its own share of the EB-3 visa requirements. It carries the employer-sponsored green card process from start to finish. It runs PERM and offers at least the prevailing wage, the Department of Labor’s minimum pay for the job and area. It also has to show it can pay that wage while the case is pending.
EB-3 eligibility by profile: which group fits you.
Your EB-3 eligibility comes down to the job’s requirements set against what you hold. These five backgrounds show how that match usually works out.
| Your background | Likely group | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s, job requires one | Professional | The degree’s field matches the field the PERM names |
| Three-year foreign degree | Depends on the evaluation | Whether it equals a US bachelor’s, or a skilled job fits better |
| Four years in a trade | Skilled worker | Letters cover the two years the job lists |
| No experience, short training | Other worker | The job is permanent and year-round |
| Master’s, job asks a bachelor’s | Professional | The job’s bachelor’s minimum keeps the case in EB-3 |
The check is free, it takes a few minutes, and the result appears without an account. Check your eligibility and see which EB-3 group your job and your record point to.
Common questions
The worker’s own requirements are modest: a bachelor’s degree, two years of training or experience, or less, depending on the job. The harder parts are the employer’s PERM, which cannot go ahead if a qualified US worker applies, and the wait until the priority date is current.
No. Every EB-3 petition is filed by a US employer for a real job it offers, and the category has no self-petition and no national interest waiver. Workers without a sponsor look at categories that allow self-petitions, such as the EB-2 national interest waiver or the EB-1A, which set higher evidence standards.
No. The job behind an EB-3 must be permanent and full-time, and the definitions of skilled and other workers exclude work of a temporary or seasonal nature. An employer that hires seasonal staff, for example on H-2B visas, can still sponsor a worker for a separate permanent, year-round position.
Yes, but a family tie makes the case harder. No rule bars it, though the Department of Labor looks closely when the worker is related to the owners or officers, or owns part of the company. The employer must prove a real job open to any US worker. The case is hardest when the worker decides who gets hired.
The EB-3 has no general English requirement. Since June 15, 2026, a PERM for a job that involves driving a commercial motor vehicle, such as a truck driver, must include an English proficiency standard, and USCIS generally asks for evidence that the worker meets it, such as a standardized English test result.
Yes. A spouse and unmarried children under 21 can receive green cards as derivatives of the worker’s approved EB-3 petition. Neither the spouse nor the children has to meet the EB-3 visa requirements, and they can apply alongside the worker or follow later.
No. Neither the statute nor the EB-3 regulation sets a minimum or maximum age for the main worker. The case turns on the job: a US employer offering it, and a worker who meets every requirement the PERM lists, whatever their age.
Sources
- Employment-Based Immigration: Third Preference EB-3U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Show all 8 sourcesShow fewer sources
- USCIS Policy Manual, Vol. 6, Part F, Ch. 7, Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Other WorkersU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- USCIS Policy Manual, Vol. 6, Part E, Ch. 6, Permanent Labor CertificationU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- USCIS Policy Manual, Vol. 6, Part E, Ch. 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
- 20 CFR 656.5: Schedule ALegal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
- 8 U.S.C. 1153: Allocation of immigrant visas (INA 203)Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
2–4 years
$12,000–$19,500
