In this part of our Green Card Application Process, we tackle the employment-based green card. If you are the employer located in Montana, North Dakota or Wyoming, and want to sponsor an employee for permanent employment, we can help you. Please keep reading for more information, or contact us.
Types of Employment-based Green Cards
Before discussing employment based green cards, it is useful to compare them to family based green cards. Employment-based green cards, like family-based green cards, have preference categories. As a reminder, preference categories have limited visas available. Unlike family-based immediate relative green cards, no employment category allows unlimited green cards for people wishing to become a permanent resident. Instead, the United States allocates visa numbers across five preference categories.
Before giving a brief overview for each preference category, we list them here:
- First preference is for aliens of extraordinary ability.
- Second preference is for highly educated aliens with advanced degrees.
- Third preference is for aliens with a bachelor’s degree or substantial work experience.
- Fourth preference is for special immigrant visas.
- Fifth preference is for aliens creating employment in the United States through investment.
Each category has different processing times. This difference is generally a reflection of lower demand in the lower number categories, and more visas available. Thus you usually find shorter processing times in the lower number categories. For example, in the November 2026 Visa Bulletin the first preference (EB-1) is current for most countries, meaning a visa is available right away, but people born in China or India wait: their final action dates are August 1, 2023 and February 1, 2023. The second preference (EB-2) has a final action date of April 1, 2025 for most countries and November 1, 2013 for India. These dates move every month, so check the current bulletin before you plan. If you hold an O-1, our guide to the EB-1A, NIW and employer routes from an O-1 explains how these lines affect which petition to file first. To keep track of movements in processing times, the monthly Visa Bulletin provides the wait times for all employment-based green card categories.
Labor Certification: the PERM Process
Some of the preference categories listed above and discussed below require a labor certification. A labor certification is a determination that no minimally qualified Americans are available for the position. Where the regulations specify a labor certification, the employer petitioning the foreign national must use the PERM process. Due to its complexity, we have a separate guide to the PERM process. But, we provide a brief synopsis here for those wishing to keep reading. After the I-140 is approved and your date is current, the final step for workers already here is adjustment of status, including the 245(k) forgiveness window and job portability rules.
Employment Based Green Card
In short, the employer must recruit for the position according to Department of Labor (DOL) specifications. This involves first getting a prevailing wage from the DOL. Next, the employer must advertise and recruit using that wage. If no qualified applicants apply for the position, the employer may then submit an electronic request for a labor certification to DOL. In order to receive the certification, DOL must next agree that the recruitment process met its specifications. An employer that has laid off workers in the same or a related job in the past six months can still use PERM, but must first offer the job to those workers; our page on PERM after layoffs explains the rule.
Upon finding compliance, DOL subsequently issues the labor certification. That certification establishes that no qualified US citizens are available to fill the vacancy. Now the petitioning employer may file the preference petition application with the labor certification. That petition, the I-140, must also prove the employer’s ability to pay the offered wage from the priority date until the worker becomes a resident. When a return shows a loss for one of those years, the rules in ability to pay after a loss year decide whether the petition can still be approved.
Employer sponsorship through PERM is available to beneficiaries in a variety of immigration situations, including former parolees whose status has been terminated. For how the PERM process fits into a broader strategy for former parolees, see our dedicated guide.
EB-1, First Preference
USCIS regulations recognize three ways to qualify for a first preference employment based green card. You, as the foreign national, may qualify by demonstrating that you have extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics.
You also qualify if you have evidence that you are an outstanding professor or researcher. Generally, you can establish this through published papers or distinguished awards. Multinational managers or executives who meet employment requirements in or out of the US may also qualify. In each of these cases the regulations exempt you or your petitioning employer from the need for an approved labor certification with the preference petition. Many people in the extraordinary-ability category first come on the temporary O-1 visa, which uses a similar standard and lets a green card case go forward at the same time.
EB-2, Second Preference
A Masters degree or above that you use in your employment qualifies you to the second preference category. For example, you may work as an engineer with a Masters degree in engineering. Your employer could petition the USCIS in the EB-2 second preference category citing the job and your education. An approved labor certification must go with an immigrant petition in this category. EB-2 also includes a self-petition option called the National Interest Waiver. Before filing, read our analysis of common reasons NIW petitions are denied.
EB-3, Third Preference
The third preference category is unusual. It includes positions that require a bachelor’s degree as an educational requirement. But, it also provides that a job that requires only two years of experience also qualifies for the third preference category. Jobs that need only some experience, from two years down to zero experience, also fit into this category. Regardless of the experience or educational requirement, an EB-3 preference immigrant petition for an employment-based green card must include a labor certification.
Department of Labor regulations create a few exceptions to the normal labor certification process. One such exception is sheepherders (20 CFR 656.16). An employer of a sheepherder may elect to treat the sheepherder as a third preference petition with limited experience as the only requirement. Alternatively, the employer may petition the USCIS without a labor certification. We discussed this anomaly in a guide dedicated to sheepherder green cards.
The EB-3 category actually contains three distinct subcategories, each with different requirements and wait times. For pending adjustment cases, see how PM-602-0199 affects pending EB adjustment cases.
EB-3 Professional
Requirements: Position requires at least a U.S. bachelor’s degree (or foreign equivalent) and the worker possesses that degree
Typical positions: Accountant, engineer, teacher, management positions requiring degrees
Current wait: the November 2026 Visa Bulletin lists a final action date of June 15, 2024 for most countries (January 22, 2014 for India; January 22, 2022 for China), roughly two and a half years behind (checked November 8, 2026)
EB-3 Skilled Worker
Requirements: Position requires at least 2 years of training or work experience
Typical positions: Chef, electrician, mechanic, experienced agricultural supervisor positions
Current wait: same line as EB-3 professionals, a final action date of June 15, 2024 for most countries in the November 2026 Visa Bulletin
EB-3 Other Workers (Unskilled)
Requirements: Position requires less than 2 years of training or experience
Typical positions: Farmworker, ranch hand, agricultural laborer, general production worker, landscaper
Current wait: the November 2026 Visa Bulletin lists a final action date of June 1, 2022 for most countries (January 22, 2014 for India; October 1, 2019 for China), roughly four and a half years behind (checked November 8, 2026)
IMPORTANT: This is currently the most backlogged employment-based category
The distinction matters significantly for agricultural employers. Most farmworker, ranch hand, and general agricultural labor positions require less than two years of experience, which means they fall into the EB-3 Other Workers category—the one with the longest wait times.
For employers sponsoring H-2A workers for permanent residence, this creates a timing challenge: H-2A workers can only remain in the United States continuously for three years, but EB-3 Other Workers currently wait 4-5 years from the labor certification filing date to final green card approval. This means most H-2A workers cannot complete the green card process while maintaining continuous H-2A status.
Strategic planning is essential. For a detailed analysis of timing green cards within the H-2A three-year window and options for managing this gap, see our comprehensive guide on H-2A workers staying longer than one season.
Current wait times above are based on the November 2026 Visa Bulletin. Priority dates and wait times change monthly, so check the current Visa Bulletin for the most up-to-date information.
EB-4, Fourth Preference – Special Immigrant Visas
An unusual collection of special exceptions constitute the fourth preference category, which is for special immigrant visas. This category has its own guide, special immigrant visas. Beyond that, because the category contains so many special cases, some of those are worthy of separate discussion, and have an article like the special immigrant religious worker visa.
EB-5, Fifth Preference
The fifth preference category only covers entrepreneurs that create employment in the United States through investment. An entrepreneur may make a direct investment by purchasing a business that qualifies. Alternatively, the investor may make an investment in a regional center that has qualifying projects that meet USCIS requirements. The importance of this investment immigration program means we cover it in detail in its own guide.
Employment-Based Green Card Process
Most employment-based green card processes involve three steps. The second and third preference categories constitute most of the immigrant petitions filing for employment-based green cards. In the first step the employer pursues a labor certification through the PERM process. If the preference category does not require a labor certification, the process devolves into two steps.
Filing for the Immigrant Visa
During the second step, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) checks to see whether the employer has enough funds to pay the prospective employee. USCIS also checks that the employee meets the employer’s requirements for the position. Based on the immigration laws, if the employer meets the burden, the USCIS approves the petition.
Collecting the Immigrant Visa: Adjustment of Status or Consular Processing
In the third step, the employee applies for the immigrant visa. If the employee is in status and in the United States, the employee may request adjustment of status by filing an I485 application. Australian professionals often maintain E-3 status while pursuing employment-based permanent residence.
Alternatively, if the employee is not in the United States, he or she may consular process to obtain an immigrant visa and return to the United States. Once admitted to the United States, the employee can take up employment with the employer.
Employment-based applications often receive RFEs about job requirements or labor certification issues. Learn how to respond to employment RFEs.
Green Cards for Live-In Household Domestic Service Workers
A narrow but genuine PERM category exists for live-in household domestic service workers — nannies, housekeepers, and caregivers who reside in the employer’s home. Under 20 CFR 656.19, the labor certification carries special requirements beyond the standard PERM process. The worker must document at least one full year of paid, full-time experience in the work (time spent in a training course does not count, and the experience generally must predate the application). The employer and the worker must sign an employment contract, in two copies, before the application is filed. And the employer must provide a private room and free board. The one-year prior-experience requirement is usually the deciding hurdle — whether a family’s former J-1 au pair can use this route, for instance, depends heavily on whether she has qualifying paid experience that predates her time in the United States. Where the facts fit, it is a real path to permanent residence; where they do not, it is a dead end dressed up as an option.
Expect heightened scrutiny, too. The special documentation the rules demand — the housing statement and the signed contract, both retained for audit — reflects how closely the Department of Labor watches this category. In practice these cases draw audits and supervised recruitment more readily than an ordinary labor certification and tend to move on the slower track, and the recruitment test is itself a friction point: a low-wage, live-in household position is exactly the kind of job an adjudicator examines hard for whether it is genuinely open to U.S. workers. None of that closes the route — it makes it one to document meticulously and to budget extra time for.
How We Can Help
We can help an employer work through the entire employment-based green card process. Sometimes employers need an immigration attorney to help them understand whether starting the permanent processes is the correct step. Once the employer decides this is the right process, we are very familiar with all three steps of employment-based green card. If you would like to sponsor an employee, please contact us.
