Longer Wait for Employment Visas

Visa numbers for the employment-based third preference category (EB-3) which refers to professional/skilled workers and “other workers” will be unavailable from May 1 to September 30, 2009.

This means that during that period, no immigrant visas for these workers will be granted by the U.S. Department of State (DOS), and no adjustment of status application will be accepted or approved by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

The last time visa numbers were available for this category was in April 2009. The cut-off date at that time for the EB-3 professional/skilled workers for all countries except China was March 1, 2003 while the cut-off date for the “other workers” for all countries was March 1, 2001.

The DOS explained that the demand for visa numbers received by the USCIS for adjustment of status cases with priority dates earlier than the established cut-off dates was extremely high and as a result, the annual limit had been reached.

The EB-3 category consists of two groups. The main group refers to professionals and skilled workers with at least two years of training or work experience and they include teachers, accountants, nurses, therapists, and computer professionals, among others.

The other groups pertains to “other workers” with less than two years of training or work experience such as houseworkers and home health aides.

The yearly visa number allocation for the EB-3 category is 28.8% of the worldwide allocation of 140,000 that are reserved for all employment-based categories plus any number not required by the first and second preferences. The share of the “other worker” category is limited to 10,000.

With the current visa backlog, the projected wait for EB-3 professional/skilled workers is now about seven years while the wait for the “other workers” has lengthened to about nine years.

Many of the applicants have expressed their frustrations to the USCIS over the delay and this had prompted Mike Aytes, Acting USCIS Deputy Director, to address the issue.

Writing for the Leadership Journal of the Department of Homeland Security on April 24, 2009, Mr. Aytes cited several factors that caused the delay.

He said that 234,000 I-140 petitions were filed in late 2007 and early 2008 as a result of the new regulations and the clearing of the labor certification backlogs.

Also, adjustment of status applications rose to nearly 300,000 due to the anticipated increase in filing fees and the unexpected visa number availability in July 2007 for all EB-3 professional/skilled worker petitions.

Mr. Aytes further said that the USCIS was doing all that it could to mitigate the harsh impact of the long visa wait such as completing the adjudication of older I-140 petitions and processing newer petitions within four months.

USCIS, he said, is now issuing to eligible applicants employment authorization documents with a validity date of two years and is working with the State Department to insure that every available visa number is used. It will also transfer unused family-based visa numbers to the employment-based petitions as what it did in 2007.