EB-3 green card

In EB-3 the job is the case, and the job is described before anyone is chosen.

EB-3 is the employment-based third preference: a U.S. employer petitions for a permanent, full-time worker, in one of three subgroups. Almost every one of them starts at the Department of Labor rather than at USCIS, and that first step describes the position, not the person. Companies get into trouble here by writing the requirements around the candidate they already have.

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Who you would be working with, and how the work runs

The employment-based categories on this site are all handled here, and they are handled by the same attorney. A company with an H-1B question, a labor certification and a green card to plan does not need three firms, three intakes and three explanations of its own org chart.

There is one attorney at this firm. The person who reads your documents is the person who writes the petition and signs the filing, and two paralegals work the file alongside me. That is not a service promise, it is the shape of the firm, and it is the reason there is nobody for a question to get handed to.

Every matter carries a written checklist: what I need from you, what I am working on now, and what comes next. The filing is built from your own documents, because the facts that decide these cases are specific to one company and one role and no template holds them. The person the case is filed for gets a portal account of their own for documents and status, which keeps their personal papers out of a shared inbox. Fees are flat per matter and staged, quoted in three separate lines: the attorney fee, government filing fees, and other costs.

EB-3 at a glance

Three subgroups, set by the job

Skilled worker, professional, or other worker. The certified minimum requirements decide which, not the resume.
Labor certification first

The Department of Labor tests the U.S. labor market for the position before USCIS sees the petition.
Ability to pay, from the priority date

Proven with tax returns, audited statements or annual reports, against the company's own filed numbers.
One rule is not the firm's

On a PERM the employer pays its attorney fee and the recruitment costs for that step, and the employee may not reimburse them.

Is this your situation?

If one of these is close to what your company is planning, the category is worth checking properly.

Someone already works for you and you want to keep them permanently.: This is the ordinary EB-3. The catch is that the process does not start from the person. It starts by describing the position and testing whether U.S. workers are available for it, and the employer has to be willing to hire a qualified U.S. applicant if one appears. A company that cannot answer yes to that is not ready to start.
The role needs a degree, and you are not sure whether that makes it EB-2.: The employer does not choose the preference category. The job does, through the minimum requirements written on the labor certification. A position that genuinely requires a bachelor's degree and no more is a professional position in EB-3. One that genuinely requires an advanced degree, or a bachelor's plus five years of progressive experience, is EB-2.
The work is hands-on and the training is measured in months, not years.: That is the other-worker subgroup, for positions requiring less than two years of training or experience. It is a real route and it is filed the same way. It also sits in its own visa queue, which has historically moved far more slowly than the rest of EB-3, so it is a decision to make with the calendar open.

“A company that treats recruitment as a formality builds a record that reads as one.”

The test

What the law actually requires

All of it is checkable. The category is INA 203(b)(3), the petition regulation is 8 CFR 204.5(l), and the Department of Labor stage in front of it is 20 CFR part 656.

Three subgroups, and the job picks one

INA 203(b)(3)(A) writes EB-3 in three parts. Which one applies is read off the minimum requirements the employer certified for the position, not off the resume of the person who fills it.

The job sets1of3

skilled worker: a position requiring at least two years of training or experience
professional: a U.S. baccalaureate or foreign equivalent and membership in the professions; USCIS reads that as allowing no education-plus-experience substitute
other worker: unskilled labor requiring less than two years of training or experience, in its own visa queue

The subgroup is a scheduling decision as much as a legal one. Other workers stand in their own line in the Visa Bulletin.

The labor certification comes first, and it is a test of the market

With narrow exceptions, an EB-3 petition must be supported by a permanent labor certification approved by the Department of Labor under 20 CFR part 656. Its point is a finding that there are not sufficient U.S. workers able, willing, qualified and available for the position, and that employing the foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers similarly employed. Getting there means a prevailing wage determination, a prescribed set of recruitment steps on the Department of Labor calendar, and a documented record of what the recruitment found. That record is what is audited later, so it is built to be read by a stranger from the first day.

Schedule A is the exception, and it is narrow on purpose

A small set of occupations is pre-certified. Under 20 CFR 656.5 and 656.15, Schedule A Group I covers physical therapists and professional nurses, and Group II covers people of exceptional ability in the sciences or arts. A Schedule A case still needs the notice of filing and the wage documentation, but it skips the recruitment stage, which is the part that sets the calendar. It is worth checking whether a position lands there before assuming it does not.

The employer has to show it can pay, and the priority date is a place in line

8 CFR 204.5(g)(2) requires the petitioning employer to demonstrate the ability to pay the proffered wage from the priority date until the person becomes a permanent resident, proven with annual reports, federal tax returns or audited financial statements; an employer of a hundred or more workers can use a financial officer's statement. For an EB-3 case the priority date is the day the labor certification was accepted for processing by the Department of Labor, and it carries forward onto the approved petition. Whether that date is current, by subgroup and by country of chargeability, is published every month in the Visa Bulletin, and the other-worker subgroup has its own line there.

One rule on this page is not the firm's. On a permanent labor certification the Department of Labor requires the employer to pay the employer's attorney fee and the recruitment costs for that step, and the employee may not reimburse the employer for them. That belongs in the budget conversation before the budget is set.

The honest part

What is hard about it

Two things a company should know before it budgets.

The requirements are written for the job, and a stranger will read them

Minimum requirements that quietly track one person's resume are what an audit is designed to find. So are requirements the employer does not actually apply to its other workers in the same role. The test is whether the description would survive being read by someone who has never met the candidate, because that is exactly who reads it.

The recruitment is a real test with a real answer

If a qualified U.S. applicant applies, the employer has to be prepared to hire that person, and the reasons for rejecting any applicant have to be lawful, job-related and documented as they happen. A company that treats recruitment as a formality builds a record that reads as one.

The clock

Where the calendar comes from

An EB-3 runs on three separate government clocks, and each agency publishes its own current numbers. Check those rather than a figure typed onto a law firm page.

The Department of Labor publishes where it stands

The prescribed recruitment steps and the quiet period between them are fixed by regulation, and the Department of Labor reports at flag.dol.gov what month it is currently working on for prevailing wage determinations, analyst review and audits. This is the stage with the least room to move, so a case is planned backwards from the date the person has to be working.

USCIS publishes I-140 processing times

The petition is Form I-140, and the processing-times tool at egov.uscis.gov reports, by form and by office, what is currently being decided. Read it as a description of finished cases, not as a date for a case that has not been filed. Premium processing on Form I-907 buys a commitment to act inside a published number of days, and acting includes a request for evidence as much as an approval.

The Visa Bulletin is the queue, published monthly

The Department of State publishes the Visa Bulletin at travel.state.gov, showing which priority dates are current in each category for each country of chargeability, with a separate line for other workers. It is the one part of the plan nobody at the company can move, and it is why the subgroup is chosen with the bulletin open.

Each of those pages belongs to the agency that decides that stage and carries the date it was last updated. They describe cases already decided.

The sequence

Where the time actually goes

Here is the order of a case in this category: who acts at each step, and whose clock is running. Two of those clocks are different animals, and telling them apart is most of what people are really asking. A period fixed by regulation is the same this year and next. A backlog is a fact about a queue on one particular day, so this page does not print one. It hands you the agency page where the current figure lives.

You
You and your attorney build the record: the evidence, the letters, the exhibits, the petition itself.
No published figure
This is the one stretch on the list that no agency measures. It moves with what already exists and what still has to be created.
Department of Labor
The Department of Labor issues a prevailing wage determination for the job.
Set by the backlogForm ETA-9141
The Department of Labor publishes the month of requests it is working through, not a length. Read the current month for yourself.
Department of Labor processing timesCheck the current figure at flag.dol.gov
Your employer
Your employer runs the recruitment the regulation requires, including a job order with the state workforce agency.
Set by regulation
- The state job order runs 30 days.
- The required recruitment has to finish at least 30 days before the application is filed.
- It may start no more than 180 days before filing.
These periods are the floor under every labor certification. They are fixed by rule, so no employer and no attorney can compress them.
Rule 20 CFR 656.17(e)Source govinfo.gov
Department of Labor
The Department of Labor reviews the labor certification, and may select it for audit.
Set by the backlogForm ETA-9089
The audit queue and the analyst queue move at different speeds, and the Department of Labor publishes both.
Department of Labor processing timesCheck the current figure at flag.dol.gov
Your employer
Once the certification is approved, a deadline starts running against the employer.
Set by regulation
- An approved certification expires if the immigrant petition is not filed within 180 calendar days of the grant.
This is the one clock on a labor certification case that can actually be missed, which is why it sits on the figure rather than in a footnote.
Rule 20 CFR 656.30(b)(1)Source govinfo.gov
USCIS
USCIS decides the immigrant petition.
Set by the backlogForm I-140
Same tool, same caution: what USCIS publishes describes cases it has already finished, and it is posted per form, per classification and per office.
Premium processing
Premium processing is a paid USCIS service available on this form. For I-140 in this classification, USCIS states a period of 15 business days.
That period stops and starts over from the beginning if USCIS issues a request for evidence, so it buys a faster look at the file rather than a shorter case.
Eligibility is set per form and per classification, and USCIS can change it.
USCIS processing timesCheck the current figure at egov.uscis.gov
Department of State
A visa number has to become available for your preference category and your country of birth.
Set by the backlog
Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens are not in a preference category, so this step does not apply to them. Where it does apply, nobody can shorten it, and for some countries it is the longest step by a distance. The Department of State publishes a bulletin every month.
The visa bulletinCheck the current figure at travel.state.gov
USCIS
The last step happens in one of two places: adjustment of status with USCIS inside the United States, or an immigrant visa interview at a consulate abroad.
Set by the backlogForm I-485
Which one applies depends on where you are and what status you hold, not on preference.
USCIS processing timesCheck the current figure at egov.uscis.gov

Sources and definitions

No published figure: No agency publishes a time for this step. Anyone quoting you one is guessing.
Set by the backlog: How long this step takes depends on the agency's queue that month. The current figure is on the agency's own page, which is why it is not repeated here.
Set by regulation: A rule fixes this period. It is the same for everyone and it does not move with the backlog.

Department of Labor processing times: The Department of Labor posts the month of filings its analysts are currently reviewing. That is a position in a line rather than a length, which is a more honest thing to publish and a harder thing to read.
USCIS processing times: Pick the form, the classification and the office. What USCIS posts there is how long it took to finish eight in ten decided cases over the previous six months, refreshed monthly.
The visa bulletin: Published monthly by the Department of State. It tells you whether a visa number is available this month for your category and country of birth.
USCIS premium processing: Which forms and classifications are eligible, what it costs, and the period USCIS states for each of them.

The Department of Labor handles wage and recruitment steps before a petition is filed.
USCIS is U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that decides petitions.
The Department of State runs the consulates and publishes the monthly visa bulletin.

Every stage, form number and period below comes from the agency that owns that step. None of it is this firm's estimate, and none of it is a prediction about your case.

Sources last checked August 16, 2026.

The links go to live government pages, so what you find there will be newer than that.

The employer page, for the whole track

How employer-sponsored work is structured at this firm, the categories that sit beside EB-3, and where the calendar for each one comes from.

Read the employer page
EB-2, the same labor certification one preference up

The same Department of Labor step, a different preference category, and a different line in the Visa Bulletin. Which one a case belongs to is decided by the minimum requirements of the job rather than by preference.

Read the EB-2 page
What it costs

Fees here are always quoted in three separate lines: the attorney fee, government filing fees, and other costs. The published numbers live on one page.

See the full fee breakdown

Write the job first. Everything after that is downstream of it.

A consultation on an EB-3 is mostly a reading: the position as it actually exists, the minimum requirements it actually needs, and what the company can show about paying for it. I will tell you how I read it, including if the honest answer is a different category or a different order.

Two ways to start, and who you sit with

The first is a free intake with my team. The second is the paid consultation, and that one is with me.

Intake

15 minutes · Free

My paralegal team, not me

A short conversation to hear what is going on and get it written down properly. My paralegals ask about your status, your dates, your employer if there is one, and what you have already tried. By the end of it you know what a consultation with me would cover and whether it is worth booking one yet.

This step is intake and scheduling. My paralegals do not give legal advice, do not tell you whether you qualify for anything, and do not recommend a visa category. That part is mine, and it happens in the attorney consultation.
Attorney consultation

60 minutes · $150

If you go on to retain the firm for the matter the consultation covered, the fee is credited toward your fee for that case. The credit does not expire.

Joe Kwon, the attorney who would handle the case

This is where the legal discussion happens. You tell me what you have and what you are trying to do, and I tell you what I think, including when I think the answer is no. Some of these end with me not taking the case. That is a real result of the call, not a failure of it. I read what you send before we sit down, so the whole session goes to your question. The consultation runs as a video call, from wherever you are.

Book a consultation See the full fee breakdown

Booking does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Immigration benefits are decided by government officers who apply the law to the record in front of them, and many of them are discretionary. No attorney can promise you an approval, and anyone who does is telling you what you want to hear. What good lawyering controls is whether your case is complete, specific, and internally consistent, so that approving it is the officer's easiest path.