EB-3 Visa: How an Employer Sponsors You for a Green Card

EB-3 is not a lottery — it is a queue. Three steps, one priority date, and a job offer that has to be built correctly from the first day.

What EB-3 is, and who it fits

If a US employer is offering you a permanent, full-time job, EB-3 is one of the most concrete routes to living in the United States. It is the employment-based third preference category, and it has three subgroups. Skilled workers covers positions requiring at least two years of training or experience. Professionals covers positions requiring a bachelor’s degree. Other workers covers positions that can be performed with less than two years of preparation.

That breadth is why EB-3 works for so many of our clients. Restaurants, manufacturing, construction, furniture, stone and granite, and food businesses use EB-3 to bring skilled tradespeople from Turkey. A cook, a fabricator, a butcher, a stone mason — none of these needs a university degree. What governs is not your résumé in the abstract, but what the sponsoring employer’s advertised position genuinely requires.

Step one: PERM labor certification

PERM is the heart of the case, and the part that goes wrong most often. The employer first obtains a prevailing wage determination from the Department of Labor on Form ETA-9141. It then runs a formal recruitment campaign to test whether a qualified and willing US worker is available: a state workforce agency job order, two Sunday newspaper advertisements, and, for professional positions, additional recruitment steps. Only after that recruitment closes is Form ETA-9089 filed.

Every advertisement has to line up with the requirements stated on the 9089. A single mismatch — an experience requirement that appears in one document and not the other, a recruitment step run outside its permitted window — can put the case into audit or cause a denial. This is why the legal review of the advertising copy is the single most valuable hour in the whole process.

Step two: the I-140 petition and ability to pay

Once the PERM is certified, the employer files Form I-140 with USCIS. Two things have to be proven. First, that you met the requirements of the position as of the PERM filing date — not later. Second, that the employer has the ability to pay the offered wage from that date forward. Tax returns, audited financial statements and payroll records carry this part of the case. Premium processing, where elected, gives an expedited decision on the I-140.

Step three: the priority date and the visa bulletin

The day the PERM was filed with the Department of Labor becomes your priority date, and it fixes your place in the queue. Each month the State Department publishes a Visa Bulletin. When the EB-3 date passes your priority date, you take the final step: Form I-485 adjustment of status if you are in the United States, or consular processing if you are abroad.

Here is where the queue stands today. In the August 2026 Visa Bulletin, the EB-3 final action date for Rest of the World — which is the column that applies to applicants born in Turkey — is 1 September 2024. Other Workers sits at 1 April 2022. September is the last month of fiscal year 2026, so annual numbers are close to exhausted and dramatic movement is unlikely; fresh numbers arrive with the new fiscal year on 1 October 2026. The September 2026 bulletin had not yet been published when this article went out.

The most expensive mistake in an EB-3 case is almost never the worker’s qualifications. It is an advertisement written without reading the 9089 beside it.

What goes wrong, and what a lawyer actually does

The failures we are asked to fix follow a pattern: advertising copy that does not mirror the 9089 requirements; recruitment steps run outside their time windows; an employer that starts the process before anyone has looked at whether it can document ability to pay; and a worker whose underlying status lapses while the priority date is still years away.

EB-3 is a team exercise. We run the employer and the worker on one calendar, close each step with written evidence, and keep the status question in view for the whole wait. Where EB-3 is not the fastest route, we say so — for entrepreneurs the E-2 treaty investor visa often is, and for highly qualified applicants who would rather not depend on a sponsor, EB-2 NIW is frequently the better path.

Where the EB-3 queue stands

What you should do now

• Have the job description reviewed before advertising runs — The advertisement and the 9089 must describe the same position. This is cheaper to get right than to defend in an audit.
• Ask the employer for financials early — Ability to pay is proven with tax returns and payroll records. Finding out at the I-140 stage that the numbers do not support the wage wastes the entire PERM.
• Write down your priority date — It is the date the PERM was filed with the Department of Labor, and it travels with you.
• Read the right bulletin column — Applicants born in Turkey use Rest of the World, not a country-specific column.
• Keep your status current — Map your I-94 and any extensions against the expected wait before, not after, it becomes urgent.

This article is provided by Ozek Law Firm, LLC for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice, nor does it create an attorney-client relationship. Visa Bulletin figures cited are from the August 2026 Visa Bulletin published by the US Department of State; the September 2026 bulletin had not been published as of 10 August 2026. Priority-date movement changes monthly.

Ozek Law Firm, LLC · 4500 East West Highway, Suite 150, Bethesda, MD 20814 · +1 (202) 854-8545 · info@ozeklaw.com · www.ozeklaw.com
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