The U.S. EB3 skilled immigration project is an important way for technical personnel and highly educated people to immigrate to the United States. At the same time, the category is divided into technical and non-technical categories.
Although the application process is basically the same, the two methods have very different requirements for employers and applicants, so they are completely two projects in operation.
EB3 The technical category has higher applicant requirements, fees and difficulty;
EB3 the non-technical category, the threshold is greatly lowered, which has also resulted in quite a few immigration agencies on the market claiming to be able to successfully handle this category.
But actually how? You must know that the level of immigration in the United States is deeper than ordinary people imagine...
01, the history of EB3 unskilled immigration
Every immigration project has a golden age. The first golden age of EB3 unskilled immigration was from 2000 to 2005. At that time, there was no threshold for processing. Applicants could wait for more than a year in China before their whole family could get a green card, and they could get ready-made jobs immediately after arriving in the United States. It looked very nice, but it also cost 60W RMB at that time.
After 2005, EB3 unskilled immigrants suddenly faced a “promising” waiting list, which lasted until 2013. At that time, EB5 investment immigration suddenly became popular, and EB3 seemed to be instantly popular.
Things must be reversed. In October 2013, the US EB-3 waiting period jumped six years from September 21, 2004, to October 2010, and you can get a green card in three years.
Even in January 2014, the EB3 scheduling was regressed to 2012, and you can get a green card in two years. At this point, EB3 unskilled immigration has once again ushered in spring.
However, in the eyes of many people in the industry, EB3 was only a false glory from 2013 to 2014. The tightening of immigration schedules and approvals, coupled with Trump ’s tough approach to immigration after taking office, caused EB3 unskilled immigration to instantly enter a shock adjustment from 2015 to 2019.
02 and EB3 unskilled immigrants are becoming popular again?
In 2021, US President Biden fulfilled his campaign promise and introduced a new immigration reform bill to cancel the country restrictions on green cards and cancel 7% of the total green cards for employment-based immigrants from each country. In the 2022 fiscal year, the overall quota for the and EB3 categories has also increased from 40,000 to as much as 80,000.
03. Are EB3 unskilled immigrants really reliable?
In theory, EB3 unskilled immigration (EW3) is a way to legally immigrate to the United States. The threshold is very low. As long as you are in good health and have no criminal record, you can apply. There are no academic or language requirements. The whole process costs about US$30,000 to US$50,000, which many working-class people can afford.
But it is a bit like labor export. The US Immigration Service opened the EB3 project with the purpose of recruiting workers from overseas to supplement the labor force, because it is usually difficult for EB3 non-skilled employers to recruit local Americans to work for them, and the positions are also low-level or blue-collar jobs.
After successfully immigrating to the United States, the applicant needs to work for an American employer for at least one year. The job content is simple, such as doing manual labor in meat processing plants, farms, etc.
04. Who is suitable to apply for EB-3 unskilled immigration?
1. The lower-income groups in China usually have poor family backgrounds, low education, and low incomes. It is difficult to achieve class crossing. They can choose to change the environment and try their luck.
2. Ordinary people who dream of going abroad, as we all know, "poor and lowly cannot move". Many immigration projects are opened for high-net-worth individuals, and the cost of EB3 unskilled immigrants can be said to be very affordable, as long as you have enough patience to wait for the schedule.
January 2023 Schedule A Schedule
05, Are there risks for EB3 unskilled immigrants?
All immigration projects have risks, and EB3 unskilled immigrants also have risks.
1. Is the employer real and reliable? Employers are the core of the non-technical category of EB3. It is not easy to find an employer that matches you. Even if you can find a suitable employer and get a green card, various situations cannot be avoided.
2. The waiting time is long, EB3 The waiting time for unskilled immigrants is not short. The latest waiting time (September 2022) is: Table A on June 1, 2012; Table B on August 1, 2015.
3. Priority date, the number queued for U.S. immigration. The higher the priority date, the faster you can immigrate to the United States.Many applicants often mistakenly think that the calculation starts from the time of application, but in fact it is based on the time when the ETA9089 form is submitted. The priority date must be approved after the I-140 is approved.
4. You don’t have to work for the employer to get the green card. EB3 unskilled immigrants first get the green card, and then go to the United States to work for the employer for one year. After one year, they can change jobs freely. Therefore, you should pay attention to those agencies that advertise that you don’t have to work after coming to the United States. It must be a trap and completely violates the U.S. Immigration Act.
5, labor card spot check, this is a review procedure set up by the Ministry of Labor to ensure that the employer's recruitment process is reasonable. At present, the probability of spot checks by employers is very high. The practice of many agencies is to withdraw the case for the applicant and then submit the case again (at a different time or employer), thus affecting the overall immigration progress. A truly reliable employer is not afraid of random inspections and can handle them as long as they normally submit the documents required by the Ministry of Labor.
In addition to the above five points, EB3 unskilled immigrants also have risks such as interviews at the NVC stage and arbitrary charges by agents. Without decades of industry experience or multiple immigration cycles, many companies on the market will not be able to withstand risks.
For most people, it is actually becoming more and more difficult to immigrate to the United States. Although the threshold for EB3 unskilled immigrants is low, in addition to the visible long waiting list, it also requires continuous coordination among the applicant, the agent, and the local employer to maintain a good relationship. There are also more invisible traps that are difficult to predict and need to be treated with caution.
