The Reality of the EB-3 Visa Quota in the Context of Rising Asylum Applications

Immigration has long been a cornerstone of the U.S. economy, contributing significantly to job creation, innovation, and consumer demand. The U.S. economy relies on immigrants to fill essential labor market gaps, particularly as the nation grapples with demographic and economic challenges.

Understanding the EB-3 Visa Quota

The current structure of the U.S. immigration system, including the employment-based visa categories and their quotas, was established by the Immigration Act of 1990. This legislation introduced the employment-based visa preference categories that remain in use today, including the EB-3 category, which is designated for skilled workers, professionals, and unskilled workers.

The Immigration Act set the overall annual limit for employment-based visas at 140,000, distributed across five preference categories (EB-1 through EB-5). Within this framework, the EB-3 unskilled category was allocated a maximum of 10,000 visas annually. This quota, which includes both principal applicants and their dependents, has been in place since the act's implementation on October 1, 1991.

The Impact of Including Dependents in the EB-3 Quota

A critical issue with the EB-3 unskilled category is not just the limited number of available visas but also the fact that it is not exclusively reserved for principal applicants. The 10,000 annual visas must also account for the spouses and minor children of these workers. This means that when a worker receives an EB-3 visa, the visas for their dependents are included within the same 10,000 quota. This inclusion has several significant implications:

· Fewer Visas for Principal Applicants: With dependents included in the quota, the actual number of visas available to new principal applicants is significantly lower. For example, if each principal applicant brings an average of two dependents, only about 3,333 workers could be granted visas annually under this quota.

· Longer Waiting Times: The inclusion of dependents contributes to longer waiting periods and increases backlogs in the EB-3 category. As more dependents consume the quota, fewer visas are left for new applicants, leading to extended wait times.

· Policy Considerations: Some experts suggest that removing dependents from the visa quota calculation could alleviate these backlogs. If dependents were exempt, the full 10,000 visas could be allocated solely to principal applicants, potentially reducing waiting times and making the system more efficient.

Action and Advocacy

BDV Solutions is the largest independent third-party provider of EB-3 employee sponsor consulting and case management services in the U.S., focuses on unskilled labor solutions for U.S. businesses. The current EB-3 visa quota of 10,000 annually, which includes both principal applicants and their dependents, is woefully insufficient. There is an urgent need to reassess and potentially expand the quota to better reflect the realities of the U.S. labor market and the demand for low-skilled labor.

BDV’s Government Relations Team is consistently advocating for policy changes that benefit the EB-3 Unskilled category. Our work includes:

· Advocating for Transparency and Efficiency: We are pushing for increased transparency and processing improvements at the Department of Labor. Our main efforts at the DOL include urging Acting Secretary Su to direct the agency to fully utilize the existing technology and resources at maximum capacity to streamline case processing and achieve its full potential.

· Visa Retrogression Strategy: Our team is calling for a less aggressive visa retrogression approach from the State Department to avoid bottlenecks that harm workers and employers. This strategy should ensure smoother, more predictable visa processing and methods for the public to forecast and better understand retrogression.

· Congressional Lobbying for Visa Reforms: We continue lobbying Congress to enact meaningful immigration reforms, including visa recapture mechanisms for unused visas and increasing visa caps to better align with labor market needs.

We’ve made progress in gaining bipartisan support for discussions on visa recapture, and we’re seeing a more open dialogue between stakeholders on addressing retrogression’s impact. Additionally, we collaborated with leaders in the House Committee on Education and the Workforce to submit Questions for the Record for Acting Secretary Su. DOL answered our inquiries on pages 16-19, specifically regarding the Department of Labor's utilization of processing technology, advancing our efforts to better understand and propose solutions to assist the agency in processing.

BDV Solutions will continue to advocate for the EB-3U program and helping our clients achieve the American Dream.