EB-3 Other Workers: The Separate Line Inside EB-3

EB-3 Other Workers is the part of EB-3 for jobs that need less than two years of training or experience. It shares EB-3's name and its I-140 form, and it has its own line: its own cutoff on the visa bulletin, its own cap, and a much longer wait than the rest of EB-3.

What counts as an Other Worker

The definition is in the regulation, 8 CFR 204.5(l)(2), at https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-8/section-204.5: a worker capable of "performing unskilled labor (requiring less than two years training or experience), not of a temporary or seasonal nature". A skilled worker's job needs at least two years; a professional's needs a bachelor's degree.

The job decides, not your résumé. Section 204.5(l)(4) says the call "will be based on the requirements of training and/or experience placed on the job by the prospective employer, as certified by the Department of Labor." So a worker with a master's degree whose PERM job needs six months of experience is an Other Worker. The PERM's minimum requirements set the category; EB-2 vs EB-3 on a PERM covers the same rule one level up.

Its own cutoff, years behind

The visa bulletin prints Other Workers as its own row under EB-3. In the Sep 2026 bulletin, for every country not listed separately:

For most of the world that's a gap of about two and a half years between two rows of the same category, and for China it's more; India's two rows are the same date. The gap opened in the Jun 2022 bulletin, when Other Workers went from current to 08MAY19 while the rest of EB-3 stayed current. Each October since, from the archive on this site:

"C" means current: every priority date could go ahead. The visa bulletin page has every month, and the priority date calculator reads your own date against the Other Workers row.

Why: a small cap and a fast-growing line

The cap. The bulletin's own notes put EB-3 at 28.6% of the employment-based total, "not more than 10,000 of which" go to Other Workers. The State Department's FY2026 limits sheet repeats it: the category "is currently entitled to up to 10,000" of EB-3's numbers. A 1997 law, NACARA, cuts the 10,000 by up to 5,000 a year to offset its own adjustments; the Jul 2026 bulletin says that for FY2026 "this reduction will be limited to approximately 150."

Visas actually used, fiscal 2024, from Table V of State's Report of the Visa Office (families included):

The line behind it. USCIS counts approved petitions whose beneficiary is waiting for a visa number. As of Jun 2026 (https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/data/eb_i140_i360_i526_performancedata_fy2026_q3_v1.xlsx):

Those are primary applicants only. In fiscal 2023 and 2024 each Other Workers principal came with enough family that DHS counted 2.3 to 2.5 green cards per principal (Yearbook Table 7, https://ohss.dhs.gov/topics/immigration/yearbook/2024), the highest ratio of the three big employment lines.

And it's still growing. USCIS's I-140 file (https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/data/i140_rec_by_class_country_fy2026_q3_v1.xlsx) counts approved Other Workers petitions by the fiscal year USCIS received them:

Of the FY2025 petitions, 7,014 were for people born in Vietnam, 2,252 in the Philippines and 1,367 in Brazil. Vietnam and Brazil are charged to the rest of the world, so they share that row with everyone not listed separately.

Most finish abroad

In fiscal 2024, 27% of Other Workers green cards were adjustments of status inside the US; in 2023, 41%. The rest were immigrant visas through a consulate (DHS Yearbook Table 7). That matters for two reasons:

• USCIS's I-485 inventory misses most of this line. It only counts people adjusting inside the US, so the I-485 queue position sees a small slice of the Other Workers queue.
• The next step is usually the National Visa Center, not an I-485. USCIS's consular processing page (https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-processes-and-procedures/consular-processing) says that for someone applying abroad it sends the approved petition to NVC, where it "will remain there until an immigrant visa number is available for you."

Where you stand

The green card line counts everyone ahead of a priority date in this line, by country: approved petitions waiting (the USCIS count above, spread by priority date), petitions still waiting for approval, and cases already current, with families counted. It's a range, with years at the pace the line got green cards in the newest published year beside it, which is arithmetic on a past year, not a date.

What this can't tell you

• When your date becomes current. The cap shrinks or grows with NACARA and with numbers falling down from EB-1 and EB-2, and the line keeps taking new entrants. Nothing on this site forecasts the bulletin.
• How many waiting petitions are the same person. USCIS's notes to the count say it "could contain multiple petitions for a single individual." Nobody publishes how many.
• Whether your job is really an Other Workers job. That's the PERM's minimum requirements, read against the regulation; an attorney reads your case, this page doesn't.
• Whether you can move to skilled EB-3. A new PERM with a job needing two or more years can lead to a new I-140 in the skilled row, and the priority date can carry over under conditions the priority date retention tool walks through. Whether that's worth doing is a case decision.

Related

• EB-2 vs EB-3 on a PERM
• How the visa bulletin works
• Read your priority date history
• Approved I-140s waiting for a visa