Many people are the beneficiaries of EB3 "other worker" petitions. The Visa Bulletin cutoff date for this category has been stuck at or near June 1, 2001 for a very long time. This condition is likely to remain for an even longer time. There are, however, remedies that EB3 "other worker" immigrants should consider.

The law defines an "other worker" as someone who works in a job that requires less than two years of education, training, and or experience. If a job requires two years or more of preparation, then it becomes a regular EB3 position. The current visa cutoff date for "regular" EB3 petitions is February 1, 2003 and is expected to start moving forward.

If someone with an EB3 "other worker" petition approval upgrades to another employment based category, they are entitled to retain their existing EB3 "other worker" priority date for use with the new petition. This means that for many "other workers", the filing of a new PERM/I-140 in the regular EB3 category will result in their priority dates being "current" immediately upon approval of the PERM application.

Right now (mid-March, 2010) our office is seeing approvals of PERMs we filed at the end of August, 2009. The PERM process these days involves about 130 days of preparation before filing, but once filed, the applications are being adjudicated much more quickly. A few months ago, we were receiving approval for cases that had been pending for more than a year. Now, we are seeing cases coming back to us in just over six months.

If you have an approved "other worker" petition, you should give serious thought to filing a new PERM in the regular EB3 category. By now, you not only have acquired the necessary experience, but you should also be working at a senior enough level to re-cast the job as a regular EB3. If you do this, you will cut your processing time by many, many years.

If you would like to discuss this procedure, and having us represent you, please call us at 818-990-4922 and set up a convenient time to talk. We do not charge for talking to people about possible representation. Also, we never charge our clients for calls or e-mails once we begin representing them. If you are out client and something is worrying you, we want you to call us so that we can discuss it and help set your mind at ease.