EB Visas: Employment-Based Green Cards From EB-1 to EB-5

You're good at what you do, and a US employer wants you for the long haul. Or maybe your research record is strong enough that you wonder whether you need an employer at all. Either way, EB visas are how most skilled people turn a job or a career into permanent residence.

An employment-based green card isn't one application. It's five preference categories, EB-1 to EB-5, each with its own criteria, filing steps and queue. Here's how they work as of September 2026, what they cost, and how to spot the one that fits you.

What are EB visas, and how are they different from an H-1B?

EB visas are immigrant visas. Once you're approved, you're a permanent resident and aren't tied to one employer the way temporary workers are.

Nonimmigrant work visas like the H-1B are temporary and depend on a specific employer's petition. Many people start on an H-1B and later move into an EB-2 or EB-3 case. Note that a September 2025 proclamation added a $100,000 payment for certain new H-1B petitions. A federal court vacated the guidance implementing it on June 8, 2026, and USCIS says it plans to collect the payment if that order is lifted.

Federal law divides the employment-based total so that EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3 each get up to 28.6 percent, and EB-4 and EB-5 each get up to 7.1 percent. Unused numbers can flow between some categories. No single country can generally take more than 7 percent of the preference visas in a year, which is what creates country backlogs.

Which employment-based green card category fits you?

EB-1: extraordinary ability, researchers and executives

EB-1A is for people at the very top of their field in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics. You show sustained acclaim through a major one-time award or at least 3 of 10 USCIS criteria, such as published material about you or judging others' work. You file your own Form I-140, and you don't need a job offer.

EB-1B needs a US employer offer for a tenure-track or comparable research role, plus international recognition. EB-1C covers managers and executives who worked abroad for a related company for at least one of the past three years.

EB-2 and the National Interest Waiver

Standard EB-2 covers professionals with advanced degrees and people with exceptional ability, which USCIS measures against 6 criteria. Most cases need an employer and PERM.

The National Interest Waiver (NIW) is different. You self-petition and skip PERM if you show three things: your proposed work has substantial merit and national importance, you're well positioned to advance it, and waiving the job offer and labor certification benefits the US.

EB-3: skilled workers, professionals and other workers

EB-3 is the broadest employer-sponsored route. Skilled workers need at least two years of training or experience, professionals need a US bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent, and "other workers" fill roles needing less than two years of training. A permanent, full-time job offer and PERM are standard.

EB-4: special immigrants

EB-4 covers groups such as religious workers, Special Immigrant Juveniles, certain broadcasters and certain international organization employees. Many use Form I-360.

EB-5: investors

EB-5 asks you to invest in a new commercial enterprise that creates at least 10 full-time jobs. For investments on or after March 15, 2022, USCIS lists a minimum of $1,050,000, or $800,000 in a targeted employment area or infrastructure project. Amounts are set to adjust for inflation every five years starting January 1, 2027. Some visas are set aside for rural (20 percent), high-unemployment (10 percent) and infrastructure (2 percent) investments.

The Regional Center Program is authorized through September 30, 2027. Separately, USCIS now accepts Form I-140G for a new Gold Card program created by executive order in September 2025, with a $15,000 USCIS fee per person. Read the official page closely.

How the PERM and I-140 process works, step by step

For a typical EB-2 or EB-3 case, the process runs like this:

1. Your employer defines the job. Duties, minimum requirements and wage must meet Department of Labor rules.
2. Your employer recruits. DOL requires a test of the US labor market, with extra recruitment steps for professional roles.
3. Your employer files Form ETA-9089. This goes through DOL's FLAG system, and filing is the employer's responsibility, not yours. The date DOL accepts it becomes your priority date.
4. Form I-140 is filed. An approved labor certification is valid for 180 days, so the I-140 must reach USCIS within that window.
5. You wait for your priority date. Check the Visa Bulletin monthly.
6. You apply for the green card. Adjust status with Form I-485 in the US, sometimes alongside the I-140 when a visa is available, or go through consular processing abroad.

Priority dates, the Visa Bulletin and per-country backlogs

Your priority date is your place in line. For PERM cases it's the date DOL accepted the labor certification. For EB-1 and NIW cases it's the date USCIS accepted your I-140.

You can take the final step only when your date is current for your category and country. For September 2026, USCIS told employment-based applicants to use the Final Action Dates chart. Applicants born in high-demand countries, notably India and China, have historically faced the longest waits, sometimes many years.

Say you're a software engineer from Bengaluru working in Austin on an H-1B. Your employer starts PERM, files your I-140 with premium processing and gets a quick approval. But your EB-2 priority date may still be years from current, so you keep extending your H-1B. If your work has a national-importance angle, ask an attorney about an NIW, though the backlog still applies.

How much does an employment-based green card cost?

These fees are current as of September 2026. Check the USCIS fee schedule before filing, as some now adjust yearly.

DOL makes PERM filing the employer's job, and employers usually pay for the recruitment and attorney work around it. Self-petitioners pay their own legal costs, which vary widely. For EB-5, add independent legal and financial due diligence on the project before you invest.

Plan for the move itself too: health insurance between jobs, a deposit and first months' rent, and building a credit file from scratch. Our guide to building US credit history helps with that last part.

Common EB green card mistakes

• Letting the 180-day PERM window lapse before the I-140 is filed.
• Assuming premium processing shortens the whole wait. It speeds up only the I-140 decision.
• Falling out of H-1B or other status during a long backlog.
• Overstating experience on PERM or I-140 forms, which can bring fraud findings.
• Investing in an EB-5 project without independent due diligence.

Your next steps

Match yourself to a category with the table above, then read that category's USCIS page in full.

If you need a sponsor, our guide to finding visa sponsorship jobs shows where to look. If you might self-petition, collect evidence against the EB-1A or NIW criteria and get a consultation with a licensed immigration attorney.

Check this month's Visa Bulletin for your category and country. For the wider picture, including family routes and the lottery, see our overview of every US green card path.