Skilled Workers

The category of “skilled workers” is classified along with professionals in the third-preference employment-based category for permanent residence sponsorship. The critical difference between a skilled worker and a professional worker is that the USCIS requires, for the former, a requirement of at least two years of training or experience. That is, when an employer files a PERM labor certification application on behalf of a sponsored foreign national followed by the I-140 immigrant visa petition, the requested preference classification would be EB3 if the experience or training required in the submitted PERM labor certification application was at least two years. Similarly, if the employer is sponsoring a foreign national for a position that requires at minimum a Bachelor’s degree or foreign degree equivalent, this would also fall within the EB3 classification as a professional worker. Professionals and skilled workers are distinguished by the job requirements on the PERM labor certification and the listed years of training or experience for each.