Employment-based immigrationAnnual Limit Reached for EB-3 in 2025: What It Means for Nurses, Caregivers and Other Workers

Who should read this

This analysis is designed for:

• EB-3 applicants going through PERM, I-140 and consular processing or AOS;
• participants in eb3 for nurses 2025 pipelines and caregiver / Other Workers programs;
• employers and foreign workers who are only planning to start EB-3 in late 2025 or early 2026 and want to understand how the eb3 annual limit 2025 affects timing and strategy.

EB-3 structure in plain language

• Professionals — jobs requiring at least a U.S. bachelor’s degree or foreign equivalent.
• Skilled Workers — positions requiring at least two years of training or experience.
• Other Workers (EW) — unskilled roles requiring less than two years of training/experience.
• EB-3 annual limit — a share of the global employment-based visa pool.
• EW sub-limit — a smaller “bucket” inside EB-3, typically used quickly for caregivers and other low-skill roles.

Impact on consular processing cases

• Consulates could not complete immigrant visa issuance in EB-3/EW, even for applicants who had already passed their interviews.
• Cases were effectively placed on hold until numbers became available in the new fiscal year.
• Once FY 2026 opened and fresh numbers were added, consulates resumed visa issuance starting with cases that were ready to be finalized.

Practice notes from major immigration firms highlight that many cases interviewed shortly before the announcement were finalized in the new fiscal year without a second interview, provided that medicals and police certificates were still valid.

Impact on USCIS and I-140 processing

• USCIS continued to accept and adjudicate I-140 petitions in the EB-3 category.
• The cap restricts allocation of immigrant visa numbers, not the approval of immigrant petitions themselves.
• Adjustment of Status (AOS) inside the U.S. can, in some situations, move forward based on the Visa Bulletin charts, even when consular numbers are exhausted, though card production may wait for a number.

USCIS and professional associations such as AILA emphasise that employers can keep preparing and filing EB-3 cases during a cap-reached period, essentially reserving their place in line for when FY 2026 opens.

Nurses and healthcare workers

• Often recruited through large staffing programs where PERM and I-140 are handled in bulk by hospital systems or agencies.
• When the cap is reached, they may have fully approved cases but cannot receive visas until FY 2026 opens.
• Hospitals re-sequence onboarding, relying more heavily on temporary statuses (such as H-1B, TN where possible) and overtime for existing staff.
• Advisory notes for healthcare employers stress that EB-3 recruitment should be planned on a 12–18-month horizon to account for cap-related pauses.

Caregivers, Other Workers and other EB-3 profiles

• For caregivers and low-skill roles the key constraint is the eb3 ew category limit 2025, since the 10,000 EW sub-limit tends to be exhausted quickly.
• Many candidates depend on a single job offer; long pauses can lead to changed business needs or withdrawal of the offer.
• Skilled workers (engineers, technicians, IT staff) sometimes have the option to restructure their case into EB-2 or to pursue EB-2 NIW if they qualify.
• For all groups the Visa Bulletin remains critical: it shows when priority dates are current again once fresh numbers are added.

1. PERM or I-140 stage

• Employers can continue recruitment, PERM filings and I-140 submissions.
• Once I-140 is approved, your priority date is locked in, even if no visa numbers are currently available.
• From a planning perspective, pausing at this stage solely because of the cap often means losing valuable time.

2. Waiting for interview abroad

• If your case is documentarily qualified but not yet scheduled, NVC and the consulate may delay interview dates until FY 2026 numbers become available.
• If an interview has already been scheduled, it may be rescheduled, or it may go ahead with final issuance postponed until visa numbers are re-opened.

3. Interview passed, visa not issued

• In many instances the consulate treats such cases as essentially approved but unable to receive a visa number.
• Once FY 2026 opens, these ready-to-issue cases are among the first to receive numbers, assuming medicals and police certificates remain valid.

4. Adjustment of Status in the U.S.

• Eligibility to file AOS depends on the charts that USCIS designates from the Visa Bulletin.
• In some configurations USCIS continues to accept and adjudicate AOS applications while visa numbers are technically unavailable, with final green card production pending until a number is assigned.
• Because status, travel and maintenance of lawful presence are critical, an individual review with an immigration attorney is essential before filing.