EB-1 to EB-5: an overview of the five employment-based preference categories

01

Why sort out the preference categories first

USCIS calls the ways of getting a green card through work employment-based "preference categories." The category determines what you must prove, who files the immigrant petition, and which numerical queue you join. Much confusion comes from conflating different categories — for example, calling asylum or a special immigrant category "investment immigration."

This site's category codes (for example E11, E21, RR6) are statistical/record-keeping labels; each corresponds to a combination of a category, an applicant role, and a method of obtaining status. Understanding the category first, then the code, makes this much easier.

02

EB-1, EB-2, EB-3: from top talent to general skilled positions

EB-1 covers three groups: people with extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics; outstanding professors and researchers; and qualifying multinational executives or managers.

EB-2 covers professionals holding an advanced degree, people with exceptional ability in the sciences, arts, or business, and people seeking a National Interest Waiver (NIW); it also includes a physician NIW for those committed to full-time clinical practice in a designated underserved area.

EB-3 covers skilled workers (positions requiring at least two years of training or experience), professionals (positions requiring at least a U.S. bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent), and other (unskilled) workers (positions requiring less than two years of training or experience).

03

EB-4: special immigrants, but not everything "special" belongs here

The EB-4 special immigrants USCIS lists include: religious workers, Special Immigrant Juveniles (SIJ), certain international broadcasters, certain qualifying G-4 international organization or NATO-6 retired employees and family members, certain U.S. government employees abroad, members of the U.S. armed forces, certain Panama Canal-related employees, certain physicians who were already practicing in the United States on January 9, 1978, and S nonimmigrants who provided information on criminal or terrorist organizations.

Whether Form I-360 is required and whether the employer or the individual files it varies by subcategory. Asylum, refugee status, T/U visas, VAWA, the Cuban Adjustment Act, and the Diversity Visa are separate groupings on the USCIS category page and should not automatically be folded into EB-4. See the special immigrants overview in the Humanitarian & Other section.

04

EB-5: the investor category

The USCIS category page (updated 2026-09-04) states: an investor must have invested, or be actively in the process of investing, at least $1,050,000, or at least $800,000 in a targeted employment area or infrastructure project, in a new commercial enterprise in the United States, and must create full-time jobs for at least 10 qualifying employees. The amounts follow the current official page; this site does not predict adjustments.

EB-5 includes the Regional Center Program established in 1992. Investors generally first obtain conditional permanent resident status for two years, then apply to remove the conditions using Form I-829. Regional-center codes such as RR6 are one of the statistical labels for this category.