For the first time, USCIS has advised people with a pending green card application of its documentary requirements for transfers between employment-based classifications and issued an alert regarding the process.

The “exceptionally high number of employment-based [immigrant] visas available this fiscal year” has prompted USCIS to encourage U.S. employers petitioning for employees to utilize either the first or second employment-based preference categories. This is a big change from one-and-a-half years ago.

In October 2020, the government inverted the availability of immigrant visas, making several hundred thousand, mainly Indian, employees in the U.S. eligible to apply for a green card based on the employment-based third preference category. For this blog, the focus is on the second and third employment-based visa classifications. The second employment-based preference category (EB-2) is for employees with an advanced degree or a bachelor’s degree and at least five years of progressive experience in their profession, or those with “exceptional ability.” The third employment-based preference category (EB-3) is for employees with at least a bachelor’s degree (as well as certain skilled or unskilled workers).

USCIS also strongly encourages people with a pending green card application in the EB-3 category to transfer the underlying basis of their pending green card (adjustment of status) application to the EB-2 category if they are eligible to do so — meaning they have an...

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