EB-3 or B-3? Start with this: there is no B-3 visa

"EB-3 or B-3, which one do I need?" I get this question a lot. Here is the answer, though probably not the one you expect.

Before answering it I wanted to check one thing. So I checked.

There is no B-3

The State Department publishes a complete directory of every US visa category, immigrant and nonimmigrant.

I opened it and pulled out every code beginning with B. Here is the entire list:

That is all of them. Two. There is no B-3 category in that directory, because no such class exists.

If someone offers to get you a "B-3 visa", the first question is which form and which visa class code. No answer, no conversation.

Now the comparison people actually want

The real question is whether to go as a visitor or through employer sponsorship. They are not two versions of the same thing.

Their purposes are opposites. A B visa requires you to prove you will come back. EB-3 is entirely about staying.

Which is why "go on a B visa and figure it out there" is a dangerous plan. If you intend to stay at the moment you apply, you are lying on the application.

So which do you need

Plainly.

Visiting, seeing family, getting treatment? B-2. A few months, no employer, no work.

Meetings, a conference, business discussions? B-1. Again, no paid work.

Want to live and work there permanently? Then you need an employer willing to sponsor you. EB-3 is that road. But look at the numbers first.

The EB-3 numbers

258 Bangladeshis received an EB-3 unskilled visa across four years. About 65 a year.

And here is something almost nobody mentions. EB-3 contains two separate queues, and they move at completely different speeds.

The skilled queue is moving faster than real time, so it is shrinking. The unskilled queue is moving slower, so it is growing.

If you hold a degree or two years of relevant experience, push to be filed in the skilled sub-category. On today's figures the difference is two and a half years.

And a route nobody discusses

Here is Bangladesh's four-year record from the State Department tables.

Look at that. Bangladeshi EB-2 numbers went from 10 to 107 in four years, more than tenfold. In FY2024 more Bangladeshis came through EB-2 than through unskilled EB-3.

EB-2 is the advanced degree or exceptional ability category. A master's, or a bachelor's plus five years of progressive experience, puts you in range.

So for anyone with education and a track record, the widest door is not EB-3 at all. It is EB-2. Agents never raise it, because there is nothing there to sell.

In one line

There is no B-3. Choosing between B-1/B-2 and EB-3 is not a real choice, because they do different things. And if you have a degree, your actual question is not EB-3, it is EB-2.