Are EB-2 and EB-3 Priority Dates Safe During a Government Shutdown?

(UNITED STATES) With a federal government shutdown prompting fresh anxiety among employment-based green card applicants, immigration agencies said this week that Priority Dates for EB-2 and EB-3 remain intact, filings at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services continue, and the State Department will keep publishing the monthly Visa Bulletin. The immediate disruption sits largely at the Department of Labor, where key steps in the early phases of the process—PERM labor certification and wage determinations—are paused until funding resumes, affecting workers and employers nationwide.

What remains open and what is paused

• USCIS remains open during shutdowns because it is largely fee-funded. Employers can still file the Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, and applicants physically in the United States with a current date under the Visa Bulletin can proceed with Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status.
• The Department of Labor (DOL) is paused because it relies on annual appropriations. That means:
  • No new PERM filings
  • No prevailing wage requests
  • No case work on PERM or Labor Condition Applications until funding resumes

This split—USCIS open, Labor closed—creates uneven outcomes across applicants and employers.

Immediate impacts and bottlenecks

• Employers in health care, tech, and higher education—sectors that depend on steady PERM processing—are bracing for a short-term backlog once DOL reopens.
• Attorneys expect a wave of submissions in the first days after funding returns, which will likely create longer processing times that ripple through the system for weeks or months.
• Employers who timed recruitment to file before the lapse may now need to redo expired ads or recruitment windows, adding cost and time.

“When the government stops, your life doesn’t,” said a Boston-based HR manager guiding several researchers through EB-2 and EB-3 sponsorship. “We’ve kept preparing filings because losing time would hurt our teams and our recruits.”

Priority Dates, Visa Bulletin, and retrogression

• Priority Dates do not retrogress or become invalid because of a shutdown. Cutoff dates in the Visa Bulletin are driven by visa number availability and demand, not by whether agencies are open.
• The State Department continues to release the monthly Visa Bulletin, allowing applicants to check whether their EB-2 or EB-3 category is current.
• According to analysis by VisaVerge.com, applicants should keep tracking the bulletin and file as soon as they’re eligible to preserve benefits that flow from a properly filed adjustment, such as interim work and travel authorization.

• The State Department’s official Visa Bulletin resource is available at: U.S. Department of State – Visa Bulletin.

Who can keep moving and who must wait

• Workers who have already cleared the DOL hurdle can keep moving:
  • An employer can file an I-140
  • If the Visa Bulletin shows current for the worker’s Priority Date and category, the individual can file an I-485 and remain on track
• Those still waiting for a prevailing wage or PERM approval cannot advance and will absorb the delay. For many families, the lost weeks matter for time-sensitive decisions like college planning or housing.

“A month here or there changes our tuition choices,” said a software engineer in Phoenix. “So the uncertainty is hard.”

Possible relief for shutdown-related delays

• USCIS has indicated that shutdown-related late filings may be treated as “extraordinary circumstances” beyond a petitioner’s control in certain contexts (e.g., extensions or changes of status).
• This is limited flexibility, not a blanket waiver. It may help people who can document that a deadline was missed because a required Labor step or verification was unavailable during the funding lapse.
• Practitioners advise keeping clear records to support any request tied to shutdown timing:
  • Screen captures
  • Emails
  • System outage notices

EB-2 specifics and filing benefits

• For EB-2 cases, visa number availability can pause final green card approvals near the end of the fiscal year when annual limits are nearly used. That pattern is unrelated to the shutdown.
• Still, filing remains worthwhile for those who are current because a pending I-485 can confer practical advantages:
  • Employment authorization
  • Advance parole travel documents
• If the Visa Bulletin later moves backward, a pending case will hold its place until the date becomes current again.

Strategies being used now

• Many law firms are filing I-140 and I-485 packages if applicants are eligible, to avoid the crowd after a backlog.
• Some applicants are filing interfiling requests to shift a pending adjustment from EB-3 to EB-2 if that category moves faster. This strategy depends on individual case posture and attorney guidance.
• While DOL is closed, applicants and employers who can still act should:
  • Finalize drafts
  • Collect required signatures
  • Gather supporting documentation so they can resume recruitment and filing quickly when DOL reopens

Practical resources

• USCIS page for Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker: https://www.uscis.gov/i-140
• USCIS page for Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status: https://www.uscis.gov/i-485

Keep packets complete and well-documented now to shorten downstream delays when adjudications pick up after any post-shutdown surge.

Human and employer effects

• Households debating a home purchase or job move are pausing decisions until they know whether an EB-2 or EB-3 filing will clear in time.
• Employers trying to retain specialized staff are balancing short-term hires with long-term sponsorship plans, mindful of competitors abroad.
• Foreign national workers early in the EB-3 pipeline may face shifted career plans—start dates, promotions, or relocations—while waiting on a Labor step they cannot speed up.

“We can keep our candidates on temporary visas longer,” said a hospital recruiter in Ohio, “but that’s not the certainty we promised their families.”

Bottom line and practical advice

• Priority Dates are safe; the shutdown causes delays at certain stages (primarily DOL), not a reset of the green card line.
• Recommended actions:
  1. Watch the Visa Bulletin each month for movement by country and category.
  2. File at USCIS when eligible (I-140 and I-485) to lock in benefits from a properly filed adjustment.
  3. Prepare for a DOL backlog by finalizing drafts, collecting signatures, and lining up recruitment steps so you can move quickly once DOL resumes.
• In a process defined by patience, this shutdown is another wait — but it does not erase progress already made and does not move Priority Dates backward.