Dignity Act Could Relieve U.S. Work Visa Backlogs

By John Dorer, CEO, eb3.work  

Today, there are over one million more jobs available than there are available workers. It’s unleashed a severe labor shortage that is repeatedly hitting sectors like hospitality, manufacturing, logistics, and facility operations.  

For many employers, including those that hire facility cleaning personnel, foreign labor has proven to be a useful long-term solution to this ongoing problem. Years-long wait times, however, have rendered this nearly useless for employers and those in our country wishing to work. The frustration involved in hiring legal immigrants through the EB-3 visa category has brought many hiring companies to the breaking point. 

There is good news in this, however — relief could be just over the horizon. With the recent introduction of the Dignity Act in Congress, the logjam could finally begin to ease. 

A Bipartisan Attempt to Modernize Immigration 

The Dignity Act takes a two-pronged approach to the ever-growing issue, with the goal of finding a balance between stronger border enforcement and expanded legal pathways for workers. It has even gained the coveted and rare bipartisan support in Washington, making it a real possibility as a solution in the not-too-distant future. 

One of the most important provisions of the legislation would be a benefit to both employers and foreign workers. It would target the long-standing backlog in the EB-3 “Other Workers” visa category — music to the ears of so many on both sides of this matter. 

Today, the yearly cap on EB-3 visas for an employer includes the spouses and children of the workers themselves, meaning each dependent takes the place of what would otherwise be an able-bodied and productive worker. The Dignity Act addresses this problem by excluding those dependents from the annual limit, freeing up thousands of additional slots per year for actual workers.  

If the bill is passed, it would prove to be a groundbreaking change that could move the visa bulletin forward by as much as four years. This is the streamlined and accelerated access that employers need to seriously start overcoming the painful shortage of labor. 

Why the EB-3 Fix Matters 

EB-3 visas are a critical tool for employers that can’t hire enough U.S. workers to fill full-time, non-seasonal positions. With a very shallow pool of U.S. citizens seeking to work in the affected industries and roles, the EB-3 visa provides a way forward for foreign workers in the form of a path to permanent residency.  

When facilities managers struggle to find enough domestic applicants for a cleaning or maintenance role, their only other recourse is to seek out foreign workers. The system’s backlog, however, gets in the way. This backlog has become increasingly unmanageable, particularly for those applicants from high-demand countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, and Mexico. 

Many EB-3 applicants that were approved in 2021 or 2022 are still waiting for their visa numbers to become available. Once approved, it does not mean the foreign worker can immediately obtain their green card. Under current protocols, they must wait for their place in line. Once a visa number is available, they can then complete the final steps to be able to work in the U.S. 

While those workers wait in line, employers that sponsored them years ago remain stuck with vacancies they had hoped to fill long ago. The Dignity Act’s cap adjustment could allow thousands of these stalled applications to proceed more expeditiously. 

A Boost for Struggling Sectors 

The changes that are proposed would start to relieve some of the pressure on the sectors hardest hit by the shortage of labor.  

In industries like hospitality and warehousing, the labor gap has disrupted operations and caused costs to go up. Construction firms are faced with project delays due to the lack of available workers, also hitting the bottom line. Even a modest improvement in the visa process would release a wave of new workers that are ready to work and contribute. 

The backlog and wait times have discouraged so many from participating in the program. If the timeline is shortened from 4-5 years to 1-2 years, it’s conceivable that more companies will look at the EB-3 program as a viable long-term solution for their workforce. Passage of the Dignity Act would expand employer interest in the EB-3 program. More employers with roles that need to be filled “today” like those in facility cleaning and maintenance will benefit from this action.  

Enforcement + Reform: A Strategic Tradeoff? 

In a world where political tradeoffs and bipartisanship are the way forward in getting things done, the Dignity Act incorporates important elements designed to appeal to immigration skeptics.  

It makes billions available for border enforcement, new asylum processing infrastructure, and mandatory use of E-Verify. This is designed to appeal to those who’ve historically blocked legislative compromise when it comes to immigration. For advocates of legal immigration channels, like the EB-3 program, these provisions could be the political tradeoff needed to unlock broader reform. 

This dual focus of border integrity and employment-based visa reform reflects an important strategic shift. Instead of framing access to labor and immigration enforcement as opposing goals, the Dignity Act addresses both together. 

The Road Ahead 

While it’s still early in the legislative process, the Dignity Act could be a critical turning point to the shortage of labor. It offers one of the most significant and dynamic opportunities in recent years to actually fix and modernize our country’s broken immigration system.  

Whether it will gain the traction that it needs in a highly polarized Congress remains to be seen. The economic case, however, for its passage is clear.  

U.S. employers, including those in the facility operations sector cannot meet current demand for labor without access to legal immigrant workers. At the same time, those workers can’t enter a country if outdated visa quotas keep them waiting in line for half a decade.  

If passed, the Dignity Act wouldn’t solve every problem facing American industry and its workforce, but it could provide relief where it’s most needed. 

John Dorer is a Global Mobility Executive with a focus on Employer Sponsored Green Card solutions, and the CEO of EB-3 Staffing Solutions for Employers. Headquartered in New York City, eb3.work is the leading company in the U.S. that provides effective solutions in addressing the country’s chronic and growing unskilled and entry-level labor shortage by connecting employers with foreign nationals seeking to work legally in the United States. eb3.work leverages its proprietary business processes and technology to assist qualifying U.S. companies and foreign national workers in navigating the complex U.S. immigration system.