Sponsoring a Chef for a Green Card: EB-3 and PERM Step by Step

Temporary visas get a chef into your kitchen. A green card keeps them there. For most chefs, the permanent route is EB-3, the third employment-based preference. It is slow and paper heavy, and the rules on recruitment are strict, but it does not require the chef to be famous or your company to be Japanese owned. This guide walks through each stage with the Department of Labor's and USCIS's own numbers as of September 2026.

1. Why EB-3 is the usual green card route for a chef

EB-3 has three subcategories. Two matter here:

• Skilled workers: jobs requiring at least two years of training or experience. Under 8 CFR 204.5(l)(2), relevant post-secondary education can count as training. A chef or head cook role that genuinely requires two years of experience fits here.
• Other workers: jobs requiring less than two years of training or experience. A line cook role with modest requirements would fall here, and the wait is much longer (see Stage 4).

The EB-2 and EB-1 categories generally require an advanced degree or extraordinary ability, which few chefs can document. That leaves EB-3 skilled worker as the working route for most kitchen hires.

2. The four stages at a glance

3. Stage 1: prevailing wage determination

You ask the Department of Labor what the minimum wage for the job is in the area of intended employment. The DOL determines it from wage survey data (or a collective bargaining agreement if one covers the job). You must then offer at least that wage.

How long it takes: on DOL's FLAG processing times page, at the end of August 2026 the center was working on PERM prevailing wage requests received in May 2026. Plan for several months.

Be aware of pending policy. On 27 March 2026 the DOL proposed raising the wage levels used for PERM (and for H-1B and E-3) to the 34th, 52nd, 70th and 88th percentiles. As of September 2026 that rule is still a proposal. If it is finalized, the minimum offer for a sponsored chef would rise. For how prevailing wage levels work for chef roles, see US prevailing wage for chefs.

4. Stage 2: recruitment

This is where restaurants make avoidable mistakes. The recruitment rules in 20 CFR 656.17 depend on whether the job is "professional" (normally requiring a bachelor's degree) or not. Most chef roles are nonprofessional, which means a shorter list of mandatory steps.

Mandatory steps for a nonprofessional role

1. A job order with the State Workforce Agency serving the area, open for 30 days.
2. Two newspaper advertisements on two different Sundays in the newspaper of general circulation most appropriate to the job and the likely applicants.
3. A notice of filing posted at the workplace for at least 10 consecutive business days, in a conspicuous place employees pass (or sent to the union if one represents the occupation).

Timing matters. The job order and advertisements must be run at least 30 days, and no more than 180 days, before the PERM application is filed. The 30-day gap exists so that US applicants have time to respond. That means you cannot recruit and file in the same week.

What to do with US applicants

Every applicant has to be considered in good faith. If a US worker who meets the stated minimum requirements applies, the job cannot be certified. Keep a clean record of who applied, how you contacted them and why anyone was rejected. The DOL can audit, and a sloppy file is the most common reason good cases fail.

For a Japanese chef role, requirements such as specific technique experience can be legitimate, but they must reflect what the job actually needs. A foreign language requirement has to be justified by business necessity under the rules.

5. Stage 3: PERM filing and the I-140

PERM (ETA-9089)

Once recruitment is complete, you file the labor certification. The filing date becomes the chef's priority date, their place in the green card queue.

Processing is the slowest stage you control least. DOL's FLAG page, as of 31 August 2026, reported analyst review working on applications with November 2025 priority dates, with an average of 336 days. Audited cases take longer.

An approved labor certification is valid for 180 days. You must file the I-140 within that window or start over.

I-140 immigrant petition

• Filing fee: $715, plus the Asylum Program Fee of $600 ($300 for employers with 25 or fewer full-time equivalent employees; none for nonprofits).
• Premium processing: $2,965 since 1 March 2026, giving a 15 business day decision timeframe for EB-3.
• Ability to pay: you must show you can pay the offered wage from the priority date until the chef gets the green card, using annual reports, federal tax returns or audited financial statements. A restaurant showing a loss on its tax return needs to think about this before starting, not after.

6. Stage 4: waiting for the visa bulletin

Green cards in each category are limited, so applicants queue by priority date. The State Department publishes cut-off dates monthly in the Visa Bulletin.

In plain terms: in September 2026, a skilled worker whose PERM was filed before 1 September 2024 could be issued a green card. Someone whose PERM was filed after that date was still waiting. For "other workers" the cut-off was more than four years back. These dates move every month and can go backwards.

Japan does not have its own separate column in the bulletin, so Japanese chefs queue under the "all chargeability" dates.

When the date is current, a chef living in Japan goes through consular processing: the National Visa Center, then an immigrant visa interview at the US Embassy or Consulate. A chef already in the US in valid status may be able to apply to adjust status with USCIS instead.

7. A realistic total timeline

Adding up the published figures as of September 2026, for an EB-3 skilled worker case with no audit:

Because the visa bulletin wait runs from the PERM filing date and overlaps with PERM processing, the stages do not simply add up. Even so, on current numbers, three years or more from starting the prevailing wage request to the chef arriving with a green card is a sensible planning assumption. Treat this as an estimate, not a promise. An audit, a retrogression in the bulletin or a change of wage rules can add a year.

That is why most restaurants combine routes: bring the chef in on a temporary status such as E-2 or O-1B, then start the green card process once you know the chef is a long-term fit.

8. What the employer is signing up for

• Paying at least the prevailing wage once the chef becomes a permanent resident in the job.
• Showing ability to pay from the priority date onward.
• Running a genuine recruitment and keeping records for possible audit.
• A real, full-time, permanent job. EB-3 is not available for seasonal or temporary work.
• Costs. The regulations bar the employer from passing PERM costs, including attorney and recruitment fees, on to the worker. Budget for them.

For the full comparison of US routes see visa sponsorship for Japanese chefs. For keeping a chef through a multi-year process, retaining Japanese chefs covers what tends to work.

General information gathered from official sources in September 2026, not legal or immigration advice. PERM is technical and audit-prone; use an experienced US immigration attorney.