E-3 visa

The E-3 visa is a United States visa for which only citizens of Australia are eligible. It was created by an Act of the United States Congress as a result of the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA), although it is not formally a part of the AUSFTA. The legislation creating the E-3 visa was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush on May 11, 2005. It is widely believed to have grown out of the negotiation of a trade deal between the USA and Australia.

The E-3 visa is similar in many respects to the H-1B visa. Important differences include the fact that spouses of E-3 visa holders may work in the United States without restrictions (unlike other US non-immigrant visas, even the TN visa issued to Canadian and Mexican citizens), even if they are of a different nationality; that the E-3 visa is renewable indefinitely (in two-year increments); and that the application process is much quicker. Australian citizens applying for an E-3 visa are also no longer subject to the 65,000 annual visa limit for H-1B visas; although there is a separate annual quota of 10,500 E-3 visas, this is believed to be much more generous to Australians than requiring them to compete with all other nations for H-1B visas. (One calculation is that the E-3 guarantees Australians 15% of the combined annual total of US visas for persons in specialty occupations, should they want such visas, even though with a population of approximately 23.4 million Australia accounts for only 0.3% of the world’s non-US population.) Visas issued to spouses and children are not included in the E3 quota and spouses and children do not need to be Australian citizens.

Although INA § 101(a)(15)(E) requires that all E nonimmigrants maintain an intention to depart the United States upon expiration of their authorized E stay, the guidelines issued by the USCIS state that applications for E classification, including extensions or change of status, cannot be denied solely on the basis of an approved permanent labor certification or pending or approved immigrant visa petition. Therefore, immigrant intent should not be a bar to eligibility for E-3 classification.

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