New Visa Bill Puts Korean Workers Under Shared Cap, Mandates E-Verify for U.S. Employers

This legislation adds the Republic of Korea to the E-3 nonimmigrant visa program, a special work visa category previously reserved primarily for Australian nationals. In plain English, this means highly skilled South Korean professionals—think engineers, doctors, or specialized tech workers—will now be eligible to apply for these U.S. work visas, provided the Secretary of State first negotiates a reciprocal agreement with South Korea. The rules won’t kick in immediately; the effective date is 180 days after the bill becomes law.

The New E-Verify Mandate for Hiring

If a U.S. company decides to hire a Korean national using this new E-3 visa, there’s a new hurdle: the employer must be an active, participating member of the E-Verify program. E-Verify is the federal system that checks if an employee is legally authorized to work in the U.S. This isn't a one-time check; the employer must remain in good standing with E-Verify for the entire time the Korean worker is employed under the visa. This is a significant detail because it adds a mandatory compliance requirement for employers that wasn't previously tied to the E-3 program, potentially adding administrative load for companies that want to utilize this new talent pool.

Sharing the Pie: The Competition Cap

Here’s where things get complicated. The bill doesn't create a new visa pool for Korean nationals; it forces them to share the existing annual cap of 10,500 visas with Australians. The calculation is set up so that Australian nationals still get first dibs on the visas. The number of E-3 visas available to Korean nationals each fiscal year will be 10,500 minus the number of Australian E-3 visas approved the previous year. For example, if 9,000 Australian visas were approved last year, only 1,500 would be available for Koreans this year. This shared cap creates a direct competition dynamic: the more Australians use the visa, the fewer are available for Koreans, and vice versa. This structure could lead to uncertainty for U.S. employers trying to plan their hiring, especially if they need to secure talent early in the fiscal year.

Who Wins and Who Might Wait

On one hand, this bill opens up a major new source of specialty talent for U.S. businesses, strengthening economic ties with South Korea. Korean professionals gain a new, relatively streamlined path to work in the U.S. On the other hand, the new shared cap introduces potential friction. Australian E-3 applicants, who previously had an effectively unlimited supply of visas (since the cap was rarely met), now face a new competitor for that 10,500 limit. For Korean applicants, the availability of the visa is highly unpredictable, relying entirely on how many Australians applied the year before. This unpredictability, coupled with the mandatory E-Verify requirement for employers, means that while the door is opening, it comes with new procedural complexity and a built-in limit on access.