Sorry, my brain was blanking for a minute when I wrote the above. I am not sure why I was equating an EB-3 green card petition with a temporary H-1B visa… Here’s what the post above would sound like without the brain fart.
That’s an interesting idea, but I have never heard of it happening in practice. First you’d need to find a job where the employer can document that they are unable to find an American to fill the position. The job itself needs to be full-time, permanent and non-seasonal. (This excludes the typical labor shortage industries like agriculture and tourism.) The employer has to be willing to spend several thousand $$ on your green card application and wait for 6 months - 10 years (depending on your nationality) for your visa application to be processed, all with an uncertain outcome. And if your green card is granted, you can just pack your bags and leave - you are in no way tied to the employer or the occupation, and you probably didn’t go to college to become a landscaper…
I honestly can’t think of too many scenarios in which this process would make sense from the perspective of an employer.
It comes as no surprise that permanent resident visas for unskilled workers are a rare occurrence. In 2014, only about 1,000 were issued. In contrast, about 159,000 H-2A and H-2B visas were issued for unskilled workers in temporary positions in 2014. Throwing this out there to put the numbers into perspective, not to suggest an H-2A or H-2B visa. As a college graduate you probably wouldn’t be interested in the kind of jobs that sponsor those visas: http://www.epi.org/publication/the-h-2b-temporary-foreign-worker-program-examining-the-effects-on-americans-job-opportunities-and-wages/