We demonstrate that semiconductor quantum dots can be excited efficiently in a resonant three-photon process, while resonant two-photon excitation is highly suppressed. Time-dependent Floquet theory is used to quantify the strength of the multiphoton processes and model the experimental results. The efficiency of these transitions can be drawn directly from parity considerations in the electron and hole wave functions in semiconductor quantum dots. Finally, we exploit this technique to probe intrinsic properties of InGaN quantum dots. In contrast to nonresonant excitation, slow relaxation of charge carriers is avoided, which allows us to measure directly the radiative lifetime of the lowest energy exciton states. Since the emission energy is detuned far from the resonant driving laser field, polarization filtering is not required and emission with a greater degree of linear polarization is observed compared to nonresonant excitation.