USA
What the EB-1C requirements actually test
The EB-1C requirements come in two halves. Your two employers have to be genuinely related companies, and the US one has to have been trading for at least a year. Then you have to have spent a year abroad as a manager or an executive, and the US job waiting for you has to be that same kind of work.
The first half is paperwork. Ownership records, tax filings, payroll. The second half is a description of what you do all day, and that is where the EB-1C green card is usually won or lost.
Managerial capacity and executive capacity both have short definitions in the statute, and one word in them causes most of the trouble: primarily. A senior title will not settle it, and neither will the size of your team. USCIS wants to know how your week actually splits, and whether somebody below you is doing the work you say you supervise.
The four EB-1C requirements at a glance
The EB-1C has four requirements and all four have to hold at once. Being strong on one does not make up for a gap in another, and there is no scoring or trade-off here.
Two of them belong to the companies and two belong to you, and you prove them in different ways. Your employer produces documents. You produce an account of what you did abroad and what you will do here.
| Requirement | Sits with | Proved by |
|---|---|---|
| A qualifying corporate relationship | Both companies | Ownership and control documents |
| The US company doing business for a year | The US employer | Tax returns, payroll filings, contracts |
| A year abroad as a manager or executive | You | A letter from the foreign employer, with duties and dates |
| A US role in that same capacity | You and the US employer | A job description, an org chart, staffing evidence |
What counts as managerial capacity for the EB-1C?
First things first: both of the jobs in an EB-1C case, the one you held abroad and the one waiting in the US, have to be managerial or executive. Managerial capacity means you primarily manage the organization, or a department, subdivision, function or component of it. There are four parts to it in the statute, and you need all four.
Professional has a fixed meaning in this test: an employee whose position requires at least a bachelor’s degree.
- You manage the organization, or a department, subdivision, function or component of it
- You supervise and control the work of other supervisory, professional or managerial employees, or you manage an essential function
- You can hire and fire or recommend those decisions; if you supervise nobody directly, you sit at a senior level in the hierarchy or over the function you manage
- You direct the day-to-day operations of that activity or function
What counts as executive capacity for the EB-1C?
Executive capacity is the second way to clear the same gate: you primarily direct the management of the organization or a major component of it. An executive sits a level above a manager. You set the direction the managers work to, and you report to a board or the shareholders rather than to somebody else inside the business.
- You direct the management of the organization, or a major component or function of it
- You set the goals and policies of the organization, component or function
- You exercise wide latitude in discretionary decisions
- You take only general supervision from higher-level executives, the board or the shareholders
Can you qualify for the EB-1C without direct reports?
Yes. The managerial definition itself allows it: one of its four parts covers supervising people or managing an essential function. That second route is called the function manager. Instead of running a team of people, you run an essential function of the business: a product, a market, a budget line. Most small companies go this way, and USCIS looks at it harder than anything else in the petition.
There are five conditions in the USCIS Policy Manual, from a decision USCIS treats as binding, and you need all five.
- The function is clearly defined, with boundaries the business can point to
- The function is essential, meaning core to what the organization does
- You primarily manage the function rather than perform it
- You act at a senior level, either in the hierarchy or with respect to the function managed
- You exercise discretion over the day-to-day operations of that function
Where function manager cases fail
Most of them fail on the third one. A head of product who owns the roadmap and also builds the product is doing the function rather than managing it, however senior the title looks on the chart.
The decision behind the test also shows the version that passes. The manager there ran a financial planning function while a staff of nine handled the routine reporting, which left him free to set policy and direct the work. Direct reports did not hurt the case. What mattered was that the team relieved him of the routine work.
You also document it differently from a people manager. There is no chart with names underneath yours, so you map the function itself: what it covers, what budget and authority you hold, and who does the work you direct. Those people can be employees, contractors or an outside vendor.
- A written definition of the function and why the business cannot run without it
- Your decision authority in concrete terms: budget, hiring, vendor selection, roadmap sign-off
- Named people or vendors who carry out the work, with evidence they exist and are paid
- A percentage-of-time breakdown separating direction from execution
Does the EB-1C year abroad have to be continuous?
No. The next requirement after capacity is time: one year of managerial or executive work abroad, inside the three years before filing. That year does not have to be continuous. The statute asks for employment of at least one year, and nothing in it requires the year to be unbroken.
The Policy Manual reads it the same way. So you can run a foreign subsidiary for eight months, move to a role that does not qualify, then come back to a managerial post for five months. That still counts.
The three-year window moves depending on where you are. Outside the US, it runs back from the date the petition is filed. If you are already working in the US for the company, it runs back from the date you entered to begin that work. That protects people who have spent years here on an L-1A.
USCIS also set a limit on gaps, in a decision it treats as binding. Leave the qualifying group for more than two years after arriving in the US, and the old year abroad stops counting. After a break that long you need a fresh year abroad before the company can file for you.
That US work can be in any visa status. Plenty of EB-1C beneficiaries arrive on an H-1B, an O-1 or an E-2 before their employer files.
What counts as doing business for an EB-1C petition?
Doing business means the regular, systematic and continuous provision of goods or services. Here the case crosses to the company side of the table. A registered entity with an address and a bank account does not meet it, because 8 CFR 204.5(j) rules out the mere presence of an agent or an office.
Your US employer has to have been doing business for at least one year before the petition goes in. That rules out opening a US entity and filing an EB-1C in the same quarter. In practice most people transfer on an L-1A while the company is new, run it, and file the EB-1C once its first year of business is behind it.
Group companies get a break here. You can supply the goods or services inside the corporate group rather than to outside customers, and USCIS accepts that as doing business. A US subsidiary that exists to serve its foreign parent qualifies.
The foreign side has to keep trading as well. If the qualifying overseas entity stops doing business before the immigrant visa is issued, the case fails. It survives only where at least one other qualifying entity in the group is still operating.
EB-1C qualifying relationship: which companies can file?
The last gate is the link between your two employers. A qualifying relationship means the company that files is a US legal entity, and it is the same employer you worked for abroad or its parent, subsidiary or affiliate. Ownership and control settle it, and more arrangements qualify than people expect.
- The relationship works in either direction. The foreign company can own the US one, or the US company can own the foreign one
- Control below half can still qualify. A company owning less than 50 percent that in fact controls the other entity meets the definition of a subsidiary
- A 50-50 joint venture qualifies where the owner holds equal control and veto power
- Self-incorporated petitioners are allowed, down to a single owner, because a corporation is legally distinct from its shareholders. A sole proprietorship cannot file for its owner: it is not a separate entity, so USCIS reads the filing as a self-petition
- An unincorporated US branch of a foreign company cannot petition, though a US corporation with an overseas branch can
- The relationship has to survive the whole case, from filing until you become a permanent resident. Control claimed through proxy votes has to be irrevocable
- A corporate reorganization does not automatically end the case. USCIS recognizes a valid successor to the foreign employer, under a decision it adopted as binding in 2020
EB-1C ability to pay: what the employer shows, and for how long
Past the four gates, one obligation keeps running for the whole case. Your employer has to show it can pay the offered wage, and it has to keep showing that from the priority date until you get the green card. Nobody checks this once and moves on. USCIS can come back to it at any point in between.
There are three forms of proof in the regulation: annual reports, federal tax returns or audited financial statements. An employer with 100 or more workers can send a statement from a financial officer instead. USCIS can ask for more, and profit and loss statements, bank records and personnel records all get requested in practice.
Funded startups get squeezed here. Founders often take a low salary because investors expect it, and a low salary tells an officer the role is not really senior. Set the wage in the offer with the petition in mind, not the cap table.
Owners are not shut out, though. Labor certification is closed to employees who hold an equity stake in their employer, which blocks senior founders from the PERM-based EB-2 and EB-3 routes. The EB-1C carries no equivalent bar, and for many founders that is the whole reason the category is on the table.
What triggers an EB-1C request for evidence?
Most EB-1C requests for evidence come back to the same question: is this job primarily management. That is the capacity test from the top of this page, asked again about your documents. An evidence request also stretches the EB-1C processing time by months, so a complete first filing pays twice. The same handful of challenges comes up again and again, and each one has a document that answers it.
- An org chart with no payroll behind it. Where the chart shows people reporting to you, quarterly employment filings have to show those people exist
- A job description written as duties rather than proportions. USCIS wants the percentage of time spent on each activity, not a list of responsibilities
- Duties copied from the statute. The Policy Manual says outright that repeating or paraphrasing the language of the regulation does not meet the burden of proof
- Subordinate roles described only in relation to you. Their descriptions need to show them dealing with clients, suppliers and other companies, which is what proves they run daily operations
- No proof the layer below is professional. Where the case rests on supervising professionals, their job descriptions and degrees belong in the petition
- Inflated titles and padded layers. Artificial tiers of subordinates do not make a role managerial, and officers are told to look past them
- A foreign employer letter that confirms employment without describing the work. It needs duties, seniority, salary and dates
Check your EB-1C eligibility against all four requirements
EB-1C eligibility rests on four requirements that all have to hold at the same time. Two of them belong to the companies and two belong to you, and they are proved in different ways.
- A qualifying relationship between the US and foreign company, proved with ownership and control documents
- The US company doing business for at least a year, proved with tax returns, payroll and contracts
- A year abroad as a manager or executive, proved with a letter from the foreign employer giving duties and dates
- A US role in that same capacity, proved with a job description, an org chart and staffing evidence
How the imigOS eligibility check works
The check asks about your role abroad, the two companies and the job waiting in the US, then reads those answers against every US category we cover.
- Answer the questions. A few minutes on your role abroad, the two companies and the job waiting in the US. The set adapts as you go, so you only see what applies to you.
- See where you stand. Which of the four requirements hold, and what the same answers do for the L-1A, since it runs the same capacity test and usually comes first. No account needed to read the result.
- Talk it through, if you want. A free call with an imigOS expath, one of our immigration experts. Expaths are not lawyers, so the call covers eligibility and planning rather than legal advice.
- Meet the attorneys. Where a pathway looks suitable, you see the licensed attorneys available for that case type, and you decide whether to go ahead.
The check is free and the result appears without an account. Check your eligibility to see the EB-1C answer alongside the L-1A route that usually comes first.
Common questions
Four requirements decide it and all four have to hold together: a qualifying relationship between the two companies, the US entity doing business for at least a year, a year abroad as a manager or executive, and a US role in that same capacity. The eligibility check reads the L-1A at the same time, since both run one capacity test.
Yes, and it takes more evidence than a large-company transfer. The US entity must have been doing business for a year, and there has to be enough staff below the founder that executive work is what fills the day. Holding equity is not a bar, unlike the PERM-based categories.
No. The regulation sets no headcount for the EB-1C. A function manager can qualify with no direct reports at all, and somebody supervising several non-professional employees can still fail. What decides it is how the role divides between directing and doing, and headcount alone does not answer that.
No. USCIS decides managerial and executive capacity on primary duties, not titles. Officers are told to look past inflated titles and artificial tiers of subordinates, and to ask what actually fills the person’s working day. A title with no matching duties weakens an EB-1C petition rather than helping it.
No. The EB-1C is exempt from PERM, so there is no recruitment process and no test of the US labor market. That removes a year or more from the timeline, and it opens the category to employees who hold equity in their employer.
The US employer files. The EB-1C has no self-petition route, unlike the EB-1A and the EB-2 national interest waiver. The case depends on a company that is willing to sponsor, and that can document its ability to pay the offered wage from the priority date onward.
No. Most EB-1C beneficiaries are already working in the US, usually on an L-1A, and nothing requires it. Somebody working abroad can be the beneficiary of a petition and complete the process at a US consulate. Premium processing made that route considerably faster than it used to be.
The petition fails where the qualifying foreign entity stops doing business before the immigrant visa is issued. It survives if at least one other qualifying entity in the group keeps operating, and a valid successor entity can also preserve it.
A corporate reorganization does not automatically end an EB-1C petition. USCIS recognizes a valid successor in interest, so the case can continue when the new entity carries on the qualifying relationship and the business keeps operating. The relationship has to exist at filing and continue until permanent residence.
Sources
- Policy Manual, Volume 6, Part F, Chapter 4: Employment-Based First PreferenceU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- 8 CFR 204.5: Petitions for employment-based immigrantsElectronic Code of Federal Regulations
- INA §203(b)(1)(C) and §101(a)(44): multinational executives and managersImmigration and Nationality Act
- Matter of G-, Adopted Decision 2017-05 (AAO Nov. 8, 2017)USCIS Administrative Appeals Office
- Matter of S-P-, Inc., Adopted Decision 2018-01 (AAO Mar. 19, 2018)USCIS Administrative Appeals Office
- Matter of Z-A-, Inc., Adopted Decision 2016-02 (AAO Apr. 14, 2016)USCIS Administrative Appeals Office
- Matter of Leacheng International, Inc., 26 I&N Dec. 532 (AAO 2015)USCIS Administrative Appeals Office
6–12 months
$12,500–$17,500
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