EB-1C green cards allow companies to sometimes avoid the labor certification process when they are transferring a manager or executive who has already been working overseas in a managerial or executive capacity with the same company or an affiliate, branch, parent, or subsidiary. While your company does not have to go through the labor certification and recruitment process to sponsor such a foreign national, there must be an offer of permanent, full-time employment. Your company also sets the wage to be paid to the multinational manager or executive rather than the U.S. Department of Labor. To qualify for classification as a multinational manager or executive, your company must demonstrate:

• If the foreign national has been employed outside the United States, he/she must have been employed in a managerial or executive capacity for your company or an affiliate, parent, subsidiary, or branch for at least 1 year in the 3 years prior to filing the immigrant visa petition; OR
• If the foreign national is already working in the United States, he/she was employed in a managerial or executive capacity for your company or an affiliate, parent, subsidiary, or branch for at least 1 year in the 3 years prior to being transferred to the United States; AND
• Your company must have been doing business for at least 1 year in the United States as a legal entity with a qualifying relationship to the entity that employed the foreign national abroad; and
• The foreign national will be employed in a managerial or executive capacity in the United States.

 

It is important to stress that typically a first-line supervisor is not considered to be working in a “managerial capacity” for EB-1C purposes. To qualify as a “manager”, your company needs to document that the foreign national:

• Manages the company or a department, subdivision, component, unit, and/or function within the company;
• Supervises and controls the work of other supervisory, professional, and/or managerial staff, or manages an essential function within the company;
• Has the authority to recruit, hire, discipline, promote, terminate, and make other personnel decisions or, if no employees are directly supervised, functions at a senior level; and
• Exercises discretion over the day-to-day operations of the activity or function for over which he/she has authority.

 

To qualify as an “executive”, your company needs to document that the foreign national:

• Directs the management of your company or major component of your company;
• Establishes your company’s or the major component’s goals and policies;
• Exercises wide discretion in decision-making; and
• Receives only general supervision or direction from your company’s higher executives, board of directors, or shareholders.

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