Immigration Services / Immigration Petition as a Multinational Manager/Executive (EB1c)

Multinational Executives and Managers  

Overview

Owners, executives, or managers of multinational companies seeking to expand to or relocate in the United States may wish to seek permanent residence in the United States. The most appropriate immigration category for owners, executives and managers of such companies is the EB1-Multinational Executives and Managers. Multinational executives and managers are exempt from the labor certification requirement.

Criteria for Multinational Executives and Managers
The requirements for multinational executives and managers under the first employment-based preference are similar to those for executives and managers under the L-1A non-immigrant visa.
To be admitted as an immigrant, a multinational executive or manager must have been employed in a managerial or executive or executive capacity for at least one out of the past three years. The past employment must be with the same employer, an affiliate, a parent or a subsidiary. The petitioning employer must have been doing business in the U.S. for at least one year.
Not just any executive or manager can make the grade. To qualify as an executive, the worker must:

• direct the management of the organization or a major component or function of the organization;
• establish the goals and policies of the organization, component or function;
• exercise wide latitude in discretionary decisionmaking; and
• receive only general supervision from higher level executives, the board of directors, or stockholders of the organization.

To qualify as a manager, the worker must:

1. manage the organization, or a department, subdivision, function, or component of the organization;
2. supervise and control the work of other supervisory, professional, or managerial employees, or manages an essential function within the organization, or a department or subdivision of the organization;
3. have the authority to hire and fire supervised employees, or recommend them for promotion or other personnel action, or (if there are no immediate supervisees) function at a senior level within the organizational hierarchy; and
4. exercise direction over the day to day operations of the activity or function over which the worker has authority.

Qualifying Relationship between U.S. Employer and Overseas Employer
During the period that the employee worked for the company abroad, the foreign employer and the petitioning U.S. entity must have maintained a qualifying corporate relationship such that the transfer of the employee to the United States may be considered a transfer within a single company.  The entities among which the employee transfers must have common ownership and control to qualify for use of the multinational manager or executive immigrant visa category.  To prove this, the petitioning U.S. employer must show that it is the same company as the overseas employer or that it is the parent, subsidiary, or affiliate of the overseas employer.

Upon receipt of an approved I-140 immigrant petition, an individual may obtain permanent residence status either by filing a Form I-485 application for adjustment of status from within the United States, or through consular processing at a U.S. consulate outside the United States.