The Requirements for Multinational Executives and Managers Under the EB1 Immigrant Category

To qualify for a Green Card as an EB1 Multinational Executive or Manager, the foreign worker must show that he or she was employed by a company affiliated with the current U.S. employer as an executive or manager outside the U.S. for at least one year out of the three years before the transfer to the United States. 

The requirements for multinational executives and managers under the immigration first preference are similar to those for executives and managers under the L-1A non-immigrant subcategory. A non-immigrant worker under L-1A status may generally qualify under the immigration first preference category. However, there is no such equivalent of immigration first preference category for the specialized knowledge L-1B workers. 

The basic requirements for multinational executives and managers under the EB1 first preference are as follows:

a) the alien must have been employed outside the United States in a managerial or executive capacity for at least one year in the three years prior to the filing of the petition;

b) if the worker is currently in the U.S. working for the same prospective U.S. employer, the three year period is the time preceding his or her entry to the U.S. as a non-immigrant;

c) the foreign employer must have been the same employer, an affiliate or a subsidiary of the prospective U.S. employer;

d) the alien must be coming to the U.S. to work in an executive or managerial capacity; and

e) the prospective U.S. employer must have been doing business for at least one year.

This means that a multinational executive or manager is the one who has been employed outside the U.S. in a managerial or executive capacity for at least one of the three years immediately preceding the filing of the petition.

The U.S. employer must file the petition for the manager or executive. The petition must be accompanied by a statement from the U.S. employer affirming all of the pertinent requirements, including a description of the job duties to be performed by the foreign executive/manager in the United States, the job duties performed by the foreign executive/manager abroad, and the periods of employment by the foreign executive/manager abroad.