Overview: EB-1C is the first-preference green card for managers and executives transferred within a multinational company. It needs no Labor certification (PERM)The Department of Labor process in which an employer shows that no qualified U.S. worker is available for a position, required for most EB-2 and EB-3 petitions.See it in the glossary, but the U.S. employer must file the petition, and both the company and the role have to meet specific tests. This guide walks through the EB-1C requirements USCIS applies.
The core EB-1C requirements
According to the USCIS EB-1 page, the worker must have been employed outside the United States for at least one year in the three years before the petition. If the worker is already in the United States working for the same employer, the three years are counted back from their most recent lawful nonimmigrant admission instead. The U.S. employer must have been doing business for at least one year, must have a qualifying relationship with the company abroad, and must intend to employ the worker in a managerial or executive role. The employer files Form I-140Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, filed by an employer (or in some categories the worker) to classify a person under an employment-based category.See it in the glossary.
The company tests
A qualifying relationship means the U.S. and foreign entities are related as parent, branch, subsidiary, or affiliate. Both must actually be doing business, which the Policy Manual defines as the regular, systematic, and continuous provision of goods or services. An agent or an office with nothing happening in it does not count, and both entities must keep doing business until the green card is issued.
The one-year rule for the U.S. employer is strict. A company can legally exist for years, but if it has not continuously provided goods or services for at least a year, it cannot file. That is why someone coming to open a new U.S. office cannot use EB-1C, even though the L-1A visa allows new office cases.
The one-year-abroad rule
The year abroad must be in a managerial or executive capacity for a qualifying organization. Timing matters. In Matter of S-P-, adopted as USCIS policy in 2018, a worker who had a qualifying year abroad but then left the organization for more than two years after arriving in the United States could no longer rely on that earlier year. To qualify again, they would need another year of qualifying work abroad.
Manager or executive
The immigration statute defines both roles, and the job abroad and the U.S. job each have to fit one of them.
- Managerial capacity. Managing the organization or a department, subdivision, function, or component. That means supervising other supervisory, professional, or managerial employees, or managing an essential function. It also means having authority to hire and fire, or recommend those actions, and exercising discretion over day-to-day operations. A first-line supervisor is not a manager unless the people supervised are professionals.
- Executive capacity. Directing the management of the organization or a major component or function, setting its goals and policies, and having wide latitude in decision-making. An executive receives only general supervision from higher executives, a board, or stockholders.
A function manager does not need a large team, but the function must be essential and the person must manage it rather than perform it. When USCIS looks at staffing levels, the statute requires it to consider the reasonable needs of the organization in light of its overall purpose and stage of development.
How EB-1C relates to L-1A
Many EB-1C workers first come on an L-1A visa, which uses similar capacity definitions. The differences are the ones described above: L-1A allows a new office, while EB-1C requires a U.S. employer that has been doing business for a year. EB-1C also leads to permanent residence instead of a temporary stay.
EB-1C shares the EB-1 line in the Visa BulletinA monthly State Department publication showing which family and employment visa categories currently have visas available.See it in the glossary. In the October 2026 bulletin, EB-1 was current for most countries, with Final Action DatesThe Visa Bulletin chart showing the priority dates for which a visa number can actually be issued or a green card approved in that month.See it in the glossary of July 1, 2023 for China and February 1, 2023 for India, per this October 2026 summary.