The EB1 extraordinary ability green card allows anyone in the arts, sciences, business, education or athletics to sponsor their own green card. No job offer or labor certification is required. The requirements for this category are quite high but not insurmountable. Our office has handled thousands of immigration cases and have secured many EB1 approvals for our clients.
Many people believe that the EB1 category is limited to scientists or researchers or those who have won Nobel prizes. This is simply not the case. We have helped many people in business fields with job titles like Project Manger, IT Manager, Marketing Manger, or Software Development Manager self sponsor through the EB1 category.
In order to qualify for EB1 classification, you must be able to prove you meet three out of the following ten items:
- Receipt of lesser nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards for excellence;
- Membership in associations in the field that demand outstanding achievement of their members, as judged by recognized national or international experts;
- Published material about the alien in professional or major trade publications;
- Evidence that the alien is a judge of the work of others in the field;
- Evidence of the alien’s original contributions of major significance to the field;
- Authorship of scholarly articles;
- Display of the alien’s work at artistic exhibitions or showcases;
- Evidence the alien has performed in a leading or critical role for organizations that have a distinguished reputation;
- Evidence that the alien commands a high salary in relation to others in the field; or
- Evidence of commercial success in the performing arts.
None of our clients have sufficient documentation to argue all of these elements and it is not necessary to meet all of them, only three. We typically have enough documentation to argue 4-5 and as long as we can prove three, that is enough. Typically managers like IT Managers, Project Managers and other people in the business field have similar types of experience and accomplishments. Awards are rare and usually company specific and none have any artistic exhibitions or performing art success. However, most of our clients do judge the work of the peers in the form of performance evaluations, business proposals, or by managing specific projects. Most of our clients are able to show that projects that they have managed or lead are significant and have made an impact in the field. Many projects result in economic benefits, job creation, market share increase or other specific benefits. Managers by definition are leadership positions. Most of our clients are able to show that their role was leading or critical in their organization. These are the most common types and if you have made accomplishments in these three areas, then you may have a good EB1 case.