It only took a little over a year from "establishing a new company" to "applying for a green card".

Client Background

Mr. M, our client, is the founder and CEO of a domestic cross-border e-commerce company. His company has been deeply involved in the home furnishing category on the Amazon platform for many years, and its domestic operations are quite mature. He hopes to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary in the United States to directly manage warehousing, logistics, and brand-owned channels, thus reducing reliance on the platform. Based on this strategic goal, we planned an overall path for Mr. M: "L-1 newly established company entry into the US → company formalization within one year → conversion to EB-1C green card."

Step 1: L-1 New Company Approval

For L-1 applications involving newly established companies, the core of the application materials isn't the company's size, but rather whether you can convince the admissions officer that the company can truly support a senior executive role within a year . The materials we prepared for Mr. M included: a detailed U.S. market entry strategy and phased business plan; proof of equity ties with the parent company in China (share certificates, board resolutions, and capital injection records); a lease agreement for physical office and storage space (avoiding easily questionable issues like virtual addresses); and an organizational structure plan detailing job positions and a recruitment timeline. After submitting the materials, Mr. M successfully obtained a one-year L-1A visa for newly established companies.

Step Two: Spend a year "solidifying" the company.

The most common obstacle for newly established L-1 visa applications is that the company is still only a "paper company" when it comes to renewal or green card conversion after one year. After entering the US, Mr. M steadily advanced his business plan: he first established a warehousing and logistics team, followed by local operations, marketing, and customer service teams. Within a year, the company expanded from the initial 3 people to 12, including multiple functional positions such as warehouse supervisor, operations manager, and marketing manager. More importantly, Mr. M's own role gradually shifted from "hands-on" to strategic decision-making and team management—this is very important in the EB-1C review, because the USCIS explicitly examines whether the applicant is truly "managing" rather than just "doing the work."

Step 3: EB-1C Green Card Application

After the one-year operating period, we assisted Mr. M in simultaneously initiating his EB-1C green card application for executives/managers of a multinational company. The application materials focused on three main areas: first, proving the continued validity of the parent-subsidiary equity relationship; second, demonstrating, through a complete organizational chart, employee roster, and job descriptions, that the company had the scale and complexity to support a dedicated executive making management decisions; and third, using financial statements and business growth data (revenue growth curves, warehouse throughput, customer repurchase rates, etc.) to prove that the company was genuinely and continuously operating, and not simply generating figures to support the application.

result

With the EB-1C application successfully approved, Mr. M and his family obtained U.S. green cards. In the past year or so, the company has also truly grown from a "newly established company on paper" into a U.S. entity with an independent team and stable business. This is the idea we have always emphasized: the L-1 newly established company is not the end, but the process of laying the foundation for EB-1C. The more solid the foundation, the smoother the green card application process will be later .

EB1C

Our headquarters are located in San Francisco, California, and our team comprises professional immigration lawyers and other experts. We provide our clients with the most professional immigration services, building a bridge for them to immigrate to the United States. This episode focuses on the EB-1C immigration program for executives of multinational corporations in the United States.

The biggest advantage of this project:

1. No educational requirements, no requirement to explain the source of funds.

Many advertisements on the market promote the EB-5 program, which allows immigration to the United States through investment. This requires explaining the source of funds, a process that is extremely rigorous and complex. Many clients are disqualified from immigrating due to their inability to explain the source of funds or incomplete documentation. However, the EB-1C program does not require explaining the source of funds, providing an extra layer of protection for successful immigrants.

2. No language requirement

The EB-1C program does not require IELTS scores or the ability to speak and listen to English, making it virtually barrier-free for applicants.

3. Short processing time: the whole family can travel to the US in 4-6 months, and obtain a permanent green card in 2-3 years.

Currently, there are short waiting times and no industry restrictions. Popular immigration destinations all have waiting times, and these waiting times are often severe. The United States also has waiting times, and they are similarly severe, but this has nothing to do with EB-1C. The green card obtained through EB-1C is a permanent green card, unlike the conditional green card obtained through EB-5 projects, which do not require further evaluation of the project's sustainability.

A detailed introduction to EB1C

This is an immigrant visa, and its accompanying non-immigrant visa is called L1, an immigration pathway tailored for executives of multinational corporations. We refer to the domestic company as the parent company. The client must have worked for the overseas parent company for at least one year outside the U.S. within the past three years and must seek to continue working for the parent company's U.S. subsidiary (or other eligible entity). The client's position in both the overseas and U.S. subsidiaries (or other eligible entities) must be managerial or senior executive (president, general manager, vice president, or equivalent). If your company and you are qualified enough, you can directly apply for EB1C, thus skipping the L1 application process.

Multinational corporations typically operate by establishing a new company in the United States or acquiring an existing one; this is commonly referred to as the self-employment model and the employment model, respectively. The specific plan depends on the structure of the parent company in the home country.

• Self-employment model:

The gradual development model for establishing a new company in the United States is as follows: establish a subsidiary in the US → apply for an L-1A visa → develop the US business to a certain scale → apply for EB-1C one year after the company is established.

Clients can also acquire U.S. companies. The process involves acquiring a well-established U.S. company that has been in operation for over a year → applying for an L-1A visa, or simultaneously applying for an L-1A visa and EB-1C visa → then applying for an EB-1C visa. Acquiring a company requires professional legal counsel and involves a comprehensive consideration of taxes, debts, and other factors. The advantage of acquisition lies in the original company's good tax record, which can help the domestic parent company further its business operations. This also allows for a quicker demonstration of its strength as a multinational corporation to the immigration authorities.

• Employment model:

The typical pattern for sending company executives to the U.S.: first apply for an L-1A visa, then apply for an EB-1C visa.