Updated November 11, 2026

EB1 visa criteria: USCIS requirements for EB-1A, EB-1B and EB-1C

The EB-1 first-preference employment visa has three paths, and none of them require a permanent labor certification. According to USCIS, you qualify by meeting at least 3 of 10 criteria (or holding a major one-time award) for EB-1A Extraordinary Ability, meeting at least 2 of 6 criteria with a job offer and 3 years of experience for EB-1B Outstanding Professors and Researchers, or having at least 1 year of qualifying foreign management experience in the past 3 years for EB-1C Multinational Managers or Executives. Only EB-1A allows you to self-petition without a U.S. employer sponsor.

What are the three EB-1 visa categories at a glance?

USCIS divides the Employment-Based First Preference (EB-1) immigrant visa into three occupational groups under INA 203(b)(1) and 8 CFR 204.5. Every category is exempt from the Department of Labor permanent labor certification process.

Only 1 of the 3 EB-1 subcategories allows self-petitioning without a job offer, while the other 2 require a U.S. employer to file Form I-140 and prove its continuing ability to pay your offered wage.

EB-1 subcategories compared from USCIS Policy Manual Volume 6, Part F

What are the 10 EB-1A extraordinary ability criteria?

To qualify for EB-1A under 8 CFR 204.5(h), you must demonstrate sustained national or international acclaim in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, show that you will continue working in your area of expertise in the United States, and show that your entry will substantially benefit the United States in the future.

Unless you have received a major internationally recognized one-time achievement such as a Nobel Prize, Pulitzer, Oscar, or Olympic Medal, you must satisfy at least 3 of the 10 regulatory criteria below. The USCIS Policy Manual details what officers evaluate for each criterion:

• 1. Lesser nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards for excellence: The focus is on your personal receipt of the award, not your employer's. Team awards count if you received a trophy, certificate, or medal, appeared on the podium, or were specifically named in the awarding organization's announcement. Awards open only to a single school or locality generally lack national recognition, whereas awards open to members of well-known national institutions (including Carnegie R1 or R2 doctoral universities) or nationally recognized early-career awards can qualify.
• 2. Membership in associations requiring outstanding achievement: Membership counts if recognized national or international experts judged your nomination based on outstanding achievements. Fellow-level membership selected by a council of experts or current fellows can qualify. Membership based solely on a degree, years of experience, paying a fee, subscribing to publications, or compulsory union requirements does not qualify.
• 3. Published material about you in professional or major trade publications or other major media: The material must relate to your work in the field and include the title, date, author, and any necessary translation. Print, online, and transcripts of major audio or video coverage qualify. Paid marketing materials do not count. Articles focusing on a team can qualify if they mention you in connection with the work or if the record documents your significant role.
• 4. Judging the work of others: You must have participated, individually or on a panel, as a judge of the work of others in the same or an allied field. An invitation alone is not enough. You must prove you completed the review, such as a journal peer-review request paired with confirmation of completion, conference paper reviews, Ph.D. dissertation committee records, or government research funding reviews.
• 5. Original scientific, scholarly, artistic, athletic, or business-related contributions of major significance: Having work funded, patented, or published shows originality, but does not by itself prove major significance. USCIS looks for widespread commentary from others, high citation rates relative to the field, commercialized patents or licenses, and detailed expert letters corroborated by independent evidence.
• 6. Authorship of scholarly articles in the field: These must appear in professional or major trade publications or other major media. In academia, a scholarly article reports original research, includes footnotes or a bibliography, and is generally peer-reviewed. Peer-reviewed conference proceedings at recognized conferences also count. Outside academia, the article must be written for learned persons in the field.
• 7. Display of your work at artistic exhibitions or showcases: The work displayed must be your own work product, and the venue must be an artistic exhibition or showcase. Non-artistic showcases are only considered under the comparable evidence provision.
• 8. Leading or critical role for organizations or establishments with a distinguished reputation: For a leading role, officers check your title and matching leadership duties. For a critical role, your performance and the importance of your contribution to the organization's outcome matter, not the title. Qualifying examples include senior faculty, principal investigators on merit-based government awards like SBIR grants, and startup founders where the startup has a distinguished reputation based on significant funding.
• 9. High salary or significantly high remuneration in relation to others in the field: Past earnings or prospective compensation under contract can qualify. USCIS evaluates compensation using geographical and position-appropriate surveys, such as Bureau of Labor Statistics Wage Data or Career One Stop, and compares foreign workers against local wage data in their work location rather than simply converting foreign pay into U.S. dollars.
• 10. Commercial successes in the performing arts: Proven by volume of sales and box office receipts showing commercial success relative to others in similar performing arts pursuits, not merely by releasing an album or appearing in a production.

What are the 6 EB-1B criteria for outstanding professors and researchers?

Under 8 CFR 204.5(i) and Volume 6, Part F, Chapter 3 of the USCIS Policy Manual, EB-1B is for professors and researchers who are internationally recognized as outstanding in a specific academic field. An academic field means a body of specialized knowledge offered for study at an accredited U.S. university or institution of higher education.

You cannot self-petition for EB-1B. You must have at least 3 years of teaching or research experience in the field, a qualifying permanent job offer from a U.S. employer, and evidence meeting at least 2 of these 6 regulatory criteria:

• 1. Receipt of major prizes or awards for outstanding achievement in the academic field: The prize must be awarded to you personally, not your employer, and must be evaluated by the granting criteria, number of recipients, and pool of competitors.
• 2. Membership in associations in the academic field that require outstanding achievements: Membership must be based on outstanding achievement, such as a selective fellowship, not solely on education, years of experience, paying a fee, or subscribing to a publication.
• 3. Published material in professional publications written by others about your work: Must include title, date, author, translation if needed, and circulation or viewership data. Articles that merely cite your work in a footnote do not qualify, though articles about a team's research can count if they mention you or the record proves your significant role.
• 4. Participation as the judge of the work of others in the same or an allied academic field: You must show both the invitation and proof that you completed the judging, such as journal peer reviews, conference paper reviews, dissertation committee service, or grant panel reviews.
• 5. Original scientific or scholarly research contributions to the academic field: Unlike EB-1A, the EB-1B regulation does not require the contribution to be of major significance, but it must be an original contribution to the academic field as a whole rather than to a single lab. Citation history, journal impact factors, patents, and corroborated expert letters serve as proof.
• 6. Authorship of scholarly books or articles in scholarly journals with international circulation: Includes peer-reviewed journal articles and published conference proceedings, accompanied by evidence that the journal's circulation is international and aimed at a specialized audience.

What employer and job offer rules apply to EB-1B?

Because EB-1B requires an employer sponsor, USCIS checks both the job offer and the type of employer before approving Form I-140.

The prospective U.S. employer must provide a written offer for either a tenured or tenure-track teaching position, or a permanent research position. For research roles, permanent means a term of indefinite or unlimited duration in which the employee ordinarily has an expectation of continued employment unless there is good cause for termination. Yearly grant-funded contracts still qualify if the employer shows an intent to continue seeking funding and a reasonable expectation that funding will be renewed.

Qualifying EB-1B employers are limited to three groups: a U.S. university, an institution of higher education, or a department, division, or institute of a private employer that employs at least 3 full-time researchers and has achieved documented accomplishments in an academic field. Government agencies do not qualify as private employers and cannot file EB-1B petitions unless the agency itself is established as a U.S. university or institution of higher learning.

What are the EB-1C criteria for multinational executives and managers?

The EB-1C classification under INA 203(b)(1)(C) and 8 CFR 204.5(j) allows a multinational company to permanently transfer a manager or executive to the United States. Self-petitioning is not permitted, and you cannot use EB-1C to open a new U.S. office.

According to Volume 6, Part F, Chapter 4 of the USCIS Policy Manual, both the company and the employee must meet strict structural and timeline criteria:

• 1-in-3-years foreign employment rule: You must have been employed outside the United States in a managerial or executive capacity for at least 1 year in the 3 years preceding the petition (or preceding your most recent lawful nonimmigrant admission if you are already working for the U.S. petitioning employer).
• Qualifying corporate relationship: The U.S. petitioner and the foreign employer must be the same legal entity (such as a U.S. corporation with a foreign branch) or related as a parent, subsidiary, or affiliate through common ownership and control. A foreign corporation operating an unincorporated branch office in the United States cannot file an EB-1C petition. A sole proprietorship also cannot petition for its owner.
• Doing business for at least 1 year: The petitioning U.S. employer must have been actively engaged in the regular, systematic, and continuous provision of goods or services in the United States for at least 1 year before filing Form I-140. Both the U.S. employer and at least one qualifying foreign organization must continue doing business up until visa issuance or adjustment of status.
• Personnel manager capacity: You primarily manage the organization, department, subdivision, or component, supervise and control the work of other supervisory, professional, or managerial employees, possess authority to hire and fire, and exercise discretion over day-to-day operations. A first-line supervisor does not qualify unless the supervised employees are professionals.
• Function manager capacity: If you do not directly supervise staff, you can qualify as a function manager by primarily managing an essential function of the organization at a senior level with discretionary authority over operations, while other staff perform the routine operational tasks.
• Executive capacity: You primarily direct the management of the organization or a major component or function, establish goals and policies, exercise wide latitude in discretionary decision-making, and receive only general supervision from higher-level executives, the board of directors, or stockholders.

How does USCIS evaluate EB-1A and EB-1B petitions? (The two-step Kazarian review)

Meeting 3 of 10 criteria for EB-1A or 2 of 6 criteria for EB-1B is only the first half of the USCIS review. Following the Ninth Circuit decision in Kazarian v. USCIS, the USCIS Policy Manual instructs officers to apply a two-step review using the preponderance of the evidence standard.

In Step 1, the officer checks objectively whether your submitted documents meet the plain regulatory requirements for the minimum number of criteria (or whether your evidence is comparable when a standard criterion does not readily apply to your occupation, such as an industry researcher presenting at a major trade show instead of publishing academic articles, or a startup founder holding high-value equity instead of a high salary).

In Step 2, called the Final Merits Determination, the officer evaluates the totality of all evidence in the record together. For EB-1A, the totality must prove you have sustained national or international acclaim and are among that small percentage who have risen to the very top of your field. For EB-1B, the totality must prove you are recognized internationally as outstanding in your academic area. In Step 2, USCIS considers positive totality factors such as publishing in high-impact journals as a senior or sole author, having a high citation rate or h-index relative to your field, working at leading institutions (such as Carnegie R1 or R2 universities or top QS World University Rankings schools), receiving unsolicited invitations to speak at recognized conferences, and being named as an investigator on competitively funded U.S. government STEM research grants.

Checklist: how to build and file your EB-1 Form I-140 petition

Every EB-1 case starts by filing Form I-140 (Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers) with USCIS. Use this step-by-step plan written by our team from the Form I-140 instructions and USCIS Policy Manual to prepare your filing:

• Step 1: Confirm your petitioner and signature rules. For EB-1A, you can sign and file Form I-140 yourself as a self-petitioner, or an employer can file for you. For EB-1B and EB-1C, the U.S. employer must file and sign. USCIS rejects typed signatures, stamped signatures, or forms signed by an attorney or family member on the petitioner line.
• Step 2: Complete the required Form I-140 Asylum Program Fee questions. In Part 1 of Form I-140, Question 5 (nonprofit or government research status) and Question 6 (number of full-time employees) must be answered or USCIS will reject the form. USCIS instructs self-petitioners to select No for Question 5 and Yes for Question 6 to qualify for the reduced Asylum Program Fee rather than the full $600 Asylum Program Fee (uscis.gov, as of July 2026). Check the current base filing fee on Form G-1055 before paying.
• Step 3: Include employer ability-to-pay proof (EB-1B and EB-1C only). Sponsoring employers must prove a continuing ability to pay the offered wage as of the priority date by submitting an annual report, federal income tax return, or audited financial statement.
• Step 4: Corroborate every reference letter. The USCIS Policy Manual notes that letters of support should not form the cornerstone of a petition on their own. Pair every expert or employer letter with independent objective records (citation reports, patent licenses, grant awards, organizational charts with duty time percentages, or complete peer-review records).
• Step 5: Check the monthly Visa Bulletin for concurrent filing. Your priority date is the date USCIS accepts your Form I-140. If the Department of State Visa Bulletin shows your EB-1 category and country of chargeability is current (marked C) or your priority date is earlier than the applicable cutoff date, you can file Form I-485 concurrently with Form I-140 in separate packages. If you are outside the United States, your approved petition goes to the National Visa Center for consular processing.
• Step 6: Include eligible family members. Once your I-140 is approved and a visa is available, your spouse and unmarried children under age 21 may apply for green cards in E-14 (spouse) and E-15 (child) immigrant status.

What the officer may ask at an EB-1 green card or consular interview

Under Volume 7, Part A, Chapter 5 of the USCIS Policy Manual, adjustment of status applicants must be interviewed by an officer unless USCIS waives the interview on a case-by-case basis, and overseas applicants interview with a consular officer. During the interview, the officer verifies your identity, immigration status, and the accuracy of your forms, and checks that your ongoing work matches your approved I-140 petition.

Prepare for these questions by organizing your updated employment records before interview day:

• How will you continue working in your area of extraordinary ability in the United States? (EB-1A): The officer checks INA 203(b)(1)(A)(ii), which requires that you intend to continue working in the field where you gained acclaim. Have a current employment letter, contract, business plan, or research statement ready.
• Is your job offer with your sponsoring university or company still active, and what are your exact duties? (EB-1B and EB-1C): For employment-based adjustment interviews requiring a job offer, USCIS uses Form I-485 Supplement J to confirm the job offer remains bona fide. Have your signed Supplement J, recent pay statements, and a clear explanation of your research, teaching, or managerial responsibilities ready.
• Who performs the day-to-day operational work in your department, and how is your time split? (EB-1C): Officers check that an EB-1C manager or executive primarily manages the organization, staff, or essential function rather than performing routine operational tasks. Bring your current U.S. organizational chart showing your subordinates' titles and roles.
• Has anything changed on your Form I-485 since you filed, including your address, marital status, or travel history? (All EB-1 categories): The officer goes through your adjustment application to resolve any updates or eligibility questions, and you will re-sign and date the form at the end of the interview if revisions are made.

Practice example

How will you continue to work in your area of extraordinary ability in the United States, and how does your current role match your Form I-140 petition?

A strong, honest answer states your exact current or prospective role in the United States in two or three plain sentences and links it directly to the field of expertise approved in your Form I-140 petition. Start by naming the specific scientific, academic, artistic, athletic, or business specialization recognized in your petition. Next, explain how you are actively working in that field right now, whether through a U.S. employer, a research appointment, consulting contracts, or a venture you founded. Be ready to hand the officer concrete documents that prove your ongoing work since the I-140 was filed: a current employment verification letter or signed contract, recent pay statements or tax records, evidence of active research grants or recent publications, or a detailed business plan with client contracts if you are self-employed. Keep your explanation consistent with the intent statement you submitted with your Form I-140.

For EB-1A applicants, the officer is checking INA 203(b)(1)(A)(ii) and (iii), which require that you intend to continue working in your area of extraordinary ability and that your entry will substantially benefit the United States prospectively, even when no job offer is required.

This is interview practice, not legal advice. For questions about your own case, talk to an immigration attorney. Visaful is not affiliated with the U.S. government or the Department of State.