Does Your Salary Meet The EB1A Criteria? An In-depth Exploration

ByBusines Newswire

The EB-1A green card remains the most reliable pathway to U.S. permanent residency. However, in the same breath, it is also the most demanding pathway since it requires a lot more than merit. It demands from the applicants concrete evidence of impacts, measurable contributions, and more. Among all these criteria, the most difficult and confusing one, perhaps, would be the following:

‘Evidence that you command a high salary or other significantly high remuneration in relation to others in the field.’

Now, this category is confusing to first-time applicants on many different levels. Many applicants turn back, believing they simply don’t earn enough to satisfy this category. However, the underlying reality is more intricate and complex than you imagine. And, even if you feel like you don’t earn such a high salary, you can still land success with your EB-1A petition. The EB-1A consultants can still help you stand out despite your presumed limitations in this category.

Here, we have discussed what USCIS clearly meant and how any industry expert and people with specialized talents may have the potential to fulfill this category. We have dived deeper into this category here and explained what it exactly means.

What does the high remuneration category exactly mean?

In truth, USCIS does not actually look at the mere number. Instead, they tend to compare your salary against a bunch of industry benchmarks. This comparison is to determine whether your earning actually stands out in your niche industry.

You will get some idea about this process if you let the EB-1A consultants evaluate whether your salary qualifies for the EB-1A process. They usually take into account the following features when assessing your salary against the EB-1A criteria:

  • Government databases and the labor statistics
  • Salary surveys from reputable sources
  • Comparison with other competitors in the same field
  • Compensation data for other individuals in similar roles within your organization

A real-world illustration

For instance, let’s assume you are earning a salary of $200,000. It is a number on the impressive side. However, context can make it seem otherwise. If you are working as a software engineer in San Francisco, the impact of the number may diminish depending on the standard values in the local market and what your peers are earning. However, the same salary could carry a completely different weight in a different geographic context. Hence, it is absolutely not the number that the USCIS looks at, but the relative nature of the salary in different contexts.

Many applicants are not clear about it, but you can position your application in the right way to create the most suitable context for your case. If you narrowly define your niche, you can make your remuneration stand out in your own specific context. This is precisely where an EB-1A green card consultancy can help you out.

The remuneration criterion is not an obstacle on its own. With the right strategy and guidance, you can overcome it and make your EB-1A application stand out. 

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