Citizenship & Green Card Maintenance

An approved  L-1A petition helps an EB-1C case but does not decide it. The two categories share the one-year-abroad requirement, the qualifying corporate relationship, and the managerial and executive definitions, and neither requires labor certification (PERM). An EB-1C case requires that the U.S. employer must already have been doing business for at least one year on the date the Form I-140 is filed.

EB-1A (extraordinary ability) is the harder category to qualify for, and EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) is the more accessible one. In recent Visa Bulletins, EB-1 cutoff dates have been more favorable than EB-2 dates, although visa availability changes monthly by preference category and country of chargeability, so the current bulletin controls.