Learn how to prove executive or managerial capacity for EB-1C. Essential evidence, documentation strategies, and common mistakes to avoid.
To prove managerial or executive capacity, you first need to understand how USCIS distinguishes these terms. While both qualify for EB-1C, they have different definitions and evidence requirements. Executive capacity focuses on directing the organization or major components. You're setting strategy, making high-level decisions, and exercising broad authority. Think CEO, CFO, or COO roles where you're at or near the top of the organization directing its overall management.
Managerial capacity involves managing the organization, a department, function, or subordinate staff. You supervise professional or managerial employees, or you manage an essential function of the organization. You have hiring and firing authority or recommendation power. You exercise discretion over daily operations. Managerial positions include department heads, regional managers, or functional managers who direct teams or critical business operations.
The key distinction is that executives direct management itself while managers conduct management. Executives are strategic, managers are tactical (though at high levels). For EB-1C executive capacity evidence, emphasize your role in setting company direction, making major decisions, and directing overall operations. For managerial capacity, emphasize your supervision of staff, control over departments or functions, and discretionary authority over operations. Most EB-1C cases claim executive capacity since founders and senior leaders typically qualify under executive rather than managerial standards at USCIS.
Unsure whether your role is executive or managerial? Beyond Border evaluates your position and recommends the stronger classification.
Organizational charts provide crucial visual managerial capacity documentation for EB-1C cases. Create clear org charts showing your position at the top or high level with direct reports below you. Include names, titles, and brief job descriptions for each position. If your direct reports have their own teams, show those subordinate levels too. Multi-level organizational structures demonstrate executive capacity more convincingly than flat organizations where everyone reports to you directly.
Your org chart should show sufficient staffing to support genuine executive or managerial roles. If the chart shows just you and one assistant, USCIS questions whether a true executive position exists or whether you're essentially doing all the work yourself. Ideally, show at least 3-5 direct reports who themselves have subordinates or professional-level responsibilities. This demonstrates organizational depth where you direct managers who direct workers, not where you directly supervise all operational staff.
Include two organizational charts in EB-1C petitions - one for your foreign entity and one for your US entity. Both should show your executive or managerial position in their respective structures. The charts should look similar in terms of your hierarchical level even if the companies differ in size. If you were CEO abroad but become a middle manager in the US, that raises qualification questions. Your role should be comparable or higher at the US entity compared to your foreign position for strongest EB-1C executive capacity evidence.
Need help creating organizational charts for your EB-1C petition? Beyond Border designs org charts that effectively demonstrate executive capacity.
Detailed job descriptions provide essential executive role proof EB-1C documentation. Your description should focus heavily on executive or managerial duties rather than technical or operational tasks. Emphasize strategic planning, policy setting, budget oversight, personnel decisions, and direction of departments or functions. Minimize or eliminate references to hands-on technical work, customer service, or operational execution that staff-level employees would handle.
Structure your job description to clearly demonstrate executive capacity. Use phrases like "directs the operations of," "sets strategic direction for," "oversees budget and resource allocation for," "makes final decisions regarding," and "provides executive leadership to." Avoid phrases like "performs," "executes," "handles day-to-day," "completes projects," or "works on" which suggest operational rather than executive work. Every bullet point should reinforce your executive or managerial role at USCIS.
Include time allocation percentages showing what portion of your time goes to executive versus operational duties. Ideally, at least 75-80% of your time should involve executive or managerial work. If your description shows 50% of time on technical work and 50% on management, that suggests a hybrid role rather than true executive capacity. For USCIS executive requirements, you need to demonstrate your primary function is executive management, not that you occasionally manage in addition to technical work.
Struggling to write job descriptions emphasizing executive capacity? Beyond Border drafts job descriptions that meet USCIS standards for EB-1C.
Proving managerial or executive capacity requires demonstrating actual decision-making authority. Provide concrete examples of significant decisions you've made. Perhaps you decided to enter new markets, approved major budget allocations, made key hiring or firing decisions, set compensation policies, approved significant contracts, or determined strategic partnerships. Document these decisions through board meeting minutes, internal memos, email chains, or other contemporaneous records showing your decision-making role.
Board resolutions provide powerful evidence of executive authority. If your board formally appointed you to executive positions, granted you authority to make certain decisions, or approved major initiatives you proposed, include those board resolutions in your EB-1C petition. Board minutes showing your reports to the board, recommendations you made that were adopted, or strategic plans you presented all demonstrate executive capacity. These formal corporate documents carry significant weight with USCIS because they come from the governance body overseeing the company.
Financial authority documents prove executive capacity effectively. If you have authority to approve expenditures up to certain limits, sign contracts on behalf of the company, or control budgets for departments or the entire organization, document this through corporate policies, signature authority matrices, or banking resolutions. Show that your approval is required for significant business decisions. If every decision must be approved by someone above you, that suggests you're not truly functioning in executive capacity but rather in a subordinate managerial role at USCIS.
Need help documenting your decision-making authority? Beyond Border identifies and organizes evidence of executive decision-making for EB-1C petitions.
Strong documenting leadership role evidence includes clear information about who reports to you and what level of employees you supervise. For executive capacity, you should supervise managers or other executives. For managerial capacity, you should supervise professional staff or other managers. The level of your direct reports matters significantly. If you directly supervise entry-level administrative staff rather than managers or professionals, this suggests non-qualifying supervisory capacity rather than executive or managerial roles.
Create a detailed subordinate employee list showing each direct report's name, title, salary, job duties summary, and their own direct reports if applicable. This demonstrates the depth and professional level of your supervision. If your direct reports are themselves managers with teams, that strongly supports executive capacity. If your direct reports are senior professionals like engineers, accountants, or sales directors, that supports managerial capacity. If your direct reports are clerical or entry-level workers, that weakens your case significantly at USCIS.
Document how you exercise supervisory authority through performance reviews you've conducted, hiring and termination decisions you've made, promotion recommendations you've submitted, or compensation changes you've approved for subordinates. Include samples of performance evaluations you wrote, offer letters you signed, or termination documentation showing your involvement in personnel decisions. These concrete examples of exercising supervisory authority prove you genuinely manage people rather than just having a fancy title while doing technical work yourself at USCIS.
Need help documenting your supervisory relationships? Beyond Border organizes subordinate employee evidence that demonstrates executive capacity.
Employer letters provide the narrative framework for EB-1C executive capacity evidence. These letters from your company should describe your executive or managerial role in detail, explain your position in the organizational structure, list your primary duties with time percentages, identify your direct reports, describe major decisions you make, and confirm your authority over operations, budget, and personnel. The letter should be thorough - several pages with specific detail rather than a brief general statement.
Supporting letters from other sources add credibility. Board members or directors can write letters describing your executive role from the governance perspective. They can discuss how you report to the board, recommendations you've made, strategic plans you've implemented, and your overall performance as executive. These third-party letters carry weight because they come from individuals overseeing your performance rather than subordinates or the company itself at USCIS.
Client or business partner letters can indirectly support executive capacity by describing their interactions with you in your executive role. If clients consistently engage with you for high-level strategic discussions rather than operational matters, that supports executive capacity. If partners view you as the key decision-maker they must convince rather than an implementer following others' decisions, that reinforces your executive authority. While not directly addressing executive capacity, these letters provide external validation of how you function in practice at USCIS.
Need help with employer and supporting letters? Beyond Border drafts comprehensive letters that effectively prove executive capacity.
What evidence proves executive capacity for EB-1C? Executive capacity evidence includes organizational charts showing hierarchical position, detailed job descriptions emphasizing strategic duties, decision-making authority documentation, and letters from employers and board members.
How do I prove I'm not just an owner-operator? Prove you direct operations through subordinate managers rather than performing operational work yourself by showing organizational depth, professional-level direct reports, and documentation of strategic decision-making authority.
What if my job involves some technical work? USCIS accepts that executives perform some technical work, but your primary function (at least 75% of time) should be executive or managerial duties, not hands-on operational work.
Do I need different evidence for managerial vs executive capacity? Yes, executive capacity emphasizes directing overall management and setting strategy, while managerial capacity focuses on supervising professional staff and managing departments or essential functions.
