Devising a New Strategy for U.S. Permanent Residence   

Our client engaged us to obtain lawful permanent residence for its new CEO, not only to ensure the stability of the company, but also to enable his spouse to legally work as soon as possible. The most common route for obtaining a green card requires advertising the job in a variety of channels, including the job title, requirements and company name. However, it would have caused instability among the company’s staff, customers and investors if they saw that the company was recruiting a new CEO. We needed to come up with a solution that was more discreet.  

• Given that the standard route was not a feasible option for our client, we devised an elite “self-sponsoring” green card strategy in the EB-1 (extraordinary ability) category that would not require our client to publicly advertise its open CEO position.   
• To support this effort, we developed a comprehensive dossier of the CEO’s career accolades, including his high remuneration, awards, critical roles in distinguished organizations and evidence of his judging the work of others in the industry, along with numerous testimonials from other luminaries in the industry.   

Our innovative legal strategy was well received by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), and the elite immigrant visa petition was approved in a few weeks. We were then able to file applications to adjust the status for the CEO and his spouse, along with a work permit application for his spouse, which were also approved relatively quickly.