EB1-C Multinational Manager porting I-485 to self-employment

gerardsmith

New Member
Hi,

I am currently on an L1-A visa in the US which expires in Dec 2024. My I-140 got approved early November 2023 and my I-485 has been pending since December 2023 (so almost 6 months). I am in this current multinational manager job since my admission in the US in Dec 2021 (and I have been in Canada in this position before entering the US).

I cashed out of my business many years ago and don't need to work for a living anymore. I worked several years for my employer running a US P&L with no issue. Our visions have changed recently, things are getting reorganized and it is getting harder for me to continue in this role. To be quite frank, for now, I am getting miserable and I only continue to finish this immigration process and get my green card after which I will retire (or at least take a long break from work). Given that I am a shareholder of the company, I will have some considerable non-competition clauses to respect after I leave. Therefore, finding a new job in my field in my region won't be an easy process ( I can get sued if I don't respect this clause). I have a valid 5 years EAD. I don't know how long it can take before my case is approved.

I already consulted two attorneys to help me find solutions, but none of them have been really helpful. One solution I am thinking of trying is porting my AOS to self-employment. My idea is:

- I already own a holding company that fully operates in the US (with an EIN, etc) which has significant capital in it. I could create a new one if need be.
- I could use this company (or a new one) as my new employer which would offer me a management consultant or advisor position (meeting all USCIS EB1-C requirements).
- I would act as an external consultant with clients as a manager (in a similar occupation with the correct SOC code) for them.
- My company would pay me the exact salary I am earning with my current employer (I could even use a payroll service like TriNet to process everything)
- If luck is good then I have clients, I earn good money, I am happy and everything goes well.
- If luck is not good, then I don't have clients, I play golf, enjoy life and I don't care.

Please don't waste time telling me I should stay with my current employer until the GC is approved (and ultimately resign a few months after), I already know that, I am looking for solutions.

It sounds like an edge case that few people have gone through. Anyone already tried this? Did it work out or not?

I am also looking for any great ideas here? Like for example, what if I am getting so demotivated over time that my employment is terminated, but I don't find a new job, my case is analyzed, they send an RFE asking for my work situation. My plan would be to get a termination letter of course as an evidence. How is USCIS gonna react to this? I have this 2 years non-complete clause and I can't find a new job for now. Would they deny my case or approve it?
 
Hi - I have a similar case to you. My job which I didn't need the income got pretty toxic. I looked into self petition, but could not find a lawyer that had successfully done it before, a few said sure, but could not provide me with similar cases they had executed on.

May I ask which attorney / immigration firm you are using?

In my case, I decided to port my application to another employer and currently am riding out the process until I get GC (change of status I485).
 
Hi,

Thanks for sharing. I used Richard and Jurusik for I-140 and I-485. However, they can’t help me with the porting because of the conflict of interest. Therefore, I consulted Sunmer Immigration to get advised on the porting to self-employment and or other potential solutions (other than going to work for another employer which will be last resort in my case).

Well, they could answered my questions and it seems pretty feasible, but without real experience it’s risky to try and have to restart from zero if it fails.

At this point I am just thinking of riding it out until GC approval or until I get kicked out. Whatever happen I will live with the consequences.
 
Thanks for sharing sir! Good luck with your situation. Hope you get GC soon.

When I was considering self petition, this is the lawyer that I found could potentially do the job

Check out Alexandra Michailov and their article his article on porting on their website - cilawgroup

He did mention that self petition is heavily scrutinized, and it will be very officer specific
 
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