EB-1C Family Receives Green Card in 9 Months without Interview

Entrepreneur, L-1, EB-1C,
Due to the waiting period, more and more entrepreneurs are moving toward the L-1 to EB-1C green card option or even applying directly for an EB-1C green card.

Tsang & Associates, PLC has recently received a series of good reports from multinational manager clients within half a month: EB-1C I-140 approval; L-1 transfer manager extension approval; and an EB-1C executive received a green card directly without interview for 9 months, they are from mainland China and Hong Kong, we will share with our readers in phases We will share the success stories and tips with our readers in phases. Here we will first look at the case of EB-1C Green Card without interview.

Year: 2020
Beneficiary (transfer supervisor): Mr. Zhao
Company sector: Asset investment and management companies
Hong Kong Company: Established in 1988, 36 employees
US company: Established in 2000, 8 employee
Beneficiary Position: Project Manager

Introduction
Mr. Chiu has over 20 years of experience in the asset management industry. Due to his outstanding working ability, he was assigned by the Hong Kong head office to the Los Angeles office to manage the projects and business in California.

In 2017, the Los Angeles firm hired Joseph Tsang Tsang’s legal team at Tsang & Associates to apply for a three-year L-1A multinational corporation manager work visa (5/2017~4/2020) for Mr. Zhao in a single petition; and later filed an EB-1C green card petition for Mr. Zhao’s family.

Challenges
U.S. companies have slowed business expansion since 2016 and are beginning to downsize staff and projects in 2019; the company manages tourism and hospitality projects in the very sectors that will be hit hard by the 2020 epidemic, hit by massive layoffs and likely to shut down at any time; and

• A significant reduction in the company’s workforce, including management, disrupted the original employee organization chart and made it difficult to obtain the documents and signatures required in the application.

Mr. Chiu is managing a project that is nearing completion and may be sent back to work in Hong Kong next.

• Application Timeline and Plan: Mr. Zhao’s L-1 will expire on 4/30, but the current Combo Card (EAD+AP) processing is slow, and Mr. Zhao is anxious whether he will receive his Combo Card before the L-1 expires, otherwise he will not be able to continue working in the U.S.

Before filing his I-485 adjustment of status application, Mr. Zhao discussed his work and life plans with Mr. Zang’s team several times, stating that his company might send him back to Hong Kong at any time and he would not be able to complete his I-485 adjustment of status, but both of his children loved the U.S. and wanted to stay and study. The family was torn for a long time and could not decide.

Finally, Joseph Tsang and Chen analyzed the time and pros and cons of adjusting status in the United States and returning to Hong Kong to apply for an immigrant visa for Mr. Chiu’s family, and encouraged Mr. Chiu to file his I-485 application first as soon as possible, so that he could still possibly complete his green card application before he returned to Hong Kong.

Key to Success
Race against time to file the I-485 adjustment of status application early.
After Mr. Zhao agreed to our proposed program opportunity, Mr. Zang’s team completed a full set of I-485 adjustment of status application for all four of Mr. Zhao’s family and submitted it within 1 month: 11/27/2019 USCIS received the application; 02/07/2020 I-765 fingerprinted, 4/22 Combo card mailed, received the combo card before the L-1 expired, without affecting On 8/28, the I-485 application was approved directly, and the green card was subsequently mailed.

L-1 extension bridging and arrangement, double insurance.
Although the adjustment of status application was filed for Mr. Zhao as soon as possible and explained that he could receive the Combo card in about 5 months, Mr. Zhao was still very anxious that he would not receive the Combo card before the L-1 expired. In order to make sure that everything is in order, we filed an L-1 extension petition for Mr. Zhao on 4/6, and although we did not opt for the premium processing, USCIS approved the extension petition directly on 4/23. On 4/22 and 4/23, Mr. Zhao received the good news of Combo Card and L-1 extension approval one after another, and his heart finally dropped!

company and project development plan, explaining why Mr. Zhao was still needed to continue to serve the U.S. company; application materials were fully in place to seek a waiver of the interview.
Mr. Zhao’s status was fully connected, but soon his heart was torn again. Because under the epidemic, the U.S. company’s business was shrinking rapidly and there were significant layoffs, how could he prove to the USCIS during the interview that the company was still growing normally? How to prove to the USCIS that the company is still growing normally and that he still needs to continue to manage it in the US as an executive? In this regard, Mr. Zang’s business consultant drafted a revised company development plan based on the situation of Mr. Zhao’s U.S. company and the epidemic, including the temporary correction of the company’s business, the unpaid leave and layoff of employees during the epidemic, the expected increase of business and staff demand after the epidemic ended, etc., which reasonably explained that the company still needed Mr. Zhao as an executive to continue to manage the company in the U.S., and did not deny the application due to the immediate difficulties. We also tried to prepare the company and Mr. Zhao’s documents as fully as possible and presented the best possible status. The USCIS ultimately approved Mr. Zhao’s family’s green card without requiring him to appear for an interview.


Outcome
In early September, all four members of Mr. Zhao’s family received their green cards, which are valid for 10 years, and the whole family is very happy! The family was so happy! They never thought that their Combo Card, L-1 extension and green card would be approved despite the serious impact of the epidemic! Mr. Zhao was so worried that he came to thank all the members of Mr. Zang’s team. He was so grateful for helping them with the initial L-1 application and getting their green cards in the past 3 years! Now they don’t have to worry about their children studying in the U.S., and they have their own jobs, so they are finally relieved.

Conclusion
Due to the waiting period, more and more entrepreneurs are moving towards the L-1 to EB-1C green card option, or even directly applying for an EB-1C green card. Some applicants are misled into the “program” by agents, thinking that they will be able to get a status for the money they spend, not knowing that it is not an easy task to open a company in the U.S., and that there are many difficulties in meeting the requirements of the USCIS to start a company under the new Trump administration. We have seen many entrepreneurs come to the U.S. to start their own business, and although Mr. Zhao did not start his own company, the ups and downs of the company under the influence of the general environment also made him worry and feel scared.

Therefore, every time a client proposes to get a green card through L-1, we would like to have a chance to talk with him/her so that the applicant can fully understand the focus of the whole process, especially the difficulties and variables involved, so that he/she will not find out that it is a big hole only after the application goes on. Immigration is a big decision for families, and making a mistake can cause irreparable damage. We sincerely hope that each of our clients will be willing to continue after recognizing the current situation and work together with us to finally achieve their initial dream as they wish.

*To protect customer privacy, customer names are pseudonyms.