A green card through your own US company: when it can carry you

If you have built a business, you don't want to wait for some other employer to sponsor you. Your own company can be the key to a green card, but every route asks something different of it: a parent company abroad, an endeavor of national importance, a genuine job open to the labor market, or an investment that creates ten jobs. This guide shows which route your company can carry.

The question comes up in almost every conversation with founders: can my own company sponsor me? The short answer is yes. The long answer depends on which company you mean. A company back home with a US subsidiary opens different routes than a US company you formed on your own. And a business with twenty employees supports different petitions than one where you are the only person.

USCIS doesn't sort entrepreneurs into good and bad. It asks whether your company can play the role each route assigns to it: employer, vehicle, evidence or investment. This guide goes through the routes in the order they usually become relevant for European entrepreneurs.

1Can your own company sponsor you?

A US company is a separate legal entity. It can sign an employment contract with you, pay you a salary and file a petition for you as your employer, even if you own it. The law doesn't forbid this. But the more control you have over the employer, the closer the scrutiny.

That gives you two groups of routes. With EB-1C and PERM, the company is the petitioner and has to meet the requirements an agency sets for employers: a year in business, ability to pay, a genuine position. With the NIW, EB-1A and EB-5, you file the petition yourself. The company is then where you carry out your endeavor, prove your achievements or invest your capital. The table below sets the roles side by side.

One thing applies to every route: a company that exists only on paper won't help. USCIS looks at revenue, employees, contracts, tax returns and premises. A US company with a place of business, its own bank account and ongoing bookkeeping is the foundation every one of these routes starts from.

2EB-1C: the US subsidiary of your company at home

If you own an established business in Europe, the EB-1C is the most obvious route. It covers managers and executives who, in the three years before the petition, worked abroad for at least one year in a managerial or executive role. If you are already working in the US for the US company, the three years before your last entry on a temporary visa count.

The US company must be related to the company abroad: the same company, a subsidiary or an affiliate. It must have been doing business for at least one year and offer you a managerial or executive position, described in a letter that clearly sets out your duties. No labor certification is needed. In return, the US company has to prove it can pay your salary.

The usual path there runs through the L-1A. Your company at home transfers you to the new US subsidiary. For a new office, the first approval lasts one year at most, and during that time the subsidiary has to become able to support a genuine executive position. Once it has done that and has been in business for a year, the building blocks of the EB-1C are in place. What this looks like for small subsidiaries is covered in the guide EB-1C for small and new US subsidiaries; the entry through a new office is described in L-1 for a new US office.

3What USCIS means by manager and executive

For small companies, the EB-1C rarely fails on the year abroad. It fails on whether you truly lead. The regulations draw two lines. A first-line supervisor isn't a manager just because they supervise others, unless the people supervised are professionals themselves. And headcount isn't a criterion on its own: USCIS must consider the reasonable needs of the business at its stage of development, but may not treat anyone as a manager based on the number of employees alone.

For you as the owner, that means the petition has to show that others do the operational work while you direct the company, a department or an essential function. If you sell, deliver and write invoices yourself in the US subsidiary, you risk USCIS seeing you as someone who does the work rather than manages it. The difference between managing people and managing a function is covered in depth in the guide Manager, executive or function manager.

4EB-2 NIW: the company as your endeavor

If you have no company abroad to transfer you, the National Interest Waiver may be the route. You file the I-140 yourself, with no job offer and no labor certification. First you need the EB-2 basis: an advanced degree, meaning a degree above a bachelor's or a bachelor's plus five years of progressive experience in the field, or exceptional ability meeting at least three of six criteria.

USCIS states explicitly that you can pursue your endeavor through your own company. But it's the endeavor that gets examined, not the company. If it only benefits your business or your clients, that isn't enough. USCIS gives examples: founding a consultancy for an important industry or opening a car dealership doesn't prove national importance just because the industry matters. What can persuade is evidence such as interest from customers, investors or partners, early progress toward the endeavor, and a plan that fits your education and experience.

At the third prong, being a founder actually helps: USCIS recognizes that it can be impractical for an entrepreneur to secure a job offer from a US employer. How founders build an NIW case is shown in the guide NIW for entrepreneurs and founders.

5EB-1A: when your business proves your acclaim

The EB-1A is the category with the highest bar. You have to prove sustained national or international acclaim, with a major international award or three of ten criteria. Several of them suit entrepreneurs: original contributions of major significance to the field (business contributions explicitly included), a leading or critical role in distinguished organizations, a salary well above the norm in the field, and coverage of you in trade or major media.

6PERM through your own company: the bona fide job offer test

In theory, your US company can also take the classic PERM route for you: prevailing wage, recruitment, labor certification, I-140. In practice, owners run into a rule written for exactly this case. If the employer is a closely held company you have a stake in, if you are related to owners or officers, or if you are one of only a few employees, the employer must prove in an audit that there is a bona fide job offer open to any US applicant.

That's hard when the job is the owner's. The employer has to offer at least the prevailing wage, advertise the position under strict rules, genuinely consider US applicants, and may not be reimbursed for the costs of the process, not even by you. For a company where you are the head, this route rarely fits. For an established company where you hold a clearly defined specialist role and others make the hiring decisions, it can work. The process in detail is covered in the guide Green card through your employer.

7EB-5: your own company as the investment

The EB-5 is the route where your company is neither employer nor evidence, but the target of your investment. If you invest directly in a new business of your own, the amount is $1,050,000, or $800,000 in a targeted employment area or for an infrastructure project. For petitions filed from 1 January 2027, the law adjusts the amounts for inflation.

The business must create or preserve at least ten full-time jobs for qualifying employees. Qualifying means US citizens, permanent residents and other immigrants authorized to work. You, your spouse and your children do not count, and neither do employees on temporary visas. For your own company, that means the ten jobs must be genuine full-time positions for other people, not for your family. The guide Green Card through Investment walks you through this route step by step.

8What the company has to show

On the routes where your company is the employer, USCIS examines it like any other employer. The most important point is ability to pay: the company must show that it can pay the offered wage from the priority date until the day you become a permanent resident. As evidence, the regulation requires annual reports, federal tax returns or audited financial statements. A young company with no tax return and no audited statements does not have this evidence yet.

This leads to a practical rule: your US company's tax returns often become part of your green card application. A corporation that files a clean Form 1120, pays a salary through proper payroll and reports a profit is a very different employer from one that runs everything through owner draws. If you plan to get your green card through your own company, align the company's structure, your salary and the tax returns with that goal from day one. The table below sums up what gets checked.

9The sequence: company, visa, green card

For most entrepreneurs, a green card through their own company is not a single application but a sequence. If you have a company abroad, you set up the US subsidiary, come over on an L-1A, build the subsidiary so it supports an executive position, and file the EB-1C after one year of business operations. The L-1A is expressly compatible with a green card application: the law states that seeking permanent residence is not evidence against temporary intent on an L visa.

If you don't have a company abroad, you often come on an E-2 and pursue the NIW, the EB-1A or the EB-5 from there. How these transitions work for each visa is covered in the guide From Visa to Green Card.

Either way, a lot is decided at formation: which company holds the shares, who runs the business, how the capital flows, how the salary is paid. If you form the company first and think about the green card later, you often end up with a structure that can't support the application. For an overview of every route, see the guide Green Card for Entrepreneurs.

In short

• Your own US company can play a role in five ways: as the employer for EB-1C and PERM, as the vehicle for the NIW, as evidence for the EB-1A and as the investment for the EB-5.
• The EB-1C requires a company abroad that your US company is affiliated with, one year in an executive or managerial role there, and a US company that has been doing business for at least one year.
• PERM through your own company is possible, but with ownership, family ties or few employees, the company must prove a bona fide job offer in an audit.
• For the NIW, what counts is not the company but the national importance of your endeavor; the importance of the industry alone is not enough.

How we help you

• Visa Roadmap for Company FormationFormation and visa in one plan, so the company carries the visa.
• Visa RoadmapIn writing: which visa fits you and your family, prepared with the immigration attorney on the firm's team.
• Form a CorporationThe US corporation (Inc) for growth, investors and your visa.
• Delaware holdingThe holding above your US companies, with one consolidated tax return.
• Tax structureA clean structure between parent company and US subsidiary, or between you and your US company, coordinated with your accountant.
• Visa and Green Card ConsultationWhich route to the USA fits you, settled in one conversation.