E-2 Executive Employees

The filing should describe decisions, authority, strategic responsibilities, financial control, personnel authority, and responsibility for major business functions.

An E-2 executive employee should principally and primarily perform executive work. The position description should identify authority over policy, strategy, major business functions, budgets, personnel, contracts, or other matters that affect the direction of the enterprise. Current regulations and State Department guidance distinguish genuine executive responsibility from routine staff work. Some incidental operational activity may occur, especially in a smaller company, but the record should show that high level direction and discretionary decision making remain the primary function. Specific decisions and areas of authority are stronger than broad management labels.

An organizational chart can demonstrate reporting lines, subordinate personnel, management layers, and the component controlled by the executive.

The employee’s place in the organization is a central part of the executive analysis. The filing should identify who owns the business, who sets overall policy, who reports to the employee, and what part of the enterprise the employee controls. An organization chart can be supported by payroll, position descriptions, board or manager resolutions, and evidence of actual departments and staff. State Department guidance expressly considers organizational placement when evaluating executive responsibility. The structure should demonstrate authority over the enterprise or a major component rather than merely seniority within a small operating team.

The officer may examine the degree to which the employee controls the enterprise or a major component rather than simply carrying out decisions made by others.

Executive responsibility should involve meaningful authority to determine policy or direct the enterprise or a major component of it. The filing should explain the decisions the employee can make without routine approval, the budgets or functions controlled, and the scope of responsibility for business results. Evidence may include resolutions, delegated authority, signature authority, budgets, strategic plans, contracts, or correspondence reflecting decision making. Where another owner or officer retains ultimate authority, the record should still identify the executive sphere entrusted to the employee and avoid overstating control that the governing documents do not provide.

The number and skill levels of employees supervised are relevant, although no fixed staffing formula controls every case.

The number and skill level of employees supervised are relevant but not governed by a fixed numerical formula. The record should identify managers, professionals, supervisors, operational employees, and contractors beneath or around the executive and explain who performs routine work. Supervision of low level employees by itself is generally not enough to establish an executive position. In a smaller enterprise, staffing evidence becomes especially important because a senior title carries less weight when only a few people perform the business’s daily functions. Payroll and job descriptions should support the organization chart.

Resume, employer letters, prior positions, promotions, compensation, education, and management experience can support the applicant's ability to perform the proposed role.

The employee’s prior experience should support the level of responsibility proposed in the United States. A resume alone may be too general. Employer letters, promotion records, compensation history, organizational charts, project records, training, and evidence of prior decision authority can show that the applicant has performed comparable executive work. State Department guidance specifically considers qualifying executive or supervisory experience as one factor. The evidence should connect prior experience to the current assignment and should not imply that past executive status automatically proves that the new US position is itself executive.

Organizational charts, payroll, job descriptions, board resolutions, budgets, contracts, company policies, and employer letters can corroborate executive authority.

Objective company records should corroborate the executive narrative. Useful evidence can include organizational charts, payroll, detailed job descriptions, board or manager resolutions, budgets, signing authority, contracts, internal policies, strategic plans, and communications showing responsibility for major decisions. The evidence should demonstrate both the employee’s authority and the operating structure that permits the employee to exercise it. Where the company is newly formed or small, the record should explain how executive duties remain primary despite limited staffing. A coherent factual record is more persuasive than repeating the words executive or manager throughout the filing.