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Foreign-company salary: which country do I compare against?

Key answer

You compare your income against the market of the country where you actually worked and paid taxes, for your occupation. If a foreign company pays you remotely, the community advises comparing against the local market for the role, backed by several statistics sources. Officers usually dispute the comparison method, not the number.

Community answers

The answers below are translated from the original Russian - the language of the community chats.

  • Salary as a criterion works much better if it is high by US standards. There, you can show exceeding the average by not just several times based on the job/experience/region combination, but starting at about 50%.

  • The amount of excess is often not the main or even the second most common reason why salary is not counted. You should think about the actual numbers third - first, consider how the comparison is presented.

  • I never said I was a sole proprietor: I had a tax report for three years with monthly income, and throughout the petition, I listed my professional title - and I compared myself to that title on the market in my country.

The answers are anonymized community experience from the public chats, not legal advice. Officers may decide similar cases differently.

Why "High remuneration" gets refused

Accepted in 14% of challenged petitions (23 of 160); not an approval rate.

It is not shown that the pay is high RELATIVE to others in the same occupation and location. An amount on its own proves nothing without a comparison base.

All refusal grounds and the sample

Sources

All questions on: Salary and incomeAll questions on: EB-1AAll questions on: O-1 visa

Related on this site

Similar questions

A reference page built from community experience, not legal advice. Requirements and practice change - verify on uscis.gov.

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