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How do freelancers close the high-remuneration criterion?

Key answer

Being self-employed is not a blocker: official income documents work - tax filings, bank statements, client contracts. The harder step is the market comparison. The community advises comparing your personal income against salaried professionals in the same occupation and region, without emphasizing the legal form.

Community answers

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

  • You must prove that the income was personally received by you (an official tax certificate is acceptable - sole proprietorship, self-employment, 2-NDFL, what difference does it make) and that it was earned from professional activities related to your application.

  • There are two stages regarding salary. The first - prove that you received income: for sole proprietorships, it's bank statements, contracts, declarations. The second - compare with similar individuals, and here is where it gets complicated for sole proprietorships: where to source comparison data.

  • If you can confirm your income and it is genuinely above the market average, you can state: history of account deposits plus contracts with clients.

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: Founders and business

Related on this site

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

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