My title was ‘senior developer’. I managed 6 devs. Does that count as managerial?

It depends on what your role actually involved. In the EB-1, what makes a position managerial is not the title on your badge (‘senior developer’), but the set of responsibilities you carried out day to day.

Leading a team of developers tends to work in your favor when you can show you went beyond technical delivery. Some signs of managerial activity:

• Supervising people: setting goals, evaluating performance, and guiding the team.
• Making strategic decisions about the product, roadmap, or processes.
• Coordinating projects and being accountable for the final outcome, not just individual tasks.

If your day-to-day mixed coding and management, that does not disqualify the managerial nature of the role; what matters is documenting your actual responsibilities well. Job descriptions, org charts, letters from managers, and concrete examples of decisions you led all help support that reading.

Since each case is evaluated individually by the relevant authority, it is worth checking the USCIS updated criteria and reviewing with a specialist how to frame your experience before you file.

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Victoria Harper

Editor-in-Chief

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As a journalist and lead editor at Visto n’ Visa, Victoria helps ensure that immigration topics are covered in a clear, trustworthy, and easy-to-understand way. Her focus is on delivering useful, human, and relevant content for people exploring new paths abroad.