L1 Visa Attorney

Expert Immigration Attorneys in Orlando Help Clients with L-1 Visa Applications

The primary purpose of an L-1 visa, or L1 - Intra-Company Visa, is to allow managers and executives or specialized knowledge employees who work for a foreign company to transfer to a related US company parent, subsidiary or branch of the foreign company. The manager or executive may come to work for an existing company or alternatively set up a new office. There is also the possibility for large companies to apply for a blanket L-1 visa, which allows them to frequently transfer employees by giving them permission to do so, without having to apply for each individual employee.

Benefits of the L-1 visa

• The most beneficial aspects of an L-1 visa are that the visa holder can carry dual intent, this means that the L-1A visa holder can apply for permanent residence. This is a big advantage over other types of visas such as the E-2 investor visa which specifically does not allow dual intent.
• Your dependents, meaning your children and spouse, can apply for a derivative L-1 visa.
• The L-1 visa does not have an education requirement. This is unlike the H-1B which requires a bachelor degree or its equivalent.
• The pressure to create employment opportunities is lower in the L-1 visa context; compared to the EB-5 which requires at least ten jobs to be created.
• If you opt for the premium processing procedure, then the L-1 visa can be processed within about two weeks. Furthermore, unlike the H-1B visa, there is no upper limit on the amount of L1 visa's that can be issued.
• The L-1A holder who applies for permanent residence will be able to skip the labor certification process (a highly costly and technical procedure) when applying for a permanent green card.
• You can travel in and out the US while the L-1 visa is valid, allowing you to divide your work between the US company and another country.
• The minimum investment required for the L-1 visa is much lower than that of the E-B5, half a million or million-dollar investment program, or the E-2 visa, thus allowing a wider pool of selection.

Key Features of the L-1 Visa

1. Your first visa will be for one year for a new office and up to three years for other employees, then you may apply for extensions of two years at a time for up to seven years.
2. You can only work for the company who petitioned for you to be in the US.
3. Visas for your spouse and children under 21 years old are available.
4. Your spouse may apply for work authorization in the US.
5. You may travel in and out the US, allowing you to divide your work between the US company and another country.
6. This visa has dual intent, you may seek a green card.

L1 Visa Requirements

Generally, the L-1 visa has two sub-categories:

• L-1A for executives and managers
• L-1B for workers with a specialized knowledge.

The general L-1 visa requirements are as follows:

1. The foreign company and the US Company must have a qualifying relationship, meaning that the company is either a parent, branch, affiliate, or subsidiary of the foreign company operating abroad.
   
   

   Parent Company: A firm, corporation or other legal entity that has controlling ownership in other companies, which are called subsidiaries. For example, a foreign parent company owns at least 50% of a US company, and has control over the entity. Another example would be if a US parent company owns at least 50% of the foreign company and has control over the entity. Finally, the U.S. and foreign companies can each be owned at least 50% by the same parent company.

   Subsidiary: A firm, corporation or other legal entity that is directly or indirectly owned by another legal entity, a parent company. A parent-subsidiary relationship exists when: 1) the parent owns at least 50% and controls the entity or 2) owns 50% in a joint venture with one other company where they have equal control or 3) owns less than 50% of the entity but in fact controls the entity.

   Branch: A branch for this purpose is an office or operating division within the same business organization but located in another country. A branch is not a legal entity, and thus would not require the registration of a company. However, the foreign entity would have to register with the State where the branch is located as doing business through the branch office.

   Affiliate: One of two subsidiaries owned and controlled by the same parent company or by the same individual or group of individuals. When a group of individuals owns the entities, they are considered affiliates if, within the group, each person owns and controls approximately the same share proportion of each entity.

2. The US Company must be doing business as an employer in the United States and at least one other country for the duration of the employee’s  L-1 visa. For companies that have been providing regular, systematic, and continuous provision of goods and/or services, for over one year, evidence of such will have to be provided at the petition stage. For a new office, a company that has been doing business for less than one year, the evidence may be prospective, though the company must already have a lease in place to accommodate its future expansion. Additionally, the US company as a new office must show that, within one year of the approval of the L-1 Visa petition, it will be doing business as defined above and it will support an executive or managerial position. Additionally, for a new office, the employer should demonstrate the size of the U.S. investment and the financial ability of the foreign entity to remunerate the employee and to commence doing business in the U.S.
   
   
3. The employee must have been employed abroad in a managerial role, executive role, or have a specialized knowledge of the role in which he is undertaking.
   
   
4. The employee must have worked for the foreign company full-time for one continuous year within three years immediately preceding her or her admission into the US.
   
   
5. The employee’s prospective employment in the US must also be in a managerial, executive or a specialized knowledge capacity.

How Long is an L1 Visa Good for?

Upon approval, the L1 visa applicant will be granted an authorization of stay valid for a period of up to three years (one for new offices). The foreign national can be granted extensions up to a maximum of seven years in total for L-1A workers, or five years for L-1B workers.

The dependents of the L1 visa holder (spouse and unmarried children under 21) will usually be granted visas of the same length.

The L-1 Visa Process

The L1 Visa process may come in on or two steps, depending on the location of the applicant and travel plans.

The employer will have to file a Petition for Non-immigrant worker on behalf of the employee with USCIS which can also include a request for change or extension of status if the foreign individual decides to do so. If the individual is located abroad, then, the employer will request the approval of the petition only with a request of notification of approval to the U.S. Consulate of choice where the individual will apply for the L1 visa.

What Exactly Constitutes a Managerial or Executive Role and What is Specialized Knowledge?

'Managerial capacity' generally means that the employee manages the organization, takes control of other supervisors, or manages some form of function, and (or) has the authority to "hire and fire." 'Executive role'  is that the employee generally oversees the management of the company, has vast latitude of management in the company and (or) sets goals and targets for the company.

Whether the employee’s position is qualifiable as executive or managerial will widely dependent on the overall existing hierarchy of the foreign organization, the number of employees supervised, their managerial functions, their duties, and the employee’s description of job duties. USCIS will assess how much time the employee spends on managerial/executive duties versus basic tasks that cannot be qualified as such.

Finally, having a specialized knowledge  means that the employee has an advanced level of knowledge in his particular field and is reasonably qualified in his particular area of expertise. A specialized knowledge employee must show a level of knowledge of the company’s product, services, research, equipment, techniques, management, or other interests and its application in international markets, or an advanced level of knowledge or expertise in the organization’s processes and procedures.

Applying for an L-1 Visa

The terms, conditions and application for this type of visa can be tedious and complicated. To ensure your application is correctly completed, we strongly advise you to talk to an experienced  L1 Visa Attorney. Suzanne E. Vazquez and Maud Poudat are both certified as experts in Immigration and Nationality Law by the Florida Bar and have helped many businesses and executives from around the world to successfully  apply for L1 Visas. We will make sure every aspect is being considered to get the visa application approved and to maximize your chances of getting it successfully renewed.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for a more detailed description of what exactly the related terms cover or for more general information. You may call us at (407) 674-6968, fill out the online form located on this page and we will get back to you promptly.