| L-1 Intracompany Transferees
Intracompany transferees are aliens who come to the United
States to work in a managerial, executive or specialized knowledge
capacity for a U.S. parent, branch, affiliate or subsidiary
of their foreign employer. In order to qualify for the visa,
the alien must have been employed continuously with the foreign
employer for one year during the previous three years. A manager
is defined by the regulations as an employee who manages the
organization or a department, supervises the work of other
professional employees, has the authority to hire and fire
and exercises discretion over the day to day operations of
the organization or his department. An executive directs the
management of the organization, establishes goals and policies,
exercises wide latitude in discretionary decision making and
receives only general supervision from higher level executives.
A specialized knowledge employee is a professional possessing
special knowledge of the company’s particular product or service.
Managers and executives are eligible for the L1-A visa, while
specialized knowledge employees are eligible for the L1-B
visa.
Individual Petitions
A qualifying U.S. company (petitioner) must be a parent,
branch, affiliate or subsidiary of the foreign company. The
U.S. company must be doing business actively in the U.S.,
and not be merely exist as an office or agent of the foreign
company. The foreign company must also continue to operate
during the validity of the L-1 petition.
The petition must be filed with:
- Evidence of the qualifying relationship between the U.S.
and the foreign employer;
- Evidence that the employee’s prior year of employment
abroad was in a position that was managerial, executive,
or involved specialized knowledge;
- Evidence that the employee’s prior education, training
and employment qualify them to perform the intended services
in the U.S. (the work in the U.S. need not be the same work
that the employee performed abroad);
- Evidence that the employee will be employed in an executive
or managerial capacity or in a position involving specialized
knowledge, including a detailed description of the services
to be performed.
If the employee is coming to the U.S. as an executive or manager
to open a new office or to be employed in an office that has
been open for less than one year, then the petition must include
the following additional evidence:
- Sufficient physical premises to house the new office have
been secured;
- The employee has been employed for one continuous year
in the three year period preceding the filing of the petition
in an execute or managerial capacity and the proposed employment
involves executive or managerial authority over the new
operation; and
- Within one year of approval, the intended U.S. operation
will support an executive or managerial position.
If the employee is coming to the U.S. to work in a specialized
knowledge capacity, the following additional evidence is required:
- Sufficient physical premises to house the new office have
been secured;
- The business entity in the U.S. is or will be a qualifying
organization with respect to its affiliation with the foreign
entity; and
- The petitioner has the financial ability to remunerate
the employee and to commence doing business in the U.S.
Blanket Petitions Certain large multinational corporations
who regularly file "L" petitions may wish to obtain continuing
approval of all branches of its organization as qualifying.
This simplifies the process of approving and admitting additional
individual L-1A and L-1B workers. In order to qualify for
blanket approval, the petitioner must meet the following requirements:
- the petitioner and each of the entities sought to be qualified
are engaged in commercial trade or services;
- the petitioner has an office in the U.S. that has been
doing business for one year or more;
- the petitioner has three or more domestic and foreign
branches, subsidiaries or affiliates;
- the petitioner and its affiliates have obtained approval
of petitions for at least ten "L" managers, executives or
specialized knowledge professionals during the previous
twelve months; or have U.S. subsidiaries or affiliates with
combined annual sales of at least $25 million; or have a
U.S. work force of at least 1,000 employees.
Limitations on Stay The initial period of stay for
an L-1 employee is one (1) year in a new office and three
(3) years in an existing office. Extensions can be obtained
in increments of two (2) years for a maximum of seven (7)
years for managers and executives and five (5) years for specialized
knowledge professionals. Indefinite extensions may be obtained
for employees whose annual U.S. stay in L-1 status (and the
annual stay of their dependent family members) does not exceed
six (6) months in the aggregate. An employee who has exhausted
his five (5) or seven (7) year maximum stay must depart the
U.S. for a period of one continuous year in order to re-enter
in L-1 status.
L-1 executives and managers whose duties become permanent
during their stay in L-1 status may qualify for permanent
residency under the employment based first preference (EB-1)
category. For a specific discussion of permanent residence
for multinational executives and managers, click here.
Dependents
Spouses and minor children of L-1 employees are eligible
to accompany the L-1 employee to the U.S. in L-2 status. L-2
spouses are currently eligible to file for employment authorization
incident to their status. Such employment authorization is
valid for any type of lawful employment in the United States.
L-2 minor children are not eligible to receive employment
authorization incident to their status.
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