L-1 Visa Intracompany Transferees

General Points 1. Temporary visa – up to seven years for L-1A visa holders & five years for L-1B visa holders. 2. Permanent residency (Green card) application can be filed by L-1A and L-1B visa holders. Furthermore, L-1A visa holders can bypass the lengthy and expensive labor certification step in the process and thereby expedite the process. 3. L-1 visa available to all qualified individuals. 4. Large volume of supporting documentation required. 5. Applicant must have worked in business abroad for at least one year out of the past three years. 6. Applicant must be coming to America as a manager/executive or as a ‘specialized worker’. 7. The spouse of an L-1 visa holder is eligible for a work permit, and children may attend school until the age of 21. 8. Currently there are no caps or quotas for the L-1, although this may change in the future. Background One of the main requirements for the L-1 visa is that an employee of the foreign company must have also worked as an executive, managerial or 'specialized knowledge' capacity for the foreign entity (in India/UK/etc) for at least one continuous year in the past three years before coming to America. The employee then must be sponsored to work in the same capacity for the US entity. An executive or manager (L-1A) may work in the US for up to seven years, while the 'specialized knowledge' employee (L-1B) has up to five years. The L-1 visa is, unfortunately, under attack. Recently, as jobs become even more scarce, the media has started targeting L-1 visas, especially in the context of Indian IT companies. Some politicians are beginning to target the advantages of the L-1 visa. Among the proposals are the capping of L-1 visas at 35,000 annually, ending blanket applications and preventing laid-off workers to be replaced with L-1s. The L-1 is being increasingly used by international entrepreneurs because it is extremely flexible as well as the fact that currently there is no quota or cap. Also, while the spouse and children of H1B visa applicants cannot work in the US, in the case of L-1 visas they are entitled to L-2 visas and can obtain a work permit. One of the other advantages that a L-1 visa has over H1-B is that it allows the holder to work in the US for seven years instead of six and, furthermore, the L-1 does not require the employee to have a college or university degree. Another distinct advantage of the L-1 visa is that a citizen of any country in the world can utilize it - unlike an E-2 visa which requires the petitioner to be a citizen of a treaty-ratified country (The UK/Canada among others qualify, however, India is not on the list of E-1 or E-2 treaty countries). Also unlike an E-2 visa, the L-1 visa allows for dual-intent, meaning that an individual on an L-1 status can petition for and become a legal permanent resident (green card holder) and eventually a citizen. An executive level (L-1A) employee can even bypass the time consuming, risky, and expensive labor certification process. Finally, there is no 'substantial invesment' requirement for the L-1 either.