L1 Visa - Intracompany Transfer

The L visa (or Work Visa ) is a visa mostly used by companies to transfer their employees between the United States and their country. The L1 Visa is for intracompany transfers who work in the Managerial or Executive position in a company that is located outside the United States. The L2 Visa is for Intracompany transfers which requires special knowledge.

There must be a relationship between the company in the United States and the company overseas. In other words, if you own a company in your home country, and then open up a branch within the United States, you could then apply to transfer your company’s manager or executive to your branch in the United States. For new companies, a new business visa is usually issued for one year and after one year it is usually extended for three years. You can also file for your green card at that point as well.

The first requirement is that there must be a relationship between the company in the United States and the company outside the United States.

The second requirement is that you must have worked in the foreign company for at least one year in the last three years. If it is a part time employment overseas, then it must be double the time and the U.S. company must be a qualifying organization which means that it is doing business in the US and in your country during the entire period of your transfer. You cannot open a branch in the United States and then close your company in your home country. Both companies must exist for the entire period. The L1 category is used by small business owners abroad who transfer workers through to the United States, but they have to continue to maintain the business abroad also. The company abroad should have an effect to control on the company that means both must be effectively controlled on the company for the individuals/shareholders.

For L-1B Special Knowledge Intracompany Transferee, this is for the employees who have special knowledge and special skills. They need to be transferred from the company abroad to the branch in the United States. This is slightly more complicated than the L1 visa as you will need to prove that the employee has “specialized knowledge”.

Therefore, it is very important to clearly explain the business, the nature of the beneficiary’s specialized knowledge, describe the employer’s business activities in a manner that allows for a clear understanding for the product and the services provided to the clients provide a detailed description of the beneficiary’s duties, experience, training and to prove that it is falling with the “Specialized Knowledge” category.

As for L-1A, the executive duties basically direct and control the organization such as president, vice president and the executives generally supervise the work of other persons or functionaries in the organization, they also direct the investment, they basically have the last say in the organization. And the manager position is one where the duties are to direct and supervise the organization or control the work of other professionals and oversee the work of all those people who have the authority to supervise operations.

This is important because after one year of staying in L1 status, you can directly file for your green card which will fall under the category of EB1. In EB1, visas are always available which makes it easier to adjust to permanent resident status (Green Card).