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Understanding the L-1A Visa
The L-1A is for an intracompany transferee of a multinational company. This visa requires an overseas “parent” company for whom the applicant has worked in a managerial or executive capacity for at least one of the previous three years prior to applying. The one year of employment abroad must be continuous. The L-1A is subject to the stricter definition of “manager.”
Thus, in order to qualify, the applicant must be either a high-level executive of the foreign entity OR must have been a manager who “primarily manages the organization, or a department, subdivision, function, or component of the organization; supervises and controls the work of other supervisory, professional, or managerial employees, or manages an essential function of the organization; has authority over personnel actions or functions at a senior level within the organizational hierarchy. The applicant must be an executive or a high-level manager in order to qualify.
The L-1A is very useful because it offers the ability for an applicant be approved for a one-year period to start a new office (subsidiary) in the United States. After close to a year of operations, the applicant can renew the visa upon a showing that the business is up and running and approximating its revenue projections. Upon successful renewal, once the U.S. subsidiary is able to pay its own expenses (including payroll) without contribution from the foreign parent company, it is possible to apply for an Employment-based First Preference immigrant visa (EB-1 Multinational Executive), which, if approved, will result in U.S. lawful permanent residence (green card).
We have submitted over 100 L visa applications at Mentor Law Firm, and each and every one (so far) has been approved!
The L visa is an extremely useful visa classification. If you operate a business overseas, it is worth analyzing whether it is feasible to open a start-up U.S. affiliate and apply for an L-1A visa. L visas are not only for large companies – very small ones qualify as well.
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