US L-1 visa provides a possibility to transfer a foreign employee to the USA so that he or she can continue working in the offices of the same employer, mother company, subsidiary, daughter or affiliated company. In order for the foreign employee to be eligible to apply for L-1 Intracompany transfer, they must have worked for the sending organization for a minimum of 12 months prior to the transfer. The two entities have to be related which has to be evidenced. The US host entity will have to make an application get approved as a petitioner first before the transferee can meet the L-1 requirements.
US L-1 Visa can also be issued to the business owners who have a company in their country of residence for, at least, one year and who want to open a subsidiary or daughter company in US. The business do not have to be of the same industry, i.e. you might have a company in Ireland or Russia and open a company in USA that will be involved in different business or with a different product.
VisaWorld Ireland has many years of experience in visa and immigration support for people travelling to USA and other countries all over the world and has offices in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Belfast. Call us first and we will give you a consultation on what paperwork you need for your US visas. All you will need to do after that is drop your paperwork to our centrally located offices in one of these cities and we will do the rest.
We have offices in New York, USA, and Toronto, Canada, where we employ in-house US and Canada Immigration Lawyers who will be happy to answer the questions you might have on any US or Canada Visas and Immigration Programmes.
US L-1 Visa has two subcategories:
- L-1A Visa (Managers/Executives)
Legal definitions of managers and executives are quite strict and detailed description of responsibilities are required. In particular, executive or manager has to be responsible for professional staff and/or key function, unit or department in the business. The L-1A visa can be approved for up to 1 year for start-up US businesses or up to 3 years for existing companies. Extensions are available to the L-1 visa, where each one can be approved for up to 2 years.
- L-1B visa (employees with specialized knowledge)
This category includes employees who have deep knowledge of the products and services of the company, research systems, special technologies, management and manufacturing process. These employees can obtain L-1B visa initially for 3 years with possible extension for 5 years.
L-1 visa is a temporary nono-immigration visa valid for 3 years initially and usually L-1A visa can be extended to 7 years and L-1B to 5 years. For startup companies registered in US lest than a year ago L-1 visa is issued for 1 year and can be extended in future.
Contact us today by email or phone for more information and consultation on the US Intracompany transfer visa.
