Category L-1 Visas are granted to intra-company transferees, who are people employed abroad who are transferred to a branch, subsidiary affiliate or joint venture partner of the same company in the US (it can be a US or foreign company).

To qualify, you must have served in a managerial or executive capacity (L-1A) or possess specialized knowledge (L-1B) necessary to the US business, and be transferred to a position within the US company at one of these levels, although not necessarily in the same position as you held previously. You must also have been employed outside the US by the international company continuously for at least one year in the three years immediately preceding the application.

An L-1 visa is also the appropriate visa classification for a qualified employee of an international company who’s coming to the US to establish a parent, branch, affiliate or subsidiary, i.e. commence business. When the petition is filed, the company is required to show that premises to house the new business have been secured and that within one year of the approval of the petition, the intended US operation will support an executive or managerial position. In the case of a person with specialized knowledge, the petitioner is required to show that it has financial ability to remunerate the beneficiary and to start doing business in the US.

Multinational corporations can benefit from a ‘blanket’ L-1 Rule, whereby they aren’t required to file an individual petition each time they need to transfer employees to the US. The blanket petition provision is reserved for relatively large established companies and is only available to managers, executives and specialized knowledge professionals who’ll be based in an established US office.

 

International Executive (L-1A), to qualify, the employee must meet the following requirements:

 

• direct the management of the organization or a major component or function;
• establish the goals and policies of the organization, component or function;
• exercise wide latitude in discretionary decision-making;
• receive only general supervision or direction from higher-level executives, the board of directors or stockholders of the organization.

 

International Manager, to qualify, the employee must meet the following requirements:

 

• Manage the organization or department, subdivision, function or component of the organization;
• Supervise and control the work of other supervisory, professional or managerial employees, or manage an essential function within the organization, or a department or subdivision of the organization;
• Have the authority to hire and fire, or recommend hire/fire and other personnel actions (such as promotion and leave authorization), or if no employees are directly supervised, function at a senior level within the supervised, function at a senior level within the organizational hierarchy or with respect to the function managed;
• Exercise discretion over the day-to-day operations of the activity or function for which the employee has authority.

 

Specialized Knowledge Transferee (L- 1B), to qualify, the employee must possess knowledge of the company products and their application in international markets or have an advanced level of
knowledge of processes and procedures of the company. An employee has specialized knowledge if it’s different from that generally found in the particular industry. Possible characteristics of an employee who possesses specialized knowledge include:

 

• Knowledge that’s valuable to the employer’s competitiveness in the market place;
• Knowledge of foreign operating conditions as a result of special knowledge not generally found in the industry;
• Experience of working abroad in a capacity involving significant assignments which have enhanced the employer's productivity, competitiveness, image or financial position;
• Knowledge which normally can be gained only through prior experience with that employer;
• Knowledge of a product or process which cannot be easily transferred or taught to another individual.

 

A ‘subsidiary’ is defined as a company, corporation or other legal entity of which a parent owns (directly or indirectly) over half the entity and controls the entity, or owns (directly or indirectly) 50 percent of a 50-50 joint venture (with equal control). It may also include an entity where the parent owns less than half of it, but in fact controls the entity.  

 

For further Information:

 

Please use the contact us form to the right of this page, or call us on +44 (0)207 0784 127

 

Note, we offer discount rates if your company requires blanket transfers, call us and ask for more details!