Managers and executives of foreign companies may qualify for the L-1A corporate transfer visa, to work for a new or existing U.S. based branch office, subsidiary or affiliate of their foreign company.

Corporate Requirements

To qualify for L-1 status, the foreign employer must a new or existing U.S. branch office, subsidiary, or affiliate, hereinafter known as “qualifying companies”.

The foreign employer must continue to do business abroad while the transferred employee is in the United States. The qualifying companies do not need to be in the same area of business.

The qualifying companies must be engage in a regular, systematic and continuous provision of goods and/or services.

Employee Requirements

The employee must have been employed full-time in a managerial or executive role for the foreign company for one year within the preceding three year period before entering the United States.

The employee must be entering to provide executive or managerial services in the United States.

New Offices

The foreign employer show that sufficient U.S. office space has been arranged; and that the new U.S. company will support a managerial or executive position within the initial one year of business operations.

Period of Stay

L-1A visas are valid for a maximum period of seven (7) years.

The maximum initial period of stay for L-1A employees opening a new U.S. office is one (1) year, with three consecutive two year renewal periods are available.

The maximum initial period of stay for L-1A employees transferred to existing U.S. offices that have conducted business for over one (1) year, is three (3) years, with two consecutive renewal periods of two years available.

L-1 Family Members

Spouses, and dependent children under 21 may be granted L-2 derivative visas. The L-1 spouse may apply for work authorization while in the United States, by submitting form I-765. of L-1 employees.

Blanket Petitions

Certain foreign companies that may establish the required qualifying relationship with a U.S. company, before the submission of an individual L-1 petition, through the filing of a Blanket L Petition. Blanket petitions are available where both the foreign and U.S. companies have been doing business for at least one year, the foreign company has three or more foreign and domestic branch offices, subsidiaries, and affiliates, and the foreign company has obtained at least 10 L-1 petition approvals within the preceding 12 month period, or have subsidiaries or affiliates with combined annual sales of at least $25 million, or have at least 1,000 U.S. workers.

Once the blanket L-1 petition is approved the employer need only submit form I-129S, and a copy of the approved blanket petition, for each employee to be transferred.

L-1B Specialized Knowledge Corporate Transferees

Employees of a foreign company, with a new or existing U.S. branch office, subsidiary, or affiliate, may transfer to the U.S. entity, those non-managerial and non-executive employees who possess “Specialized Knowledge”.

Specialized knowledge is defined as knowledge or know how developed abroad, gained through significant education or experience with the foreign employer, of an advanced level, beyond that possessed by ordinary employees.

Such advance level of knowledge can be of the company’s procedures, processes, proprietary information gained in the company’s research and development of a product or service, not readily available in the United States.

Thus, an employee involved in the design and development of proprietary software, or the company’s production processes, would qualify for L-1B status.

The maximum period of authorized stay, of an L-1B employee is five years.