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Health & Fitness

Immigration: Is There an L-Visa?

An L-1A visa is a temporary visa which allows an intracompany transferee executive or manager to come to the US, along with his/her immediately family members for a limited period of time. 

 

Unlike the H-1B visa, the L-1A visa does not require the foreign national to have a 4-year college education or its equivalent.  The L-1A Intracompany Transferee needs only to be an executive or manager.  For instance, if Toyota Corporation in Tokyo wants to transfer one of its executives or managers (or a group of executives or managers) to the US Division of Toyota, this could be accomplished through an L-1A visa.  Also, if the foreign company does not yet have an affiliate US office yet, the foreign company may send an executive or manager to the US under an L-1A visa with the purpose of establishing a US affiliate.

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The L-1A visa is intended to increase economic prosperity and opportunities in the US.  If a foreign company establishes a US affiliate, then presumably more jobs would be created in the US and more enterprise. 

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The foreign company must have a qualifying relationship with the US affiliate; such as be the parent company, a branch, subsidiary or affiliate.  The US company must be actively involved in doing business or establishing a business in the US and the foreign company must also be conducting viable business. 

 

In general, the qualifying foreign national employee must have been working for the qualifying foreign organization abroad for one continuous year within the three years immediately preceding admission to the US and be intending to provide service to the US company in an executive or managerial capacity at the US branch or affiliate. 

 

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services has distinct definitions of the terms “executive or managerial” and specific criteria must be established in the application.   Executives have ability to make decisions of wide latitude without much oversight and Managers have the ability to supervise and control the work of professional employees.

 

If the foreign person is coming to the US to establish a new branch or division here, generally the L-1A visa is issued for a period of only one year, with the possibility of renewal if the company can show that it is actively in business by the end of that first year.  If the foreign employee is coming to a business which is already actively conducting business in the US, then the L-1A visa may be issued for up to three years on the initial application, with requests for additional extensions.  The maximum time period for an L-1A visa is seven years.

 

The spouse and unmarried minor children can also come to the US on L-2 visas, and the spouse may apply for employment authorization.

 

The L-1A Intracompany Transferee Visa is an excellent visa for both large and small companies.  Some business people have opened affiliate companies both in the US and/or overseas, in order to take advantage of the L-1A temporary visa, so that employees can be brought to the US.

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