Your transfer or promotion must be related to a position that requires specialized knowledge unable to be performed by anyone else at the company. A brain surgeon, for example, will be able to qualify for an L-1B visa while an administrative assistant will not. If your company has a branch, an affiliate, a subsidiary, or a parent company in the United States, then you may be eligible for an intra-company transfer via an L-1B visa. An individual shall not be considered to be acting in a managerial or executive capacity merely on the basis of the number of employees that the individual supervises/directs or has supervised/directed. An L-1B visa allows employees with specialized knowledge who work abroad for a multinational company to be transferred to work in the United States. It is not specified how many people can be such key employees within a company.
L-1 visas also allow employers to bring such employees to the US with the purpose of establishing a new US branch, subsidiary, or affiliate of the organization. The L-1 intracompany transferee nonimmigrant visa facilitates the temporary admission to the U.S. of qualified foreign persons to work for a parent, branch, subsidiary, or affiliate of their overseas employer. With no numerical cap on visa issuances under current law the intracompany transferee visa is an attractive temporary work visa alternative for the eligible foreign employee of a multinational firm.
Getting from an L-1B visa to a green card can be a great way to live and work permanently in the U.S. If you would like to be joined by your family (spouse and children under 21-years-old and are unmarried), they may petition for L-2 status. If their L-2 nonimmigrant visa is approved, it is common they will have the same period of stay as you the L-1 holder. The L1 visa is for executives or employees with specialized skills of multinational companies who are being transferred from an office overseas to a US office.
It is important to note that as recent as 2015 several updated protocols and standards were announced by the immigration authorities that must be carefully followed in order to reduce the likelihood of a denial of the L1 visa petition. Because of this, the use of an experienced L1 visa lawyer has become even more valuable. You should be working for a qualifying organization abroad for one continuous year within the three years immediately before your admission to the U.S. For all L-1B employees, requests for extension of stay may be granted in increments of up to an additional two years.
The employer must file a petition to the US for the employee to transfer to the country. The individual petition ensures that one employee applies for the L1 visa. This includes filing Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker and the additional L Supplement to the form to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services . The petition must be approved by USCIS in order for the employee to start their application at the US Embassy. When l1b vs h1b is approved, the employer will get Form I-797.
The beneficiary need not be coming to perform the same work that was performed abroad. Promotions within the qualifying categories are possible (e.g., from specialized knowledge employee to manager). An approved individual petition is prima facie evidence that the requirements for visa classification, which are examined by a USCIS adjudicator during the petition process, have been met. However, the approval of a petition by USCIS does not relieve the applicant of the burden of establishing eligibility for the visa.
Because your L-1B visa is contingent on your employer being your petitioner, you may not change employers under your L-1B visa. If you are looking to change employers after receiving your L-1B visa, you may be eligible by changing from your currently visa to an H-1 visa. They must be a U.S. employer who is planning on or presently doing business in another country directly or through a qualifying organization while the L-1 beneficiary is working with an L1B visa in the U.S. The employer’s work is not required to be involved in international trade. Such petition, shall be made and approved before the visa is granted.
Eligible to apply for EAD in order to work on L-2 (dependent of L-1) visa. The L1 nonimmigrant visa category is for intracompany transferees. A qualifying organization may petition to transfer an employee from overseas to a parent, branch, subsidiary, or affiliate in the United States. L1A visas are for persons who will work in a managerial or executive capacity and L1B visas are for those who will work in a capacity that involves “specialized” knowledge.