L-1 Intra-Company Transfer Visa

by Krishan Singh Immigration Cosultant

The government of the United States of America has always worked in direction of portraying the country as alien friendly; and as the one that readily accepts the skills and investments from other parts of the world. It has always sought to facilitate a variety of categories of aliens through its comprehensive inwards movement policy; the one that facilitates immigrants; and the one that facilitates non-immigrants.

 

One such visa set-up is L 1 Intra Company Transfer nonimmigrant permit arrangement; this permit allows the foreign companies to carry out their functions in the country smoothly – by allowing them relocation of their key personnel to the country – instead of hiring locals or procuring special work permits for their employees being shifted to the US addresses. This policy was set-up with a view to provide required statutory leverage to the foreign country based multinational companies.

 

The L 1 Visa, however, does require the foreign companies to evidence their designated and qualified relationships with the US based concerns; the companies intending to use this channel to shift their important workers to the country must be in either of the following relationships with their US counterparts:

·         As parent organization of a US based corporate; or

·         As associates of a US based company; or

·         As a wholly owned subsidiary of a US based parent company; or

·         As an agency of a US based company.

 

The L-1 Intra-Company Transfer Visa, as the name suggests, enables the overseas concerns to send their employees working, in the overseas locations before being transferred to the country,  in the capacity of managers and executives or  as those who have specific technical expertise about the business process, products or production processes of the company in question. These employees can be shifted to the country through following arrangements:

·         L 1 – A: this class is meant for those personnel who have been working as managers or executives in the company for a stipulated period – at least 12 months – immediately preceding the date of application. The employees being transferred on this arrangement can stay in the country for a period of 7 years (maximum tenure allowed in case of a single instance) – the permit is initially issued for a period of 3 years – 1 year for the companies establishing their first office on the soil of the US – and is granted subsequent extensions in multiples of 2 years on each instance; 

·         L 1 – B: this class is specifically meant to accommodate those employees who hold specialist knowhow about the basic business concepts or products of the company – they are working for. The maximum tenure of this permit is 5 years.

 

The companies applying for the L 1 Visa must also substantiate that the personnel being transferred to the country would carry out the functions in the designated capacities – as managers, executives or specialized employees; and that these beneficiaries would not carry out any work for any other concern. This arrangement does, however, allow the beneficiaries to divide their work between the offices in the US and in the overseas locations.

 

The L 1 Visa is quite flexible and elaborate when it comes to application of laws in different conditions; it allows the companies – that make a frequent use of this arrangement – to opt for a blanket permit. The blanket approval in a way is a very convenient system as it saves companies lots of efforts while obtaining approvals for employees every time the concerns need to shift their personnel to the US based locations.

 

The L-1 Visa also allows the beneficiaries to include their spouses and dependent children in the applications – through L 2 permits.

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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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