L-1A Intracompany Transferee Executive or Manager

Introduction

The L-1A Intracompany Transferee Executive or Manager visa is a visa that helps employers to transfer an executive or manager from one affiliated foreign offices to one of the offices in the United States. This visa also allows foreign company to who doesn’t have a US office to send an executive over to establish one.

The L-1A visa also allows a foreign company that does not yet have an affiliated U.S. office to send an executive or manager to the U.S. to open one. In order for the employee to qualify for this classification, the employer must file a I-129 petition for a non-immigrant worker with fee on behalf of their employee. In order for someone to qualify for an L-1 classification they must have a qualifying relationship with a foreign company. While that employee is in the united states, they must be doing business for the employer overseas. The business has to be viable, but they do not have to be involved in international trade.

The employee can’t merely show their presence at the company in the United States. He must be regularly conducting provisions of good and/or services. The employee also must have been working for the company for one continuous year three years prior to traveling to the U.S. The employee can only be serving in an executive or managerial position.

The executive capacity refers to the employees ability to make decisions across a wide latitude without having to use oversight. A managerial capacity refers to the ability of the employee to supervise and control the work of other employees in the company. This position might also allow a manager the function of organizing a high level without the supervision of others.

The employer must show that they have a secure and sufficient physical premise to house a new office. The office must be able to support an executive or managerial position within one complete year of the approval of the petition. The maximum amount of time for the initial stay is one year.

For the employer to qualify for a visa, the employer must:

• Have a qualifying relationship with a foreign company and currently are or is willing to do business with an employer in the US

For the employee to qualify they must:

• Have been working for a qualifying organization abroad for one continuous year within the three years before entering the United States
• Be seeking to enter the United States to provide service in an executive or managerial capacity.

An executive is someone who makes decisions of a wide latitude without much oversight. A manager is someone who supervises or controls the work of other employees in the organization.

The employee must show that:

• The employer has secured a sufficient amount of physical premise space to house the new office
• That the employee has been employed in an executive and managerial role for one continuous year before requesting a visa

Qualified employees who are entering the US to establish a new office are allowed to stay in the country for one year. All other employees will be allowed to stay here for a maximum of 3 years. All employees with an L-1A visa can request an extension of stay for increments of 2 years until the employee has reached the limit of seven years.

Family members of L-1 workers can accompany their spouse along with any unmarried children under 21 years of age. They will have to accepted as a L-2 non-immigrant classification, if approved, they can stay with the employee.