Intracompany Transferees (L-1's)
The L-1 category applies to aliens who work for a company with a parent, subsidiary, branch, or affiliate in the U.S. These workers come to the U.S. as intracompany transferees who are coming temporarily to perform services either in a managerial or executive capacity (L-1A) or which entail specialized knowledge (L-1B) for a parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate of the same employer that employed the professional abroad. The employee must have been employed abroad for the corporation, firm, or other legal entity (or an affiliate or subsidiary thereof) on a full-time basis for at least one continuous year out of the last three-year period to qualify. There is currently no annual cap on L-1 visas.

Requirements

  1. Evidence of the qualifying relationship between the U.S. and the foreign employer which address ownership and control, such as an annual report, copies of articles of incorporation, financial statements, or stock certificates;
  2. A letter from the alien's foreign qualifying employer detailing his or her dates of employment, job duties, qualifications and salary and demonstrating that the alien worked for the employer abroad for at least one continuous year within the three-year period before the filing of the petition in an executive or managerial capacity or in a position involving specialized knowledge; and
  3. A detailed description of the proposed job duties and qualifications and evidence the proposed employment is in an executive or managerial capacity or in a position involving specialized knowledge.
  4. New Offices if the alien is coming to the U.S. as a manager or executive (L-1A) to open or to be employed in a new office, also file the petition with evidence that:
  5. Sufficient premises to house the new office have been secured;
  6. The beneficiary has, or upon establishment will have, the qualifying relationship to the foreign employer and the qualifying position; and
  7. The intended U.S. operation will be able to support the executive or managerial position within one year of the approval of the petition.

This must be supported by information regarding:

1.the proposed nature of the U.S. office (size and scope, organizational structure, and financial goals),

2.financial information about the foreign entity (the size of the U.S. investment and the financial ability to remunerate the beneficiary and to commence doing business in the U.S.), and

3.the organizational structure of the foreign entity.

  1. If the alien is coming to the U.S. in a specialized knowledge capacity (L-1B) to open or to be employed in a new office, also file the petition with evidence that:
  2. Sufficient premises to house the new office have been secured;
  3. The business entity in the U.S is or will be a qualifying organization
  4. The petitioner has the financial ability to compensate the alien beneficiary and to begin doing business in the U.S.


Blanket L Petition
Employers who regularly file L petitions may wish to consider filing for a blanket L petition in order to obtain continuing approval for itself (and some or all of its parents, branches, subsidiaries and affiliates in the U.S.). This simplifies the process of approving and admitting additional individual L-1A and L-1B workers.

The blanket L petition must be filed by a U.S. employer who will be the single representative between INS and the qualifying organizations and must be filed with copies of evidence that the:

  1. Petitioner and its branches, subsidiaries, and affiliates are engaged in commercial trade or services;
  2. Petitioner has an office in the United States that has been doing business for one year or more;
  3. Petitioner has 3 or more domestic and foreign branches, subsidiaries, or affiliates;
  4. Petitioner and its qualifying organizations have obtained approved petitions for at least ten L-1 professionals during the previous year or have U.S. subsidiaries or affiliates with combined annual sales of at least 25 million dollars, or have a U.S. work force of at least 1,000 employees.

After approval of a blanket petition, the petitioner may file for individual employees to enter as L-1 professionals under the blanket petition. If the alien is outside the U.S., submit a completed Form I-129S and a copy of the Form I-797 (INS approval notice). If the alien is already in the U.S., the petitioner may file an I-129 to request a change of status, based on this blanket petition.

An I-129 petition for a change of status must be filed with:

  1. A copy of the approval notice for the blanket petition;
  2. A letter from the alien's foreign employer detailing the alien's dates of employment, job duties, qualifications and salary for the 3 previous years; and
  3. If the alien is a specialized knowledge professional, a copy of a U.S.degree, a foreign degree equivalent to a U.S. degree, or evidence establishing the combination of the beneficiary's education and experience is the equivalent of a U.S. degree.