Considering a US employee transfer? Our US immigration experts explain how the L-1 visa works, who qualifies and the benefits for multinational businesses.
What is an L-1 visa?
The L-1 visa is a great option for multinational businesses exploring transferring employees to a US affiliate. Unlike the more conspicuous H-1B visa, there is no annual lottery or numerical cap on L-1 visas. Additionally, there is no labour certification process, US payroll requirement, or prevailing-wage standard. Another bright spot is that the L-1 is a dual intent visa, which means that applicants can simultaneously pursue lawful permanent residence and are not required to maintain a foreign residence.
L-1 visa eligibility criteria
To determine whether an L-1 visa might be appropriate, we have to look at the corporate relationship between the sending and receiving entities, the employee's qualifications and history with the business, and the proposed US role and activities. Accordingly, for a UK company considering a US transfer, the L-1 analysis is performed in three stages:
-
Do the UK and US businesses have a qualifying corporate relationship?
-
Has the transferring employee worked for the overseas UK company long enough in a managerial, executive, or specialised knowledge role?
-
Will the transferring employee serve in a role that is executive, managerial, or requires the application of specialised knowledge in the United States?
L-1A v L-1B visas
This last question of what the employee will do in the US is important in determining which L-1 classification can be applied to the transferring employee. The L-1A designation is intended for employees coming to the US to work in a managerial or executive capacity and provides up to seven years of overall work authorisation. The L-1B visa is available for up to five years to employees who will be applying their specialised knowledge of the company's products, services, tools, technology, etc to their US role. The analysis is more complex if the US entity is a “new office”.
L-1 visa processing times
The timing of an L-1 visa is highly case specific as it will ultimately depend on several factors, including the type of L-1 application being pursued, how quickly the necessary supporting documents can be collected, and consular appointment availability. A general timescale would be 4-6 months if premium processing is involved, and perhaps double that if the case is filed with regular processing.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
