Family and Work Visa Visa Plan Intracompany Transferee L-1 visa

Intra-company Transferee L-1 visa

Let’s say you’re working as chief of software development for IBM — but you’re not working at IBM, USA. Instead, you’re in the IBM office in Seoul, South Korea. Your bosses decide that you’re so good at your work that they’d like to offer your expertise for maybe a year at the US headquarters of IBM. You’d be going as an Intracompany Transferee. Your family can go too.

You’re a perfect candidate for an L-1 visa, a non-immigrant visa specially designed to facilitate the temporary transfer of a foreign manager, executive, or person with specialized knowledge to the United States. Once there, you would continue working in an office that is related to your foreign employer company as its parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate.

The L-1 visa is also perfect for companies that want to send someone to open a branch in the US.

The L-1 visa has two subcategories —

The L-1A is suitable for executives and managers and valid for up to 7 years.

The L-1B visa is suitable for workers with specialized knowledge and valid for up to 5 years.

Once the visa expires, you can become eligible for L-1 status once more by working abroad for at least one year for the parent, subsidiary, affiliate or branch office of the US company.

Certain international companies, such as IBM, Amazon or Tata Consultancy Services, which routinely transfer local officers to their US counterparts, can apply for Blanket L-1 visas, which pre-approves the company for L-1A or L1-B Intracompany Transferee visas. This considerably simplifies the application procedure for individuals of that company.

All other companies must follow the procedures for Regular L-1 visas, petitioning the USCIS separately for each employee they want to transfer to the US.

There is no limit on the number of L-1 visas that may be issued in a year. In 2019, 76,988 L1-A visas and 80,720 L1-B visas were issued.

Who is eligible for an L-1 visa?

To qualify for the L-1A visa, you should have worked in a parent company, branch, subsidiary or affiliate of the sponsoring US entity as an executive or manager for at least 12 months continuously over the previous three years.

If you will be visiting the US to set up a branch of your company there, your company should have secured a physical office location and you should have worked for at least 12 continuous months over the preceding three years as an executive, manager or have specialized knowledge in that company.

The eligibility criteria for the L1-B visa are the same as above, except that you should be an individual with specialized knowledge about your company’s products or services, research, techniques, management and so on, or advanced expertise in the company’s processes and procedures.

Some examples of people with specialized skills include surgeons and physicians, engineers, lawyers, teachers, professors.

How long can you stay in the US on an L-1 visa?

You may stay in the US for a year if your purpose was to set up a new company. All other L1 visa applicants will be allowed a maximum initial stay of three years.  L-1A employees may request two extensions of stay of two years each, bringing the total to 7 years. L1-B visa holders are only allowed one extension of stay.

A big advantage of the L1 is that it gives its holders a pathway to applying for a Green Card once their visa expires.

How do you apply for an L-1 visa?

Getting an L1 visa is a two-step process.

Step 1: Your employing company submits a petition called Form I-129 to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) proving that both the US company and its foreign parent, subsidiary, affiliate or branch meet the qualifying criteria.

Step 2: Once USCIS approves the petition, it will issue Form I-797, using which the intracompany transferee can apply for an L-1 visa for themselves and L-2 visas for their family members.

The step-by-step process is set out below.

1. Your employer files a Form I-129 petition with the USCIS requesting permission for you to enter and work temporarily in the United States on an L-1 visa. They will be required to pay the $960 application fee and furnish the necessary documents. By paying an additional $2,500 as a premium processing fee, your company could get your petition processed by the USCIS within 15 days. The premium processing fee for an L1-B visa is $1440.

If the USCIS approves the petition, they will send an approval notice on Form I-797 to your employer, who will send it to you.

2. Apply for a Non-Immigrant Visa online through form DS-160: You can apply online for a Non-Immigrant Visa, called Form DS-160. To do this efficiently and successfully, keep the following at hand before going online —

• Your passport, with at least 6 months validity.
• A visa photograph (to upload). The photo should conform to US Immigration photo specifications.
• Travel itinerary.
• Dates of every international trip you have made in your last five years, including to the US.
• Information on your current and previous education and work history.
• A copy of the I-129 form.
• A copy of the I-797 form.

More information about filling out the DS-160 form is available online. Remember to print out the DS-160 application confirmation page after completing the form. You will need it at the interview.

3. Pay the visa application fee: This is $190 for the DS-160 application for an L-1 visa and can be paid online. If your company has more than 50 employees in the US and over half of them hold H-1B or L visas, you may be asked to pay an additional $2,250.

Be sure to print out a receipt confirming your payment. You will need it at the visa interview later. In some countries, this fee is payable at the time of your interview, and in others, it must be paid in advance.

4. Find your nearest US Embassy or Consulate. You can find the address online or by checking the global list of US Embassies and Consulates. Make a note of the address. You will need it in the next step.
5. Schedule your visa interview. Contact the US Embassy or Consulate nearest to you, preferably the one you named on the DS-160 form, and schedule your interview. Since different embassies have different waiting periods, check the embassy’s website to find out how long you’ll have to wait.
6. Gather the necessary documents. You will need the following —

• Your passport, with at least 6 months validity.
• A visa photograph (to upload). The photo should conform to US Immigration photo specifications.
• The DS-160 confirmation page and code.
• The receipts that you have paid all L1 visa fees.
• The L1 visa interview appointment letter.
• For individual petitions
  • Form I-129 and one copy.
  • Form I-797.
• For blanket petitions
  • Form I-129S and two copies.
  • Three copies of Form I-797.
• Letter from employer confirming your transfer and your job description.
• Proof that you have worked with the employer for at least 1 year in the past 3 years.
• Letters from previous employers and contact information for your supervisors.
• Contact information from 2 coworkers from your current and previous job positions.
• Photographs of the inside and outside of your place of work.
• Your CV or resume.

7. Go for the visa interview. This is a fairly straightforward visa so the visa interview is most likely not going to be an ordeal. The visa officer may request additional documents at his or her discretion and these requirements may vary from country to country.

How much does an L-1 visa cost?

There can be several costs for getting an L-1 visa. Since sending an employee to the US is a company decision, all the relevant costs will probably be borne by the employer, including the individual visa application fees.

Form I-129 filing fee: This is currently $960 per employee. Premium fees for 15-day processing are $2,500 (L1-A visa) or $1,440 (L1-B visa).

DS-160 Non-Immigrant Visa Application processing fee: This is currently US$ 190 for the L-1 visa but may be subject to change. Check with the local US Embassy or Consulate for up-to-date fees. For certain companies that have 50 or more employees in the US on L1 or H1B visas, an additional fee of $2,250 may be applied.

Visa Issuance fee: In some countries, an additional Visa Issuance fee may be charged when the visa is issued. Check with the local US Embassy or Consulate for up-to-date fees.

Need more help?

If you still feel that you would like to have professional help in making your application or would like to consult a lawyer who specializes in immigration and visa matters, you can explore some of your options, including how to access our exclusive list of professional immigration lawyers.

If you have questions or would like clarifications, please send us an email and we’ll do our best to get back to you within 24 hours with an answer.