L1 and L2 Visa For Us: Interbase Corporation - Usa
L1 and L2 Visa For Us: Interbase Corporation - Usa
L1 and L2 Visa For Us: Interbase Corporation - Usa
Introduction
The L-1 Visa is a nonimmigrant, temporary visa, enabling the worker to work in the United States for up to seven years. L visa holders are exempted from the requirement of having to establish their continued non-immigrant intent, greatly smoothing the progress of the transition to an immigrant employment based visa, leading to a "Green Card".
Eligibility
L-1 visas are available to a person (and L2 to his/her family), to transfer him/her to work in the United States for an employer, who has worked abroad for 1 continuous year within past 3 years in a related business entity in a manager/executive or specialized knowledge staff capacity. The applicant must be coming to the U.S. to continue providing services for this same employer. The worker does not need to be directly employed by the sponsor. It is OK even if he/she is paid through personnel service company or an agency, or even as independent consultant, as long as the sponsor had management and control over the worker during the qualifying year. Two types of employees may be sponsored for L1 Visa: Manager/Executive: The legal definition of manager and executive role must be strictly followed and a detailed description of duties must be enclosed along with the petition. Generally, an executive or a manager should have supervisory responsibility for professional staff and/or for a key function, department or subdivision of the employer. Managers and executives plan, organize, direct, and control an organization's major functions and work through other employees to achieve the organization's goals. Individuals who primarily perform the tasks necessary to produce the product(s) or provide the service(s) of an organization are not employed in an executive or managerial capacity. The majority of his/her duties should be related to operational or policy management, not to the supervision of lower level employees, performance of the duties of another type of position, or other involvement in the operational activities of the company, such as doing sales work, operating machines, writing computer programming code or supervising those that do. However, the person is not barred from applying his professional/technical expertise to solve a particular problem. While an executive may manage a function within an organization, it should not be directly performed by an executive. Generally executives would not have subordinate staff, except for personal staff. It is not enough to have just the title of the position that indicates manager/executive position, duties also should be accordingly performed. Persons in this category get an L1A visa. The initial petition will be approved for 3 years, and can be renewed twice for 2 years each for a total of 7 years. Specialized Knowledge Staff: A person should have knowledge of the company's products/services, research, systems, proprietary techniques, management, or procedures. Knowledge which is widely held or related to common practices or techniques and which is readily available in the United States job market is not specialized for purposes of L classification. The level of knowledge required and the employment of the specific alien must directly relate to the proprietary interest of the petitioner. To be proprietary, the knowledge must relate to something which relates exclusively to the petitioner's business. Persons whose general knowledge and expertise enable them to merely produce a product or provide a service are not eligible for this visa.
L-1 Process
The filing of Form I-129 and the special L supplement that accompanies Form I-129 is the first requirement to be sent directly to the USCIS Service Center in the same jurisdiction as the place of employment. By filing Form I-129, the petitioner is applying for a temporary, nonimmigrant work visa that will authorize the employee, the right to work in the United States. It should show that the prior education and training make the applicant of significantly greater value to the national labor pool than the hiring of a U.S. citizen. A letter from the U.S. employer describing both the applicant's prior duties abroad and the duties to be performed in the U.S. will be necessary for the USCIS to rule that this position may not be filled by a U.S. national. This letter must also prove that both entities are themselves meeting the guidelines of a qualifying organization. Letters must be submitted by both the foreign and U.S. entities, confirming that the applicant has met the one-year in three years requirement. The filing fee for I-129 L is $185.00. Additionally, a $500 Fraud Prevention and Detection fee must be paid. This is only for the initial petition or change of employer. Extension with same employer is not subject to this fee. In case of blanket L petition, $500 for blanket petition and $500 for each L1 employee under blanket L petition.