The government of the United States of America has always
worked in direction of portraying the country as alien friendly; and as the one
that readily accepts the skills and investments from other parts of the world. It
has always sought to facilitate a variety of categories of aliens through its
comprehensive inwards movement policy; the one that facilitates immigrants; and
the one that facilitates non-immigrants.
One such visa set-up is L 1 Intra Company Transfer
nonimmigrant permit arrangement; this permit allows the foreign companies to
carry out their functions in the country smoothly – by allowing them relocation
of their key personnel to the country – instead of hiring locals or procuring
special work permits for their employees being shifted to the US addresses. This
policy was set-up with a view to provide required statutory leverage to the
foreign country based multinational companies.
The L 1 Visa, however, does require the foreign companies to
evidence their designated and qualified relationships with the US based
concerns; the companies intending to use this channel to shift their important
workers to the country must be in either of the following relationships with
their US counterparts:
·
As
parent organization of a US based corporate; or
·
As
associates of a US based company; or
·
As
a wholly owned subsidiary of a US based parent company; or
·
As
an agency of a US based company.
The L-1
Intra-Company Transfer Visa, as the name suggests, enables the overseas
concerns to send their employees working, in the overseas locations before
being transferred to the country, in the
capacity of managers and executives or
as those who have specific technical expertise about the business
process, products or production processes of the company in question. These
employees can be shifted to the country through following arrangements:
·
L
1 – A: this class is meant for those personnel who have been working as
managers or executives in the company for a stipulated period – at least 12
months – immediately preceding the date of application. The employees being
transferred on this arrangement can stay in the country for a period of 7 years
(maximum tenure allowed in case of a single instance) – the permit is initially
issued for a period of 3 years – 1 year for the companies establishing their
first office on the soil of the US – and is granted subsequent extensions in
multiples of 2 years on each instance;
·
L
1 – B: this class is specifically meant to accommodate those employees who hold
specialist knowhow about the basic business concepts or products of the company
– they are working for. The maximum tenure of this permit is 5 years.
The companies applying for the L 1 Visa must also
substantiate that the personnel being transferred to the country would carry
out the functions in the designated capacities – as managers, executives or
specialized employees; and that these beneficiaries would not carry out any
work for any other concern. This arrangement does, however, allow the
beneficiaries to divide their work between the offices in the US and in the
overseas locations.
The L 1 Visa is quite flexible and elaborate when it comes
to application of laws in different conditions; it allows the companies – that
make a frequent use of this arrangement – to opt for a blanket permit. The
blanket approval in a way is a very convenient system as it saves companies
lots of efforts while obtaining approvals for employees every time the concerns
need to shift their personnel to the US based locations.
The L-1
Visa also allows the beneficiaries to include their spouses and dependent
children in the applications – through L 2 permits.
