MEMORANDUM
From: Richard Scholnick
Re: L-1 Visa
The utilization of the L-1 Visa has become a popular mechanism for assisting foreign nationals in obtaining visas to work and live in the United States. The following is a general description of the L-1 visas’ characteristics, flexibility and advantages.
As you may already know, an L-1 visa requires only that a US office of a non US Company be in operation for a 1 year time period in order to transfer employees under an L-1 visa to work at the US branch of the foreign company. There is no other employment requirement for the issuance of this visa! For example, a middle class businessman with a small business in a foreign country can open a US branch of his operations and employees of the small business can qualify for our entrepreneurial L-1 visa (including employees such as adult children, spouse etc.).
A foreign national may be transferred to the US and work legally for a US company that is a branch, subsidiary, affiliate or joint venture partner of a non US Company that employs the foreign national outside of the US. SRT&F (Sayer Regan Thayer & Flanagan) can provide the legal assistance to establish and operate the US presence of the non US Company.
The non US Company must remain in operation while the foreign national has the L-1 visa. Non US Company means any entity physically located outside of the United States. The company may be a foreign division of an existing US company or it may have originated in a country outside of the USA. The company must continue in operation for the duration of the visa and we must be able to show that the foreign national can expect to be transferred back to the company upon his/her return.
To receive an L-1 visa it is not necessary that either the non US Company or prospective US employer be operating in any particular business structure. Many legal forms of doing business are acceptable, including but not limited to, corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, joint ventures and sole proprietorships. The employer may also be a non profit or religious organization. SRT&F can form the business entity and meet all of the operational and legal needs of the client.
L-1 visas are typically issued within 3-5 months of filing the petition, quicker if the expedited filing procedure is utilized (at a cost of an additional $1,000 in government filing fees). THERE ARE NO QUOTA RESTRICTIONS. This is an important point that offers enormous benefit.
The foreign national may travel in and out of the USA or remain here continuously until the L-1 visa expires. Visas are available for accompanying relatives and spouses, who are permitted to accept employment in the USA. Please note that accompanying children may not work unless they receive work authorization through a separate basis for eligibility.
If a foreign national has an L-1 visa for an executive level or managerial level position in the US Company and wants to apply for a green card (permanent residency) through employment, the foreign national is eligible to do so and can skip a major step in that process.
L-1 visas can initially be approved for up to 3 years; 2 year extensions are possible up to a total of 7 years.
Our fees for the traditional use of the L-1 visa, namely a multi-national corporation transferring employees from a foreign office to a US office would be $2250 + government filing fees. The fees for the more innovative entrepreneurial L-1 would be approximately $9,000-12,000 because these costs include not only our fee of $2250 + government filing fees for filing the petition but also business formation/registration costs of $1,500, rental payments for a small space of between $3600-6,000 depending on availability or shared space and startup expenses of roughly $1,500. Following the first year of operation, payment of rent and minimal office related costs would need to continue.