The L1 visa is one of the most popular vehicles in which the owners of foreign companies can have a permanent status in the United States by expanding operations in the United States receive. The process is carried out in three steps:
First, the initial L1 visa is issued for a period of one year to set up operations of the new U.S. office;
Second, the L1 visa be renewed based (in part) to the first year review of U.S. subsidiary;
Third, once renewed for a further 2Years of the L1 visa holder can apply for permanent residency with the support of the U.S. establishment.
It would not be an exaggeration to state that authorizes the USCIS often the first L1 visa to be a vision - supported by a well-developed business plan and a convincing amount of money in the bank. However, whenever those who walk in the door easily enough seems to renew the visa, often turns out to be a nightmare for the applicant, - not infrequently - are uprooted, with home and hearththe intention of permanently moving to the United States.
Our company has the decisions in all cases in 2005 by the Administrative Appeals Unit of the Department of Justice, in which the USCIS denied an application for renewal reviewed published L1A visa. In 98% of these cases the reasons for rejection were virtually identical:
1st The petitioner has not established that the beneficiary be employed in a primarily managerial or executive capacity;
2nd The petitioner does notemploy appropriate and sufficient staff.
3rd The petitioner did not establish physical offices;
The biggest mistake most applicants and / or their immigration lawyers make is to assume that the same duties that the original visa petition is sufficient to support the renewal of support. This assumption is fatal for a renewal case. This is because the duties a L1A recipients must undertake in the first year to set up operations must - necessarily - non-management andNon-Executive essential functions such as administration, marketing, public relations and Human Resource Management.
The USCIS is aware that such non-skilled tasks necessary to launch the new operation started. However, the current rules allow a company only a year in order to achieve this. By the time the renewal petition must be filed, these non-managerial and non-executive tasks locally employed staff have been transferred to work in actual physicalOffices. The size of the staff is not important, only that it is sufficient to meet the above essential features.
In a typical case, this issue comes to light when the company or its counsel receives a request for additional evidence (a "RFE") from the USCIS. The RFE requests usually a very detailed account of the beneficiary tasks, a detailed organizational chart of the names of all persons employed by the U.S. company, and a detailed accounting theirDuties and payroll taxes, and proof of the locally employed staff.
On receipt of the RFE, some companies try to the lack of essential personnel to quickly satisfy Engaging a few people only to the RFE, or they try to justify the use of offshore staff to resolve cover these functions. A review of the published denials shows, however, that such quick-fix attempts are a reason to act in and of itself, for that refusal. Such quick fixes simply to demonstrate that thenew company has not reached the level of development on the one-year mark has. In short, a petitioner that even on the receiving end is an RFE question of whether the recipient should be used in a primarily managerial or executive capacity seriously consider other visa options.
In our opinion, the wisest thing to a renewal strategy as part of your initial case preparation plan. Apart from being a sound business practice, this approach completely goAvoid far, no unpleasant surprises and potentially catastrophic in the future.
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