Six benefits of getting L1 Visa

Hey everyone, in this video, I'm going to go over six benefits of getting your L1 visa. The L1 visa can be an incredible option for entrepreneurs and other workers looking to come to the United States. Now, I think you're going to find this video very interesting, so make sure to stick around. [Music] hey everyone  U.S immigration lawyer Michael usheri here at my Law Firm we regularly post videos to make sure that you're up to date with the latest immigration news and to provide you with valuable immigration tips so if you haven't yet subscribed to our YouTube channel make sure to hit the Subscribe button make sure to give this video a big thumbs up so that YouTube knows to share this information with more people so let's get started as I mentioned in today's video I'm going to be talking about the L1 Visa specifically I'm going to talk about six of the benefits of the L1 Visa but to get started I want to quickly overview what the L1 Visa is basically the L1 Visa is a non-immigrant Visa that allows a foreign company to transfer a certain worker to work for a related U.S company so for the L1 visa to be an option that's available there needs to essentially be two companies there needs to be a company outside of the United States and to be a company in the United States and those two companies need to have what's called a qualifying relationship now examples of qualifying relationships are parent subsidiary so one company is the parent company One company is the subsidiary company. The two companies can be affiliates of one another, or one company can be a branch office of the other company, so those are some examples of qualifying relationships. additionally the way the L1 Visa works is that the person that's getting the L1 Visa must have worked for the foreign company for one year full-time continuous employment within the last three years prior to applying for the L1 Visa the employment for the foreign company must have been either as a manager executive or specialized knowledge worker and the employment that will take place with the U.S company must be as either a manager executive or specialized knowledge worker now if the person that's getting the L1 Visa is going to be working in the United States as a manager or executive then the L one is classified as l1a if the person is going to be working for the U.S company as a specialized knowledge worker then the L1 is classified as l1b now another important thing that I want to mention I know that I mentioned that there has to be two companies but what if the US company is is brand new what if you literally just set up the US company well then the company is considered by USCIS to be a new office basically if the U.S company has been operational for less than one year then it is classified as a new office now it's important to know whether or not the U.S company is a new office because there are additional considerations to take into account for one if the U.S company is classified as a new office then the L1 will be valid for a period of one year as opposed to three years so for that reason alone it's very important to know whether the company in the United States is classified as a new office similarly there are certain additional requirements for new office petitions for example a new office L1 needs to demonstrate that the U.S company has sufficient physical premises meaning that it has a physical location that it's operating in that's sufficient for the company so that's just background information regarding the L1 and with that I want to jump into some of these benefits of applying for an L1 Visa so let's get started the first benefit that I want to mention is that the L1 Visa does not have a specific requirement to make a substantial investment in a U.S company now entrepreneurs are interested in exploring the various Visa options that are available to them to expand their business to the United States to work and operate in the United States and so many investors and entrepreneurs are considering between the E-2 Visa and the L1 visa and other Visa options and one of the advantages of the L1 Visa over the E-2 Visa is that the L1 Visa is less focused on a substantial investment One of the primary focuses of the E-2 Visa is: did the investor make a substantial investment in the U.S. Enterprise? Well, the L1 Visa doesn't have a similar focus, so again, one of the advantages of the L1 Visa is that it does not require that you make a substantial investment. Another benefit of the L1 Visa is that it is not limited to certain countries. Now, there are certain visas that are limited to citizens of certain countries. As we mentioned earlier with the E-2 Visa, the E-2 Visa is only available to citizens of certain countries. The L1 Visa is generally available to citizens of all countries, so for that reason, that is a major benefit of the L1 Visa. the third benefit of an L1 Visa is that it can allow somebody to stay in the United States for a considerable period of time if someone is in the United States on an l1a Visa they could extend their visa up to a total of seven years if someone is in the United States on an l1b Visa they can extend their visa for a total period of up to five years so again with the various extensions that are available somebody on an l1a can get a total of seven years in the United States and somebody on an l1b can get into total of up to five years so that's a considerable period of time now let's move on to the fourth benefit that I want to talk about in today's video and that is that the L1 Visa is a dual intent Visa now what I mean by this is that there are certain non-immigrant visas that have a non-immigrant intent requirement for example a student visa for somebody to get approved for a student visa they cannot have the intent to become a permanent resident of the United States and to get their green card but that is not the case for the L1 Visa the L1 Visa is dual intent meaning that somebody can be applying for an L1 visa and simultaneously have the intent to ultimately get their green card so if somebody has an immigrant petition pending they basically are underway taking steps to get their green card or if they otherwise have plans to ultimately get their Green Card the fact that the L1 is a dual intent Visa is a major benefit so again that's benefit number four now let's move on to to the fifth benefit of the L1 visa and that is that it has a relatively convenient Pathway to get a green card now there is a green card option called eb1c eb1c is for multinational managers and Executives and the requirements for eb1c are very similar to the requirements for l1a basically eb1c is an immigrant option available to somebody that is going to be working in the United States as either a manager or executive so many of the requirements are the same there must be a qualifying relationship with a foreign company and a US company and the individual must have worked full time for the foreign company as either a manager or an executive continuously for one year within the last three years and they must be transferring to the United States company to work as either a manager or executive that's an important distinction with the l1b somebody could be coming to the United States to work as a specialized knowledge worker but for eb1z the person must be to the United States to either work as a manager or executive but what I mean by all this is to say with L1 there is a green card option called eb1c and the requirements are quite similar to the requirements for L1 a very common thing that we see in our practice is that somebody will come to the United States on an L1 and eventually upgrade to eb1c to get their Green Card assuming that the requirements are satisfied for eb1c this can be a relatively straightforward pathway for somebody to get their green card and last but not least benefit number six is that the L1 Visa is eligible for premium processing so because the L1 Visa is eligible for premium processing somebody can pay an additional fee and get their application processed within 15 days now that doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to get an approval within 15 days but you're gonna have a method of having your case sped up with USCIS again through premium processing somebody can pay an additional fee it's currently twenty five hundred dollars and by paying that additional no fee you can get your application adjudicated within 15 days so there you have it six benefits of getting your L1 Visa: benefit number one, it doesn't specifically require you to make a substantial investment in the U.S. company; two, it's available to citizens of all countries; it's not country-specific. three, it can allow for extended periods of stay in the United States up to a maximum of seven years under l1a and five years under l1b. benefit number four, it's a dual intent Visa benefit number five: there is a relatively convenient avenue to get your green card from L1 to green card through eb1c, and benefit number six is that the L1 is eligible for premium processing. So there you have it. I hope you found this information useful. If you know anybody that can benefit from this information, feel free to share this video with them. We're all about empowering you with knowledge, so the more people that can watch this video that can benefit from this information, the better. As always, thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you on the next video.