Posts Tagged ‘L-1A’
H-1B and L-1 Petition Fees Increase for Certain Employers
Effective immediately, petitioning employers with 50 or more employees in the U.S. and 50% or more of its workforce holding H-1B or L status (L-1A, L-1B and L-2) must submit additional fees for initial and change of employer petitions.
For H-1B petitions of either type, the petitioner must submit an additional $2000. For L-1A and L-1B petitions of either type, the petitioner must submit an additional $2250. These fee increases will remain in effect through September 30, 2014.
Please don’t hesitate to contact our immigration law office in San Francisco if you have questions about these fees.
Tags: H-1B, L-1A, L-1B, petition fee, Public Law 111-230, visa fee
Posted in Alerts, H-1B, Nonimmigrant Visas, Politics/Current Events, USCIS | Read More »
Visa Extensions: A Problem?
Many of my immigration attorney colleagues are reporting denials of visa extension requests. These are situations where the foreign national is already in the U.S. working legally; but when it comes time to renew the visa, the USCIS says no.
If your status is about to expire, do not think that the USCIS will simply rubber stamp a prior approval and extend your visa. Now more than ever it is important to thoroughly document your eligibility again even if nothing about the employment situation has changed. What was approved once will not necessarily be approved again.
Although most reported cases I’ve heard about involve denials of L-1, O-1 and H-1B visa extensions, other visa types are not remotely immune to the culture of no that pervades USCIS these days.
In fact, just this past weekend, the New York Times reported that E-2 visas are becoming difficult to extend. See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/us/30visas.html?pagewanted=2&sq=E-2%20visa&st=cse&scp=1 for a woeful tale of a business forced to shut down because its British proprietors were not able to renew their visas.
Tags: E-2, extension, H-1B, L-1A, O-1, renew, visa
Posted in Alerts | Read More »
Do I qualify for L-1A status as a professional or functional manager?
L-1A status is available to managers or executives who are being transferred from a foreign company to a U.S. subsidiary, branch or parent of that foreign company. The person must have worked abroad for at least one year within the three years preceding the filing of the petition in an executive or managerial role.
There are two ways to qualify as an L-1A manager. The first involves showing that the L-1A applicant will manage a professional employee or employees (i.e. is a professional manager). Professional typically means that the employees have a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field. The second way to qualify is by demonstrating that the L-1A applicant will manage essential functions of the U.S. company (i.e. is a functional manager). This could be a division, department, operations, etc.
The USCIS has been scrutinizing L-1A functional manager petitions more closely in recent years. It is best to demonstrate that the L-1A manager will oversee professional employees and manage essential functions of the company, rather than solely rely on functional manager duties.
Please contact our immigration law firm if you’d like assistance with your L-1A petition or have questions about this category.
Tags: executive, functional manager, L-1, L-1A, manager, professional manager
Posted in FAQ L-1 | Read More »
