L-1 Transfers

The L-1A classification enables a U.S. employer to transfer an executive or manager from one of its affiliated foreign offices to one of its offices in the United States. This classification also enables a foreign company which does not yet have an affiliated U.S. office to send an executive or manager to the United States with the purpose of establishing one.

To qualify for L-1 classification in this category, the employer must:

• Have a relationship with a foreign company (parent company, branch, subsidiary, or affiliate; and
• Currently be, or will be, doing business as an employer in the United States and in at least one other country directly or through a qualifying organization for the duration of the beneficiary’s stay in the United States as an L-1. 

To qualify, the employee must also:

• Be working for the organization abroad for one continuous year within the three years immediately preceding his or her admission to the United States; and
• Be seeking to enter the United States to provide service in an executive or managerial capacity for a branch of the same employer or one of its qualifying organizations.

For companies seeking to send an employee to the United States as an executive or manager to establish a new office, the employer must also show that they have secured sufficient physical premises to house the new office.