Transferring to the United States Through Your Company
There are many different options for people seeking to come to the United States by transferring from a company abroad to a parent, subsidiary, or affiliate company in the United States.
U.S. employers may apply to transfer an executive or manager from an affiliated foreign office to another that resides in the United States with the L-1A nonimmigrant visa. The L-1A nonimmigrant visa is also for foreign companies looking to establish an affiliated office in the United States. The L-1A temporary work visa provides a total stay of seven years for managers and executives. You may qualify if you supervise professional employees, manage an essential function of the organization, and have been working for the company for one continuous year prior to your admission to the United States. Once in the United States you must be working at a branch or qualifying organization of the same employer in order to qualify for the L-1A visa.
The L-1B visa is granted to employees with specialized knowledge of the company's products, technologies, or services. The maximum stay in the L-1B visa category is five years.
Multinational managers and executives can qualify for a fast-track to permanent residency through the employment-based first preference category (the EB1). Those with specialized knowledge must prove that there are no qualified U.S. workers through the labor certification process to gain permanent residency in America.
Transferring employees may apply for their spouse and unmarried children under 21 years of age to accompany them by submitting an L-2 nonimmigrant visa. If approved L-2 applicants are generally approved for the same period of stay as the employee. L-2 spouses also have the option to apply for work authorization and once approved they may work where ever they please.
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"The USCIS stated that fee increases will be introduced in order to recover costs for their services and to maintain 'adequate' service. However, many have said that current service levels are inadequate. Despite US Congress authorizing USCIS processing timelines as part of the American Competitiveness of the 21st Century Act of 2000 (AC21), 16 years later USCIS fails to meet the standards set by law on a consistent basis....
For US visa applications using Form I-140, used for EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3 employment-based immigration visas, fees will also rise by 42 percent, while for visa applications using Form I-526, which is needed for an EB5 immigrant investor visa creating at least 10 jobs for US workers, will rise by a staggering 145 percent."