Visas for Foreign Investors and Business Owners
L1 Visa to America and Green Cards for U.S. Business Ownership
The L-1 visa is commonly used to transfer personnel into the United States from a location abroad. But the L-1 can also be used by a foreign business owner who wishes to expand into the United States, as long the owner holds a managerial or executive position and is not merely an investor. If the owner is successful in getting an L-1 visa, this can make the green card for permanent residence must faster.
How Do I Get a Visa?
The central criteria is that the owner must have been employed abroad for at least one of the preceding three years. The owner must have been employed by a parent, branch, affiliate, or subsidiary of the company in a managerial or executive capacity.
Opening a New Office - If the owner is coming to the United States as a manager or executive to open or to be employed in a new office in the United States, the case must prove that :
A) Sufficient physical premises to house the new office has been secured;
B) The owner has been employed for one continuous year in the three year period preceding the filing of the petition in an executive or managerial capacity and that the proposed employment involved executive or managerial authority over the new operation; and
C) The intended United States operation, within one year of the approval of the petition, will support an executive or managerial position supported by information regarding:
1) The proposed nature of the office describing the scope of the entity, its organizational structure, and its financial goals;
2) The size of the United States investment and the financial ability of the foreign entity to remunerate the beneficiary and to commence doing business in the United States; and
3) The organizational structure of the foreign entity.
Spouse and dependents. The spouse and unmarried minor children of the foreign owner are entitled to L nonimmigrant classification, subject to the same period of admission and limits as the beneficiary, if the spouse and unmarried minor children are accompanying or following to join the beneficiary in the United States. The spouse and children may apply for employment authorization or work permit.
Managerial capacity means an assignment within an organization in which the owner primarily:
1) Manages the organization, or a department, subdivision, function, or component of the organization;
2) Supervises and controls the work of other supervisory, professional, or managerial owners, or manages an essential function within the organization, or a department or subdivision of the organization;
3) Has the authority to hire and fire or recommend hiring/firing. Functions at a senior level within the organizational hierarchy or with respect to the function managed; and
4) Exercises discretion over the day-to-day operations of the activity or function for which the owner has authority. A first-line supervisor is not considered to be acting in a managerial capacity merely by virtue of the supervisor's supervisory duties unless the employees supervised are professional.
Executive capacity means an assignment within an organization in which the owner primarily:
1) Directs the management of the organization or a major component or function of the organization;
2) Establishes the goals and policies of the organization, component, or function;
3) Exercises wide latitude in discretionary decision-making; and
4) Receives only general supervision or direction from higher level executives, the board of directors, or stockholders of the organization.
For more information on L visas for business owners, please contact Vincent Martin at vmartin@cundyandmartin.com or call (952) 746-4111.
Bloomington, Minnesota, Immigration Lawyers |
