Legal counsel for L-1 intracompany transfers. We move managers, executives, and specialized-knowledge employees from an affiliated office abroad to a related office in the United States, with the qualifying-relationship analysis and documentation each petition demands.
An L-1 transferee must have worked for the related company abroad for one continuous year within the preceding three, and the two companies must stay related and in business for as long as the transfer lasts. An L-1A manager or executive may stay seven years in all, an L-1B specialized-knowledge employee five, and time already spent in H-1B status counts against both.
The relationship is one of ownership and control. A parent or subsidiary qualifies, as does an affiliate under common ownership; a fifty-fifty joint venture qualifies only where each owner has equal control and a veto; a distributor never does. A new U.S. office is approved for one year, and the renewal must show it has grown into something a manager can plausibly manage.
We act for the foreign employer, the U.S. affiliate and the employee, and we have represented clients in matters before USCIS. The role is classified by the work rather than the title: a manager who supervises no one can qualify by managing an essential function, and a first-line supervisor of non-professionals cannot. The L-2 spouse may work on arrival without a separate permit.
Preparing L-1A petitions for employees coming to the United States in a managerial or executive capacity, with role documentation that establishes the level of authority and responsibility the category requires.
Preparing L-1B petitions for employees with specialized knowledge of the organization's products, services, research, systems, or management, and building the evidentiary record that distinguishes specialized knowledge from general skill.
Analyzing the corporate structure to confirm a qualifying relationship (parent, subsidiary, branch, or affiliate) between the foreign and U.S. entities, and assembling the corporate records that prove it.
Supporting foreign companies using the L-1 to establish a new branch, subsidiary, or affiliate in the United States, including the heightened documentation a new-office filing requires.
Handling the L-1 petition from preparation through filing, compiling the supporting evidence, drafting the petition narrative, and managing the documentation USCIS requires.
Guiding sponsoring employers through their obligations, supporting full compliance with USCIS requirements, and responding to requests for evidence so the sponsorship holds up under scrutiny.
USCIS wants the chain of ownership from the foreign employer to the U.S. entity shown by share registers rather than asserted in a letter. Common ownership by a group of individuals works only if each holds about the same share of both. A sale of either company to an outsider ends the status.
A manager directs the organization, a department or an essential function, has authority over hiring, and exercises discretion over daily operations. A first-line supervisor qualifies only if the people supervised are professionals. Specialized knowledge means knowledge of the company's product or processes that is special or advanced, measured against what the industry knows.
An L-1B may stay five years in all and an L-1A seven, with time spent in H-1B status added to the count. At the limit the employee must spend a full year abroad before a new L or H petition can be approved. Days spent outside the country during the stay can be recaptured.
A new U.S. office is approved for one year rather than three. The filing must show premises already secured, the money to start operating, and for a manager an organization that will need one within the year. At renewal USCIS compares headcount and duties against the plan filed at the start.
The year abroad must be continuous and fall within the three years before the petition, or before admission if the employee already works here for the group. Time in the United States for the same employer does not count toward the year, though it does not break it. Contractor work abroad does not count.
An L-1B employee may not be placed mainly at an unrelated company's site where that company controls the work or the posting amounts to labor for hire. The L-2 spouse may work on arrival without a separate permit once the admission record carries the spousal annotation; L-2 children may not.
Before any petition, we trace the corporate chart, from share registers to ownership and control across the foreign and U.S. entities, until the parent, subsidiary, branch, or affiliate link is documented. If the structure does not yet qualify, we say so now, when it can still be fixed.
L-1A or L-1B is decided by the work rather than the title. We map the employee's actual authority or specialized knowledge against the category's evidentiary burden, and confirm the year of continuous qualifying employment abroad within the preceding three, before a word of the petition is drafted.
We assemble organizational charts, duty breakdowns, payroll and corporate records, and a petition narrative written to survive the specialized-knowledge and managerial-capacity tests USCIS actually applies. New-office filings carry their own layer: premises, financial capacity, and a plan that supports a qualifying role.
We manage the filing through adjudication, answering any request for evidence from the record we already built, then coordinate consular processing or change of status, the family's L-2s, and the extension calendar so the transfer holds up after the approval notice.
USCIS transfers evidence, never employees. We build the file that moves.
A nonimmigrant classification that lets a company move an employee from a related entity abroad to a related entity in the United States, whether parent, subsidiary or affiliate. L-1A covers managers and executives and allows up to seven years in total; L-1B covers employees with specialized knowledge of the company's products or processes and allows five. A first petition is approved for up to three years, or one year for a new U.S. office, and extensions come in two-year increments. The classification is dual intent, so an L-1 employee can be sponsored for a green card without putting the status at risk, and large groups can use a blanket approval that sends transferees to the consulate without an individual USCIS petition.
The U.S. and foreign employers must be the same company or related by ownership and control as parent, subsidiary or affiliate, and both must be doing business, meaning the regular and continuous provision of goods or services rather than an office with an agent in it, for the whole period of the transfer. The employee must have worked for the foreign entity for one continuous year within the preceding three in a managerial, executive or specialized-knowledge capacity. Groups with at least ten L-1 approvals in the past year, or a thousand U.S. employees, can qualify with other conditions for a blanket petition that covers future transfers. We trace the ownership chain with share registers before anything is drafted, because a holding company or a joint venture in the chain is where the relationship most often fails to qualify.
L-1A is for managers and executives, L-1B for employees with specialized knowledge, and the difference shows up in the proof and in the clock. A manager directs a department or an essential function, has authority over hiring and firing or recommends it, and exercises discretion over daily operations; supervising non-professional staff does not qualify on its own. Specialized knowledge means knowledge of the company's product or processes that is special or advanced, and the file has to show how it differs from what the industry at large knows. L-1A allows seven years in total, L-1B five, and only the L-1A manager maps onto the EB-1C multinational-manager green card without labor certification; an L-1B employee usually needs PERM. We classify by the duties as they are actually performed rather than by the title on the organizational chart.
Yes. A foreign company with no U.S. presence can send a manager, executive or specialized-knowledge employee to open one, and the petition must show that physical premises have already been secured, that the company has the funds to pay the employee and begin operating, and, for a managerial transfer, that the new office will need a manager within a year. The approval is for one year rather than three. At the renewal, USCIS compares the office as it stands, its headcount, its revenue and the transferee's actual duties, against the plan that was filed, which is why the plan is written to be met rather than to impress.
Common problems include an inadequately documented qualifying relationship between the entities, a role description that does not clearly establish managerial, executive, or specialized-knowledge status, and gaps in the employee's prior employment abroad. Each of these can be caught before filing, and a well-built record is also what lets us answer a request for evidence quickly if one is issued.
Yes. The foreign employer, the U.S. entity and the transferee are usually all in the file, and one partner is accountable to all three, with the conflicts between them addressed at the start rather than when a transfer is cancelled. For the companies that means the qualifying-relationship evidence, the petition and the compliance that follows, including the amendment required when the transferee's role or worksite changes materially. For the employee and family that means the L-2 filings, the spouse's work authorization, which arrives with the admission record rather than a separate permit, and the 60-day grace period if the employment ends early. We have represented clients in matters before USCIS and we work in English and Spanish.
Guidance on temporary, employment-based classifications, H-1B specialty occupation and TN professional status, matched to the role and the candidate.
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Explore →Reviewed by Jonathan D. Herpy, Sr., Senior Partner · Last updated October 2026 · Educational overview · Not legal advice
One partner is accountable for the whole matter, and you have that partner's direct line. Chicago, London, and Dubai work to the same standard.