How functional managers secure the L-1 visa.
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You primarily manage a team, department, or key function, not just projects. You direct the work of other professionals. You are not a "player-coach" who spends most of their time on individual-contributor tasks
You have authority to hire, fire, and set pay for your team.
You make high-level decisions, not just day-to-day implementation. You set the product roadmap, define engineering culture, or create the go-to-market strategy, and are able to procure evidence for it.
Your US company and foreign entity which issues your payroll in the last 1 year are parent, subsidiary, or affiliates.
You were employed full-time by the foreign entity in a managerial or executive role for at least one continuous year within the last three years.
A manager title means different things for everyone, blurring the line for L-1A qualification.
The key is to demonstrate managerial capacity, not just senior-level technical skill or project leadership. We focus on the "metrics" of your role: the professionals you direct (engineers, PMs), the essential functions you control (e.g., DevOps, SRE), and your authority over budgets and personnel, not just your ability to ship features.
You will need a highly detailed support letter from your employer (e.t., your VP of Engineering, CTO, or HR), detailed organisational charts showing your reporting lines, clear evidence of executing managerial capacities and entity specific documents to secure approval.
A manager title means different things for everyone, blurring the line for L-1A qualification.
The key is to demonstrate managerial capacity, not just senior-level technical skill or project leadership. We focus on the "metrics" of your role: the professionals you direct (engineers, PMs), the essential functions you control (e.g., DevOps, SRE), and your authority over budgets and personnel, not just your ability to ship features.
You will need a highly detailed support letter from your employer (e.t., your VP of Engineering, CTO, or HR), detailed organisational charts showing your reporting lines, clear evidence of executing managerial capacities and entity specific documents to secure approval.
Distinguishing "Manager" from "Senior Contributor"
Your primary challenge is proving you are not a "player-coach" or a senior technical lead. You will need clear org charts and detailed job descriptions (for both you and your reports) to prove that your value comes from directing your team (e.g., software architects, data scientists, PMs) and managing the function, not from your personal technical contributions.
Avoiding the "First-Line Supervisor" Trap
Your challenge is proving your role is genuinely managerial, not just supervisory.
This involves showing you manage professionals (i.e., degreed employees) or a key function, and that you have significant discretion in your role.
We pre-vetted our attorneys with strong track records, so you don’t have waste months finding a good one.
Engineering Directors, Heads of Product to Mid level managers rely on us to secure managerial visas.
Work with 15+ years of combined extraordinary talent visa knowledge. Your succeess is gauranteed
We guarantee to complete the petition drafting and submission within 1 month of receiving all supporting documents required to file your long term visa or green card petition. Beyond Border is amongst the fastest legal service provider in the industry, thanks to our tech-enabled approach to petition filing and focus on technologists.
The fee will vary depending on the visa or green card type that best suits your need, but you should budget between US$8,000-10,000, excluding government fees and depending on your long term visa or green card category.
You can visit USCIS's free fee calculator to get an estimate for the associated government fees to process your visa.
Beyond Border is a modern immigration platform founded by immigrants from the technology industry for immigrants. We leverage technology to speed up the end-to-end U.S. immigration petition process, and work with a carefully curated network of attorneys who specialize in U.S. immigration cases for technologists.
Our attorneys maintain a 98% success rate throughout their careers with more than 4,000 approvals. We work exclusively with venture backed tech operators and researchers, which allow us maintain a high approval rate and provide profile building advice given sector expertise.
If your application is rejected, we will review the reasons for denial and help you reapply by addressing any issues or missing documentation.
