Form I-129 petition fee
Regular employer
US$1,385
Small employer (≤25 FTE)
US$695
Qualifying nonprofit
US$695
Your title says Country Manager. Whether USCIS agrees you are a manager depends on what your organization chart and your calendar show.
If you are an executive or manager at a multinational planning a transfer to the US operation, or a Founder preparing to open a US office, the L-1A is the primary route. It has no annual cap, no lottery, and no registration window. But it has three strict tests, and this guide covers each of them with the current figures.
Beyond Border attorneys have collectively handled 4,000+ immigration cases across employment-based categories. This article is written from practical experience helping founders and company executives gain a valid L-1 status.
The L-1A is a US nonimmigrant work visa for intracompany transferees who will work in a managerial or executive capacity. It covers employees transferring within the same corporate body: a parent, branch, subsidiary, or affiliate of the employer abroad.
The process has two stages, and the second depends on the first. The US entity files a petition with USCIS (either as an individual or under a blanket approval for large companies), and only an approved petition supports a visa application at a consulate. Nobody self-petitions for an L-1A, and there is no quota by race.
The L-1A is also a dual-intent visa, which we cover in the green card section below. This means you can hold L-1A status and pursue permanent residence at the same time without violating either.
Our attorney at Beyond Border recommends “start by confirming which entity in your corporate structure will petition, because every following requirement is measured against that relationship.”
Every L-1A petition must pass three tests. Review them in order, because each one eliminates qualifying candidates.
Test 1: A qualifying corporate relationship. The US petitioner and your foreign employer must be the same legal entity or its parent, branch, subsidiary, or affiliate. The group must be doing business in the United States and at least one other country for the duration of your stay. A sales agreement or licensing deal between two unrelated companies does not create a qualifying relationship.
Test 2: One year abroad in the last three years. You must have worked for the group abroad, continuously and full-time, for one year within the three years before the petition is filed. The FAM Policy confirms the measuring date is the filing of the initial petition, not your entry date. Part-time years cannot be added together to make one full-time year, and the qualifying year must be spent wholly outside the United States.
If you already work for the group inside the US, for example, on an H-1B, that US time does not count toward the year, but it does shift the three-year look-back window earlier. The practical effect is that a qualifying year completed several years ago can still count. Have your HR team reconstruct the exact employment dates before anyone drafts a petition.
Test 3: Managerial or executive capacity, both abroad and in the US role. You must have been in a managerial position, whether abroad or in the US, in the role you are about to occupy. We explain further below.
A manager primarily manages the organization, a department, or an essential function; supervises supervisory, professional, or managerial employees; holds hire-and-fire authority or operates at a senior functional level; and exercises discretion over day-to-day operations.
An executive primarily directs the management of the organization, sets goals and policies, exercises wide discretionary latitude, and answers only to general supervision from above.
The word carrying the weight is "primarily." Per 9 FAM 402.12-12(B), an employee who primarily performs the tasks required to produce the product or deliver the service is not employed in a managerial or executive capacity, regardless of the title. This is the player-coach problem: a "Head of Engineering" who spends most of the week writing production code does not qualify.
There is a route for leaders without direct reports. The FAM recognizes the functional manager: someone who manages an essential function rather than people. The petition must then identify the function with specificity, document the proportion of daily duties that involve managing it, and demonstrate that you manage the function rather than perform it.
Camila Façanha, Head of Legal at Beyond Border, adds, “Consular officers and USCIS adjudicators weigh the factors listed in the policy manual: the number and duties of your direct and indirect reports, how senior your own supervisor is, whether your calendar looks like a manager's or a producer's, and whether you hold authority for significant company decisions. These determine if your petition will be approved or not.
A first-line supervisor generally qualifies only if the people supervised are professionals. And neither a title nor ownership of the company is, by itself, evidence of capacity; even a sole employee can qualify, but only if the primary role is to plan, organize, direct, and control the business through other people or providers.
If your real week is majority hands-on production work, the L-1A is the wrong petition to file. Restructure the role first, or look at the O-1 route if your individual record is strong. Filing anyway can lead to an RFE or denial.
Our attorney at Beyond Border recommends “mapping your last 12 months of duties into managing versus producing before your company drafts anything.”
The L-1A is not reserved for large multinationals. A Founder whose foreign company is opening its first US operation can transfer on a new-office L-1A, and the requirements are specific. Per 9 FAM 402.12-9, a new-office petition must show three things:
A new L-1A office position is approved for a maximum of one year, and the extension depends on demonstrating a functioning business with a real need for a manager, with staff or providers performing the productive work. Treat the first year as a build deadline: hiring plan, revenue activity, and an org structure that relieves you of day-to-day production.
Our attorney at Beyond Border adds, “A sole proprietorship cannot petition for its owner. Only a separately incorporated entity such as a corporation or LLC can.”
If you cannot meet the one-year-abroad rule at all, you do not qualify for the new-office L-1A, but that does not end the analysis. Founders with strong individual records frequently qualify for the O-1 visa instead. Consider exploring that route.
There are three layers of fees associated with the L-1A visa: mandatory USCIS fees set by employer size, situational government fees, and professional costs.
Here’s what you should know;
N.B. All figures are valid as of July 2026 and subject to change. The fraud prevention fee applies to initial petitions and change-of-employer filings, but not to same-employer extensions. Confirm your exact total with our fee calculator tool before filing.
Employers with 50 or more US employees, where more than half are in H-1B or L status, pay an additional US$4,500. The collection is currently scheduled to end on September 30, 2027.
Separately, there is a visa integrity fee of at least US$250 at visa issuance. However, the collection has not rolled out uniformly across consulates as of July 2026, so treat it as a probable add-on and check our visa integrity fee guide before your interview. Other associated fees include attorney fees and document preparation fees.
The L-1A visa processing time is 6-8 months and varies by service center. The process is the same for almost every individual petition. What varies is how much evidence each step needs. It typically involves;
The L-1 visa is divided into two categories; the appropriate category depends on your role. Below is a side-by-side comparison and key differences.
An L-1B employee promoted into a managerial or executive role must have held that role for at least six months, with the change approved by USCIS in an amended or new petition, to reach the seven-year L-1A maximum. If a promotion is coming and the five-year L-1B clock is running, file the amendment early.
Our attorney at Beyond Border explains how the blanket L works. “The blanket L is a volume tool for large groups. To qualify, the group must be engaged in commercial trade or services, have a US office doing business for at least one year, have three or more domestic and foreign branches, subsidiaries, or affiliates, and meet one of three scale tests: 10 or more L approvals in the past 12 months, US$25m or more in combined US annual sales, or a US workforce of at least 1,000.”
An approved blanket is valid for three years and can then be extended indefinitely. Individual transferees under a blanket skip the individual USCIS petition and prove their qualifications directly to the consular officer, who may issue only clearly approvable cases; new-office transfers are excluded. If your company runs regular rotations, ask whether a blanket exists before filing individually, because it changes both the timeline and the fee stack.
An individual L-1A petition is initially approved for up to 3 years, or for 1 year for a new office. Extensions are available in increments of up to 2 years, and you must be physically present in the US when the extension is filed.
The maximum duration of an L-1A visa is 7 years, and time spent in H-1 B status counts against it. The limit is calculated based on days lawfully admitted and physically present, which means genuine time abroad does not burn the clock and can be effectively recaptured. The time your family spends in L-2 status does not count against your own limit.
Once the 7-year limit is over, you cannot extend, renew or reapply for an L-1A visa until you either change status or leave the U.S. for a year. For the full mechanics, including visa validity and recapture documentation, see our L-1 visa validity guide.
The L-1A carries statutory dual intent. This means seeking permanent residence does not affect your L status.
L-1A visa holders naturally apply for the EB-1C green card category for multinational managers and executives, which mirrors the L-1A's logic: same corporate-relationship thinking, same managerial-capacity test, applied to permanent residence.
The overlap is why the L-1A is often described as a green card on-ramp, and why the duties evidence you build for the L-1A petition pays off during the EB-1C application. Our L-1 to green card guide explains the full process and how to make use of the seven-year clock.
Your spouse and unmarried children under 21 qualify for L-2 status. The consular fee is US$205 per dependent as of July 2026, and dependents already in the US extend or change status on Form I-539 for US$470 on paper or US$420 online.
L-2 spouses have employment authorization and can lawfully work in the United States without filing a separate work-permit request. Children in L-2Y status may study but are not authorized to work.
Bring your spouse's I-94 printout to their employer's onboarding to resolve any pending I-9 conversation.
No statutory degree requirement exists. The tests are the qualifying relationship, the one year abroad, and managerial or executive duties; a strong record of duties outweighs any diploma.
Yes. The FAM confirms small and medium businesses, and even a sole employee, can qualify when the role is primarily to plan, organize, direct, and control the business through others. Small employers also pay reduced filing fees, US$995 in base USCIS fees as of July 2026.
Possibly, as a functional manager. You must document the essential function you manage, what share of your day you spend managing it, and that others perform the underlying work.
The standard approval time is 5 to 7 months. Premium processing requires USCIS action within 15 business days, and it does not improve approval odds.
Yes. The L-1A is a dual-intent classification, and pursuing permanent residence does not jeopardize your status. Most L-1A holders evaluate EB-1C first.
Yes. L-2 spouses are work authorized incident to status, with the L-2S notation on the I-94 serving as proof for employers.
You can no longer extend your L visa until you have spent one full year residing outside the US. That deadline is why you should start planning for your green card at the start of your L-1A process.
If you have one qualifying year abroad with a continuing foreign company, the new-office L-1A fits US expansion. If you fail the one-year rule but have a strong individual record, review the O-1 route. The honest answer depends on which test you fail, so verify before choosing.
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