How to send your employees to the US on L-1 visas.
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You primarily manage a team, department, or key function, not just projects. You direct the work of other professionals or have specialist knowledge within the firm. 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.
Launching or managing a US office require a technical L-1A/B petition, but we have numerous examples of success.
The key is to demonstrate future managerial or specialist capacity through a credible, detailed business and organisation plan. We focus on the metrics of your launch: your authority to hire US staff, your control over the US budget, and your strategic role in establishing the new entity, not just making the first sale or writing the first line of code.
Your evidence is the corporate structure: the secured US office space (we review leases and floorplans), and the comprehensive 1-year immigration specific business plan.
Launching or managing a US office require a technical L-1A/B petition, but we have numerous examples of success.
The key is to demonstrate future managerial or specialist capacity through a credible, detailed business and organisation plan. We focus on the metrics of your launch: your authority to hire US staff, your control over the US budget, and your strategic role in establishing the new entity, not just making the first sale or writing the first line of code.
Your evidence is the corporate structure: the secured US office space (we review leases and floorplans), and the comprehensive 1-year immigration specific business plan.
Proving You Are a "Manager" or “Specialist
Your primary challenge is proving your role is managerial / specialist. You will need a detailed business plan and organizational chart to prove that your primary function is to direct the US entity, set strategy, and establish why your knowledge is specialised and required in the US market.
Establishing the "Viability" of the New Office
We pre-vet our attorneys with strong track records, so you don’t have waste months finding a good one.
Cross-border Founders, CTOs, to individuals partner with us to get the L-1 visas.
Work with 15+ years of combined extraordinary visa knowledge. We are confident in your approval.
The L-1 visa for cross border companies is used when an international business wants to transfer a key employee from a foreign office to a related U.S. office. “Cross border company” is business language, not a separate visa category. The case still has to meet the normal L-1 rules, including a qualifying relationship between the U.S. and foreign entities and a qualifying employee transfer.
Yes. A cross border company can use L-1 if the U.S. entity and foreign entity are properly related as a parent, subsidiary, branch, or affiliate, and the employee is being transferred in a qualifying role. USCIS does not treat international activity by itself as enough. The company relationship and the employee’s eligibility both have to be clearly documented.
The strongest L-1 candidates are executives and managers under L-1A, and specialized knowledge employees under L-1B. In practice, that often includes regional leaders, country managers, operations heads, implementation leads, product specialists, and technical employees with company-specific knowledge that would be difficult to replace quickly in the U.S. market.
Yes. USCIS requires the employee to have worked abroad for a qualifying organization for at least one continuous year within the three years before admission to the United States, or before filing in certain cases. This is one of the core L-1 requirements and one of the first things that must be checked in any cross border company case.
The most important evidence usually includes proof of the corporate relationship between the foreign and U.S. entities, proof that both entities are doing business, records showing the employee’s qualifying foreign employment, and detailed job descriptions for the foreign and U.S. roles. USCIS looks closely at whether the documents show a real cross-border business structure rather than a paper relationship.
Yes. L-1A is used for managers and executives, while L-1B is used for employees with specialized knowledge of the company’s product, service, research, systems, techniques, or internal operations. That makes the L-1 category especially useful for cross border companies that need to move both leadership and critical know-how into the United States.
It depends on the category. L-1A employees can stay in the U.S. for up to seven years, while L-1B employees can stay for up to five years, subject to the normal approval and extension rules. That longer runway is one reason L-1 is often attractive for companies building or expanding a serious U.S. presence.
90% of Beyond Border's clients are startups with cross border entities and L-1 visa needs. This is a well drilled process for us to advise startups on how to manage cross border operations.
