L-1A Intracompany Transferee, Executive or Manager
L-1A lets a multinational employer move an executive or manager from an affiliated foreign office to a US office. It also covers sending an executive or manager to open a brand new US office for a company that does not yet have one. It is a petition-based category with no annual cap, it allows dual intent, and it feeds naturally into the EB-1C multinational manager green card.
- Срок
- Three years initially. A new-office L-1A is limited to a one-year initial stay. The overall maximum is seven years.
- Продление
- Extensions are granted in increments of up to two years, until the seven-year maximum. A new-office L-1A must show at the first extension that the office is up and running and supports an executive or managerial role. After seven years the beneficiary must spend a year abroad before a fresh L petition.
- Работа
- Yes, incident to status, but only for the petitioning employer in the role described in the approved petition. A material change in the role or worksite requires an amended Form I-129. No separate EAD is issued.
- Двойное намерение
- true - L is a recognised dual intent category, so pursuing a green card does not undermine L-1A status, extensions or admission.
- Члены семьи
- Spouse and unmarried children under 21 get L-2 status, generally for the same period. L-2 spouses are work authorised incident to status and are coded L-2S on Form I-94; they may work on that I-94 alone and need not file Form I-765. L-2 children may study but may not work.
- Путь к грин-карте
- The cleanest route in this range. EB-1C multinational manager or executive mirrors the L-1A standard, needs no labour certification, and can often be filed early in the assignment. The one-year abroad requirement and the executive or managerial definition are the same battleground in both.
- Срок рассмотрения
- Regular Form I-129 adjudication has run several months. Premium processing gives a 15 business day response for $2,965. Blanket L at a consulate can be same-day at the interview. Consular wait times after the October 2025 interview waiver rollback are the binding constraint for many transferees.
Кто подходит
- Executives who direct the management of an organisation or a major component with wide latitude
- Managers who supervise professional staff or manage an essential function at a high level
- Employees who have worked for a qualifying organisation abroad for one continuous year within the preceding three years
- Executives or managers being sent to establish a new US office for a foreign employer
- Employees of a parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate of the US petitioner
Требования
- A qualifying corporate relationship between the US and foreign entity: parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate
- Both entities must be doing business, meaning regular systematic provision of goods or services, for the whole of the beneficiary's L-1 stay
- One continuous year of qualifying employment abroad in the three years before admission
- The US role must be genuinely executive or managerial as defined in INA 101(a)(44) and 8 CFR 214.2(l)(1)(ii)
- For a new office: secured physical premises, one year of prior executive or managerial employment, and evidence the office will support an executive or managerial position within one year
- Form I-129 with the L supplement filed by the US employer
- Blanket L petitioners must have an approved blanket and use Form I-129S
Как подать
- 1
Confirm the qualifying corporate relationship and document it with ownership and control evidence
- 2
Document one continuous year of executive or managerial employment abroad in the last three years
- 3
The US employer files Form I-129 with the L supplement, or files Form I-129S under an approved blanket L
- 4
Pay the base fee, the Asylum Program Fee, the $500 fraud fee and, for covered employers, the $4,500 surcharges
- 5
Add Form I-907 for premium processing if the timeline is tight
- 6
Once approved, complete Form DS-160, pay the $205 MRV fee and interview at the post in your country of nationality or residence
- 7
Canadian citizens may present the petition or blanket documents directly to CBP at a port of entry instead
- 8
File L-2 applications for the family, either at the same post or on Form I-539 inside the United States
Сборы и формы
| Form I-129, L petition | $1,385; $695 for a small employer of 25 or fewer full-time equivalent employees, or a nonprofit |
| Asylum Program Fee on Form I-129 | $600 regular petitioner, $300 small employer, $0 nonprofit |
| Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee | $500 on an initial L petition or a change of L employer |
| Public Law 114-113 fee for covered employers | $4,500 where the petitioner has 50 or more US employees and more than half are in H-1B, L-1A or L-1B status, on petitions filed before Oct. 1, 2027 |
| 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit Fee, L-1 | $4,500 for covered employers, on petitions postmarked or filed on or after Sept. 9, 2026 |
| Form I-907 premium processing | $2,965 |
| MRV nonimmigrant visa application fee, petition-based tier | $205 |
| Blanket L fraud prevention and detection fee, paid at the consulate by the principal applicant | $500 |
| Blanket L Public Law 114-113 fee, paid at the consulate by covered employers | $4,500 |
| Form I-539 for L-2 dependants inside the United States | $470 paper, $420 online |
Что изменилось в 2025 и 2026 годах
- Sept. 9, 2026: a DHS final rule issued Aug. 10, 2026 requires covered employers to pay the 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit Fee on every H-1B and L-1 petition, $4,000 for H-1B and $4,500 for L-1. A covered employer has 50 or more US employees with more than half in H-1B, L-1A or L-1B status. It does not apply to an amended petition that does not seek to extend status. The fee runs on petitions filed on or before Sept. 30, 2027.
- Aug. 10, 2026: DHS also confirmed the 9-11 Biometric Fee does not apply to an amended petition that does not seek to extend the beneficiary's current L status, which is a meaningful saving on worksite and role amendments.
- Oct. 1, 2025: the interview waiver rollback announced Sept. 18, 2025 took effect and superseded the July 25, 2025 guidance. Almost every nonimmigrant applicant now needs an in-person interview. The standing carve-outs are A-1, A-2, C-3 other than personal staff, G-1 through G-4, NATO-1 through NATO-6, TECRO E-1, diplomatic and official visas, and 12-month renewals of B-1/B-2, Mexican border crossing cards and H-2A. Waiver-eligible applicants must also apply in their country of nationality or residence, must never have been refused a visa unless overcome or waived, and must have no apparent ineligibility. The old under-14 and over-79 age exemptions were abolished. No further update has issued as of September 2026.
- July 15, 2026: State told nonimmigrant applicants to interview in their country of nationality or residence, or at the designated processing post if their country has no routine operations. Applying elsewhere is allowed but harder to qualify, the MRV fee is non-refundable and non-transferable, and waits are much longer. A, G, C-2, C-3, NATO and diplomatic applicants are exempt.
- Jan. 1, 2026: Presidential Proclamation 10998, signed Dec. 16, 2025, took effect at 12:01 a.m. EST and replaced Proclamation 10949 (signed June 4, 2025, effective June 9, 2025). It fully suspends visa issuance to nationals of 19 countries - Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen - plus holders of Palestinian Authority travel documents, across every nonimmigrant and immigrant category. It only reaches people who were outside the United States and held no valid visa at 12:01 a.m. EST on Jan. 1, 2026; no earlier-issued visa was revoked under it. L is not inside the partial suspension list, so nationals of the 19 partially suspended countries can still apply for L visas.
- July 4, 2025: Public Law 119-21 added non-waivable immigration surcharges on top of normal filing fees. The ones that touch nonimmigrants are the Form I-94 fee, held at $24 for FY 2026, the parole fee, adjusted to $1,020 for FY 2026, parolee EAD surcharges of $560 initial and $280 renewal, and a statutory visa integrity fee of at least $250 on nonimmigrant visa issuance. The $250 visa integrity fee is enacted but unverified as collected: it appears nowhere on the State Department fee schedule as of September 2026 and no implementing rule has published.
- Current USCIS fee schedule, Form G-1055 edition 05/29/26: an L Form I-129 is $1,385, or $695 for a small employer or nonprofit, plus the Asylum Program Fee of $600, $300 or $0.
- L-1A adjudication tightened modestly. On USCIS Form I-129 quarterly data the L-1A denial rate moved from 8.2 percent in FY 2025, on 24,539 completions, to 8.6 percent in the first half of FY 2026, on 12,073 completions, with the RFE rate rising from 24.1 percent to 25.2 percent and peaking at 28.6 percent in December 2025. Blanket L approval rates slipped from 98.6 to 97.7 percent.
- Policy Manual Volume 2, Part L has had no substantive update in 2025 or 2026. The Feb. 26, 2025 entry is a technical change swapping "noncitizen" for "alien". The last substantive alerts remain Aug. 16, 2022 on managers, executives and specialized knowledge, and Oct. 20, 2023 on sole proprietorships. Nothing has changed the specialized knowledge standard, the new office rules, blanket L, or the one continuous year abroad requirement. There is also no L-1 rulemaking on the DHS Unified Agenda.
- Blanket L consular adjudication is unchanged. 9 FAM 402.12 was last updated April 23, 2024 and the clearly approvable standard at 9 FAM 402.12-7(E) is intact. The Form I-129S endorsement change, where the approval notice replaces the stamped paper form, dates to Aug. 3, 2023 rather than this period.
- L-1A remains on the USCIS Administrative Site Visit and Verification Program list alongside H-1B, religious workers and EB-5, and on the targeted site visit list. That page was last updated May 13, 2025 and no 2025 or 2026 expansion memo was found.
- Aug. 5, 2026: USCIS policy alert PA-2026-05 on evidence, requests for evidence and notices of intent to deny took effect immediately. USCIS may now deny outright, without first issuing an RFE or NOID, where the required initial evidence was not filed with the petition. RFE response time is capped at 84 calendar days plus three mailing days, and the extra 14 days formerly allowed for international correspondence is gone.
- June 8 and July 24, 2026: courts vacated the guidance implementing the $100,000 H-1B payment requirement in State of California v. Mullin. That requirement never applied to L-1, but it changed relative cost calculations between H-1B and L-1 for multinationals.
Где чаще всего ошибаются
- Function managers with no direct reports draw heavy scrutiny on the managerial capacity test.
- New-office petitions approved for one year then denied at extension because the office did not scale.
- Breaking the one continuous year abroad by an earlier US assignment, which resets the clock.
- Time spent outside the United States can be recaptured against the seven-year cap, but only with careful travel records.
- Amending the petition late after a role, worksite or corporate restructuring change.
- Blanket L is fast but has a higher evidentiary bar at the window, and a refusal there is hard to appeal.
- The $4,500 surcharges catch large employers by surprise, and from Sept. 9, 2026 there are two separate $4,500 lines to check.
- L-2 spouses relying on an old L-2 I-94 rather than the L-2S annotation for Form I-9 purposes.
Также в категории Intracompany transferee
Не уверены, что это ваша виза? Опишите свою ситуацию. Опишите свою ситуацию, и поисковик назовёт варианты, которые стоит изучить. Это не юридическая консультация: право на визу зависит от фактов, которых страница не видит.