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 Nationality is diminishing as a controlling factor in
our personal destinies. Global companies and global markets demand
personal global mobility.
Social and economic turmoil in specific countries
motivates individuals to seek global opportunity as a response to
personal insecurity. The L-1 visa may be an appropriate vehicle for
qualified non-U.S. citizens who seek to work temporarily in the United
States.
Companies and individuals who are not expert to
immigration matters should seek a qualified attorney to assist them in
preparing requests for L-1 visas. Except for representatives of
qualified organizations, non-lawyers cannot legally represent clients
before the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Additionally, lawyers
who do not meet their ethical and professional obligations to their
clients can be held responsible both financially and through
disciplinary proceedings.
Non-U.S. companies wishing to expand globally —
especially Latin American companies — often establish a business
presence in Miami. They create a Miami subsidiary or branch, and then
transfer one or more of their executives or other key employees to the
new enterprise for a period of up to six years to get the new venture
going. Some of the transferred employees eventually seek permanent U.S.
residency, but as often as not they return to their homelands and resume
work with the parent company.
Often, the executives who are transferred from the
foreign parent company to the new business in the U.S. have an ownership
interest in the parent company. They have a personal financial stake in
the success of the new U.S. company.
The new U.S. company is responsible for initiating the
visa process. It sends a petition to the Immigration and Naturalization
Service asking that the employee of the parent company be granted an L-1
visa so that the employee can come to work with the new start-up
company. The new company offers to pay a salary which would be
commensurate with the remuneration an executive or other key employee
would receive in the labor market for a similar company for a similar
job.
Both the parent company and the U.S. company must be
legitimate, functioning enterprises and be able to show the Immigration
and Naturalization Service adequate proof that the companies are
legitimate.
The prospective employee must be able to show that he or
she has been continuously employed abroad for one of the past three
years by the parent or affiliate of the U.S. company preceding his or
her application for admission. It also is feasible that the U.S. company
be the parent, and that the foreign company be the subsidiary for
employee transfers employing the L-1 visa.
From the time that the petition and supporting
documentation are submitted to the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, it would be common to receive a decision from INS within 45 to
60 days.
Gary D. Malfeld, attorney, with offices at 8420 NW 52
St., Suite 107, has been a Miami lawyer for 26 years after living in
Colombia, Panama, and Southeast Asia. Contact him at 305-477-5688 or on
the Internet at <www.malfeldlaw.com>.
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