At Verma Law Firm, we have successfully filed numerous L-1A applications for our clients who are looking to grow their U.S. operations by transferring qualified executives or managers from one of their affiliated foreign offices.
The key to achieving success for L-1A applications is to ensure that the application includes strong documentation as evidence of:
- The qualifying relationship between the U.S. company and the foreign company; and
- The employee’s managerial experience in the foreign company as well as proposed L-1A managerial role at the U.S company
Here are the documents we recommend including to meet the L-1A eligibility criteria for a successful L-1A case approval:
Corporate documents for U.S. company and foreign company:
Include documents such as Certificate of Incorporation, Business License, Stock Certificates, Acquisition Agreements, Letters from Chartered Accountant, financial documents and lease agreements to confirm qualifying corporate relationship between the U.S. company and foreign company as parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate.
Organizational Charts demonstrating supervisory and managerial role:
Include a detailed organizational chart with the reporting structure for the employee’s current role in the foreign company. The employee must have been in a managerial role for at least one (1) year in the last three (3 years). Include the names and job titles of all of the employee’s subordinates. Ideally, the employee should have managed at least 4-6 managerial or professional employees during his managerial tenure.
Additionally, show the organizational chart for the proposed L-1A role in the U.S. company. In the proposed L-1A role, the employee must manage a team of at least 4-6 managerial or professional employees based in the U.S.
Detailed Job Duties:
Provide detailed managerial job duties for the employees current role and proposed L-1A role along with the job duties of the Beneficiary’s subordinates.
Employee’s education and employment documents:
Include the employee’s education documents such as degree certificate and transcripts, and employment documents such as payslips from foreign company and letter from HR department of the foreign company confirming employee’s managerial role.
Employee’s Subordinates’ documents
Merely mentioning the names and job duties of the employee’s subordinates is not enough evidence to show that the employee is managing a team. We recommend including the employment offer letters and agreements along with recent payslips for all the subordinates in the employee’s current team in the foreign company as well as for the subordinates who will be reporting to the employee in the U.S. once the L-1A is approved.
Additional evidence of supervisory and managerial role:
It is important to ensure that you have additional evidence that can be provided in the case of a Request for Evidence. Such evidence can include performance reviews completed by the employee for subordinates in his/ her team, emails demonstrating the ability to vacation requests, pay increases, promotions etc..
The L-1A is a complex application that requires strong documentation as detailed above. It is critical to ensure that there is no conflicting information in the documents that are provided as that could result in a RFE or even denial of the L-1A application
At Verma Law Firm, we can assist with preparing and filing the L-1A application and supporting documentation for a successful L-1A visa approval. Our team will work closely with you to prepare a strong L-1A application which meets the L-1A eligibility criteria so that you can continue to grow your company with the right talent from around the world.