L-1 Visa

By Editorial Team , 20 December 2006

USCIS New Policy: Time spent in H-4 and L-2 does NOT count against H-1B and L-1 Time Limit

The USCIS has announced that after completing a policy review that it was clarifying that “any time spent in H-4 status will not count against the six-year maximum period of admission applicable to H-1B aliens.”  Likewise, the USCIS also announced that “time an alien has spent time in L-2 dependent status will not count against the time available to the alien in L-1A or L-1B status.”  The new policy was announced in a USCIS Interoffice Memorandum from Michael Aytes, Associate Director, Domestic Operations, to all Regional Directors and Service Center Directors, dated December 5, 2006

L Visas: Intracompany Transferees

If your company has operations both in the United States and abroad, the L-1 visa is the route for moving key people between them. It lets a qualifying multinational bring an executive, a manager, or an employee with specialized knowledge from a foreign office to a related U.S. office — including to open a brand-new U.S. office. The employer files the petition; the employee cannot self-petition.

Extensions of Stay Filed Late: When the Delay May Be Excused

The requirement this page qualifies. A request to extend a nonimmigrant stay must ordinarily be filed before the previously authorized period expires, and by or for a person who has maintained the classification. An extension or amendment of stay may not be approved where the person failed to maintain the previously accorded status, or where that status expired before the request was filed. The same provision, however, allows the lateness of the filing to be excused. 8 C.F.R. 214.1(c)(4)(i).

Extension of Stay

What this part of the handbook covers. An extension of stay is a request to remain in the United States longer in a nonimmigrant classification that a person already holds. It is decided by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on a request filed inside the country, and the general framework appears at 8 C.F.R. 214.1(c). This page sets out that framework. The page beneath it deals with the narrower problem of a request filed after the authorized stay has already expired.