L-1: taking your own company to the United States

The L-1 transfers to the United States someone already working in the corporate group abroad. There is no labor market test, no lottery and no annual cap. In exchange, what is proven here is not individual merit but a relationship: between two companies, and between you and the role you held abroad.

For the Brazilian client, the most common scenario is not a transfer inside a multinational but the opening of a U.S. operation by a company that already exists in Brazil. That scenario has its own rules, a shorter initial term, and requirements that must be met before filing, not after.

The four requirements

Having worked continuously abroad for one year within the three years preceding your application for admission to the United States;
Having spent that year in a managerial or executive capacity, or in a position involving specialized knowledge;
Coming temporarily to render services to the same employer, which includes a branch of the foreign company, or to its parent, subsidiary or affiliate;
The U.S. position being managerial or executive, or involving specialized knowledge.

On the company side, what is required is a qualifying corporate relationship between the U.S. entity and the foreign operation that employs you; that the company go on doing business in the United States and in at least one other country, directly or through a parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate, throughout your stay; and proof of the year of employment abroad and of the capacity in which you will work here.

THE CAPACITY MAY CHANGE IN THE CROSSING: you need not come in the same capacity you held abroad. Someone who was a manager there may come in a specialized knowledge position, and the reverse is true as well. The rule has one important exception, just below: for a new office in L-1A, the foreign experience must have been managerial or executive.

The two tracks, and how long each lasts

	L-1A	L-1B
Who	Manager or executive	Employee with specialized knowledge
Maximum stay	Seven years	Five years
Extensions	Increments of up to two years, to the cap	Increments of up to two years, to the cap
New office	Initial approval of up to one year	Initial approval of up to one year

TIME ADDS UP WITH THE H, AND ACROSS EMPLOYERS: the officer combines the periods you spent in the H and L categories to check the five- or seven-year cap, including time with previous employers. Someone who spent two years in H-1B and three in L-1B has reached five, and gets no extension. Once the cap is reached, you return in H or L only after living and being physically outside the United States for the immediately preceding year. Short business or leisure trips do not break that year, but neither do they count toward it.

There are exceptions to the cap: someone who does not reside continuously in the United States and whose work here is seasonal, intermittent or totals six months or less a year; and someone who lives abroad and commutes regularly for part-time work. The burden of showing the exception falls on whoever invokes it.

Someone who enters in specialized knowledge and is later promoted to manager or executive must have held the new position for at least six months to reach the seven-year total, and the change of capacity must have been approved by USCIS at the time it occurred, in a new, amended or extension petition. And there is a travel consequence: once the requirement is met and the extension approved, leaving the country means obtaining the proper visa at a consulate to re-enter.

New office: the scenario for those just starting

When an established company opens a new office in the United States, the petition may be filed under the new office rules. It has to say expressly that this is what is being sought, and explain how the requirements are met. A petition that looks like a new office case but does not make that request may end up judged by the ordinary criteria, which generally means denial.

Requirement	L-1A new office	L-1B new office
Foreign experience	Must have been managerial or executive. Specialized knowledge does not suffice.	Managerial, executive or specialized knowledge.
Physical premises	Sufficient to house the office, already secured.	Sufficient to house the office, already secured.
Additional showing	That the operation will support a managerial or executive position within one year of approval.	Financial ability to pay your salary and to commence doing business in the United States.
Initial approval	Up to one year.	Up to one year.

For the L-1A, the company states the intended nature of the office, with its scope, structure and financial goals; the size of the U.S. investment and the foreign entity's financial ability to pay your salary; and the foreign entity's structure. The USCIS manual recognizes that whoever opens the operation will be more involved in day-to-day work at the outset, but requires that person to have the authority and intention to hire staff, and wide latitude over goals and management.

THE FIRST YEAR IS BOTH A TERM AND A TEST: the initial approval does not exceed one year. To extend it, for up to two years, you must show that the entities remain qualifying, that the U.S. entity has been doing business, what duties you performed during the year and will perform, the staffing of the new operation, with the number and types of positions and proof of wages paid where the role is managerial or executive, and the operation's financial standing. Once that first extension is approved, later ones return to the ordinary regime.

How each capacity is proven

In the managerial and executive track, the review does not stop at the org chart. The officer wants to understand what business the organization does, how the position relates to strategic or operational goals, and where the role sits in the hierarchy. The description of your duties has to be placed within the staffing structure and the scale of the business.

Where the company has few employees and claims most of them are managers or executives, the officer may request full duty descriptions and an hours breakdown for every employee, with payroll, to find out who performs the operational tasks.
A company may be large and still have a department packed with managers. In a large organization, the review is confined to the department or division where you work or will work.
Where there are only one or two people, the officer looks for who does the non-managerial work. Outsourcing accounting, sales, warehousing or HR is a legitimate answer, and has to be documented.
You cannot describe the role as a hybrid, executive and manager at once, by combining parts of each definition. You have to pick one and meet its four criteria.

In the specialized knowledge track, the central caution in the USCIS manual is short: knowledge that is common, non-complex, or easily transferred to another person is not specialized knowledge. Saying that your knowledge is somehow different, or highly developed, establishes nothing on its own. What decides is the weight and type of the evidence.

Training, experience or education records showing how many years you have used or developed that knowledge, in the company or the industry;
Evidence of the impact your transfer would have on the U.S. operation, and that you bring knowledge of foreign market conditions not found here;
Contracts, work orders or documents showing knowledge particularly useful to the company's competitiveness;
Correspondence or reports showing that your work abroad significantly raised the company's productivity, competitiveness, image or financial position;
Internal training records, in-house course curricula and financial documents showing knowledge of a product or process the company cannot transfer or teach to another person without significant cost or disruption;
Patents, trademarks, licenses or contracts obtained on the basis of your work, or equivalent evidence of knowledge of a sophisticated, complex or highly technical product or process, even if not exclusive to the company;
Payroll and compensation records for you and for comparable employees at the company.

The company's own statement can be persuasive evidence if it is detailed, specific and credible, and the manual recognizes that some circumstances are hard to document any other way. Even so, the officer may request more evidence.

The blanket petition, for larger groups

Large international groups can obtain advance approval of themselves and of their parent, branches, subsidiaries and affiliates as qualifying organizations, and then classify individuals under that approval. Only trade or service entities may use the blanket, which excludes, for example, religious organizations.

A U.S. office doing business for one year or more;
Three or more branches, subsidiaries or affiliates, domestic and foreign;
And at least one of the following: ten L petitions approved in the previous twelve months, for managers, executives or specialized knowledge workers; or U.S. subsidiaries and affiliates with combined annual sales of at least twenty-five million dollars; or a U.S. workforce of at least one thousand employees.
The initial approval lasts three years, and the extension may be sought for an indefinite period, up to six months before expiry. If the extension is denied, the group waits three years to seek another blanket, and files individually in the meantime.

The family

A spouse and unmarried children under 21 may obtain L-2 classification, with the same validity dates as the principal. Since 12 November 2021, the L-2 spouse is considered work-authorized by virtue of that status, and need not obtain authorization before starting. They may still apply for the employment authorization document if they want proof of identity and authorization. Children may study but not work, and keep the status until they marry or turn 21, whichever comes first.

The validity of the principal's and dependents' status depends on qualifying employment with the petitioning company. If the employment ends, or the work ceases to qualify for L-1 purposes, the status is no longer valid.

A fee whose reach changes in September 2026

There is a four-thousand-dollar L-1 fee, called the 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit Fee, payable by the employer. It does not reach everyone: it applies to companies with fifty or more employees in the United States and more than half of them in H-1B or L-1 status. Until now it was charged only on initial petitions and on changes of employer.

A rule published on 10 August 2026, effective 9 September 2026, extended the charge to extensions filed by the same employer for the same employee. Anyone in an extension cycle at a company of that size should redo the arithmetic before September. For smaller companies, which are most of our cases, nothing changes.

Two rules that hit the business owner squarely

IF YOU ARE THE OWNER OR MAJOR SHAREHOLDER, THE REGULATION ASKS FOR MORE: the petition must include evidence that your services in the United States will be for a temporary period, and evidence that you will be transferred to an assignment abroad when those services end. This is exactly the situation of the Brazilian business owner who opens the U.S. operation and runs it personally. The requirement does not bar the case. It has to be addressed with the business plan and the ownership structure from the first filing, not when the RFE arrives.

The second rule runs the other way, and it is good news. The L-1 allows what is called dual intent. The regulation says you may lawfully come to the United States for a temporary period as an L-1 and, at the same time, lawfully seek permanent residence, provided you intend to depart voluntarily at the end of the authorized stay. A pending green card case cannot ground a denial of the L-1 petition, the extension or admission. Someone in L-1 who starts a green card path need not hide it, and should not.

A note for those already in the United States in another status who intend to move to the L. Beyond the classification's own requirements, a change of status presupposes lawful entry, no unauthorized work and no status violation, and an I-94 still valid. That is a check made before assembling the petition, not after.

Where petitions usually fail

Filing on the strength of future eligibility. The regulation requires the requirements to be met on the filing date, and a petition is not approved on expectation or on later facts.
Failing to secure the physical premises before filing a new office petition.
Failing to request expressly that the case be reviewed under the new office rules, and having it judged by the ordinary standard.
Sending to a new L-1A office someone whose foreign experience was in specialized knowledge.
Describing the person as executive and manager at once, combining parts of both definitions.
Asserting that the foreign team will support the U.S. position without attaching org charts, payroll, job descriptions and invoices between the entities.
Saying the knowledge is distinctive without comparing it to others' or explaining how and when it was acquired, or why it is hard to transfer.
Forgetting that time in H adds to time in L, including with prior employers, in computing the cap.
Failing to address, where the person is owner or major shareholder, the evidence that the services are temporary and that a transfer abroad will follow.

Legal basis

INA § 101(a)(15)(L), and the definitions of managerial and executive capacity at § 101(a)(44).
8 C.F.R. § 214.2(l)(1)(ii): definitions, including qualifying organization and new office. § 214.2(l)(3): required evidence, with subsections (v) and (vi) on new offices. § 214.2(l)(4): blanket petitions. § 214.2(l)(7): validity and amended petitions. § 214.2(l)(12): limits on stay and exceptions. § 214.2(l)(14) and (15): extensions and change of capacity. § 214.2(l)(17)(v): dependents. § 214.2(l)(3)(vii): owner or major shareholder. § 214.2(l)(16): dual intent.
8 C.F.R. § 103.2(b)(1): the requirements must be met as of the filing date.
Matter of Vaillancourt, 13 I&N Dec. 654 (Reg. Comm. 1970), on transfer in a different capacity, and Matter of Kloeti, 18 I&N Dec. 295 (Reg. Comm. 1982), on the year of employment abroad.
9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit Fee: final rule at 91 FR 51360, published 10 August 2026, effective 9 September 2026, amending 8 C.F.R. part 106.
USCIS Policy Manual, volume 2, part L, chapters 2, 8 and 10.

Verified on 22 August 2026 against chapters 2, 8 and 10 of part L, volume 2, of the USCIS Policy Manual, whose pages are stated as current to 18 August 2026, and against 8 C.F.R. § 214.2(l). Requirements and adjudication practice may change by rule or by Policy Manual update.

General informational content. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Immigration rules change frequently and may be enjoined by a court. Before acting, confirm that the rule is in force and consult an attorney about your own circumstances.

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