The L-1 is an intra-company transferee visa, which applies to aliens who work for a company with a parent, subsidiary, branch, or affiliate in the U.S. These workers come temporarily to the U.S. as intra-company transferees to perform services either in a managerial or executive capacity (L-1A) or as specialized knowledge professional (L-1B) for a parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate of the same employer that employed the alien abroad.

An alien qualifies for an L-1 visa if he/she has been employed abroad for the overseas company for at least one out of the past three years, and is transferred to the U.S. to do a job in the capacity of executive, manager, or specialized knowledge professional. The sponsored company must be doing business in the United States and one other country during the whole period of the transfer.

       There are some features regarding L-1 visa:

1. The beneficiary can work in the U.S. for the L-1 sponsor for up to three years on his/her first visa. Employer may then apply for extensions of two years at a time, up to a maximum of seven years if the beneficiary is a manager or executive, or five years if the beneficiary is a person with specialized knowledge.

2. Dependent visas are available for the beneficiary's accompanying spouse and minor children. The beneficiary's spouse can accept employment in the U.S.

3. Like H-1B visa holder, people holding L-1 visa are allowed to have dual intent without an adverse affect to the alien's non-immigrant or immigrant petition. Especially, a manager or executive holding L-1A visa maybe qualified for the employment-based first preference immigration, which does not require labor certification.

4. Unlike H-1B, there is no annual cap on L-1 visas.

 USCIS has provided a special set of procedures to be used by companies that have been frequent users of the L-1 visa category or are large multi-national organizations. Employers who regularly file L petitions may file for a blanket L petition in order to obtain continuing approval. This simplifies the process of approving and admitting additional individual L-1A and L-1B workers. After approval of a blanket petition, the petitioner may file for individual employees to enter as L-1 professionals under the blanket petition.

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