Business Immigration

L1 Visa: Intracompany Transferee Visa

The L1 visa is available to employees of multi-national companies who (i) have specialized knowledge of the company; or (ii) are executives or managers of the company. An individual can stay in the United States for a maximum of 5 years in the specialized knowledge category and a maximum of 7 years in the executive or manager category. At the end of the stay, the person must leave the United States for 1 year before he or she can return on a new L or H visa.

Our immigration business lawyer specializes in the development of appropriate strategies to facilitate the international transfer of skilled employees and securing of permanent residence (PERM and Labor Certifications).

H-2B Visa: Temporary Non-agricultural Labor Visa

The H-2B Visa is a temporary non-agricultural labor visa for employers looking to utilize business immigration to hire foreign nationals to perform temporary services or labor on a one-time, seasonal, peak load or intermittent basis.

Only the nationals of the countries that are on the H-2B visa list may apply for the visa. This is why planning is essential, as well as working with an experienced employment-based immigration attorney who can walk you through the process and the steps involved.

The H-2B Visa recently has been more competitive than previous years. More employers are seeking non-agricultural foreign workers and the cap gets reached quickly. There is an annual cap of 66,000 H-2B visas, with 33,000 visas available the first part of the year starting on April 1st and the second cap of the remainder 33,000 available starting on October 1st.

TN Visa: NAFTA Professionals

The TN visa is a non-immigrant visa for NAFTA professionals that allows qualified Canadian and Mexican citizens to seek temporary entry into the U.S. to engage in business activities at a professional level. Among the types of professionals who are eligible to seek admission as TN non-immigrants are accountants, engineers, lawyers, pharmacists, scientists, and teachers.

E-3 Visa: Specialty occupation for Australians

The E3 visa is a non-immigrant visa that applies only to nationals of Australia. You must be coming to the U.S. solely to perform services in a specialty occupation. The specialty occupation requires theoretical and practical application of a body of knowledge in professional fields and at least the attainment of a Bachelor’s degree, or its equivalent, as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the U.S.

O1 Visa: Extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics

The O1 visa is a non-immigrant visa for the individuals who possess extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, or who have a demonstrated record of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry and have been recognized nationally or internationally for those achievements.

B1 Visa: Business Visitors

Business travelers may enter the United States using a B1 visa, or “Visitor for Business” visa. In practice these visas are invariably issued as jointly with B-2, or “Visitor for Pleasure” (i.e. tourist) visa. Those entering on B visitor visas will generally be granted 6-months admission on entry. It may be possible to obtain a 6-month extension to the B-1/B-2 visa, as long as the candidate will be maintaining visitor status, and there are good reasons to do so. It is sometimes possible to change status to another longer-term visa while in the U.S. as a visitor, as long as the candidate advised the relevant U.S. Embassy or Consulate of this possibility beforehand, or there was no preconceived intent to do so.

EB1 Visa

Alternatives to Labor Certification: EB1 visa petitions for multinational managers and executives, individuals of extraordinary ability, outstanding researchers and professors; national interest waiver; schedule A occupations.