Iceland Car Rental - L1 Visa Renewal Challenges

The process is carried out in three steps: The L1 visa is one of the most popular vehicles by which the owners of foreign businesses can obtain permanent status in the United States by expanding operations to the United States.

branch; The initial L1 visa is issued for a period of one year to set up operations of the new U.S, first.

branch; The L1 visa must be renewed based (in part) on the first-year record of the U.S, second.

Branch. The L1 visa holder may apply for permanent residency with the support of the U.S, for an additional 2 years, once renewed, third.

Renewal of the visa frequently turns out to be a nightmare for the applicant who -- more often than not -- has uprooted hearth and home with the intention of permanently relocating to the United States, if getting ones foot in the door seems easy enough, however. It would not be an exaggeration to state that the USCIS often approves the initial L1 visa on a vision -- supported by a well drafted business plan and a convincing amount of money in the bank.

In 98% of these cases the reasons for the denial were virtually identical: Our firm has reviewed the decisions in all cases published in 2005 by the Administrative Appeals Unit of the Department of Justice in which the USCIS denied a petition for L1A visa renewal.

the petitioner did not establish that the beneficiary will be employed in a primarily managerial or executive capacity; 1.

The petitioner did not employ adequate or sufficient personnel. 2.

the petitioner did not establish physical offices; 3.

And human resource management, public relations, marketing, this is because the duties an L1A beneficiary must undertake in the first year to set-up operations must include - by necessity - non-managerial and non-executive essential functions such as administration. This assumption is fatal to a renewal case. The biggest mistake most applicants and/or their immigration lawyers make is to assume that the same duties that supported the initial visa petition will be sufficient to support the renewal.

Only that it be adequate to cover the afore-mentioned essential functions; the size of the staff is not important. Working in actual physical offices, these non-managerial and non-executive duties must have been transferred to locally employed personnel, by the time the renewal petition must be filed. The applicable regulations grant a company only one year to accomplish this, however. The USCIS is mindful that such non-qualifying duties are required to get the new operation off the ground.

And payroll and tax records proving the locally employed employees, as well as a detailed accounting of their duties, company. A detailed organizational chart showing the names of all individuals employed by the U.S, the RFE usually requests a very detailed accounting of the beneficiary's duties. This issue comes to light when the company or its lawyer receives a request for additional evidence (an "RFE") from the USCIS, in a typical case.

A petitioner that finds itself at the receiving end of an RFE questioning whether the beneficiary will be employed in a primarily managerial or executive capacity should seriously consider other visa options, in short. Such quick-fixes simply serve to demonstrate that the new company has not reached the level of development required at the one-year mark. For the denial, in and of themselves, reveals that such quick-fix attempts are a reason, however, a review of the published denials. Or they attempt to justify the use off-shore personnel to cover these functions, some companies try to remedy the lack of essential personnel by quickly engaging a few people solely to satisfy the RFE, upon receipt of the RFE.

This course of action will go quite far to avoid any unpleasant and potentially catastrophic surprises in the future, aside from being a sound business practice. The wisest course is to plan a renewal strategy as part of your initial case preparation, in our opinion.