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The L-1 Visa Process

By Ben Hart

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 20Jan2011 Word count: 477 Viewed: 318 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

This article will attempt to provide a very brief overview of the L-1 visa process. Hopefully, readers will come away from this article with some insight into what the L-1 visa is used for and the general methods utilized to obtain such a travel document.

The L-1 visa is a very commonly sought travel document for employees of multi-national corporations and organizations. Generally, so-called "intra-company" transferees use the visas categorized as L-1 when they are traveling to the USA to take up employment at the USA office of a corporation operating around the world.

The process generally begins when an L-1 visa petition is filed with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). The USCIS is responsible for adjudicating L-1 visa petitions. This agency carefully scrutinizes L-1 visa petitions to ensure that they are meritorious. In no way should those petitioning for an L-1 visa assume that the outcome is a foregone conclusion. Assuming that an L-1 visa petition receives approval, the case file will then be sent to the United States National Visa Center (NVC). The NVC is responsible for ensuring that visa applications are routed to the United States Embassy, Consulate, or Mission with Consular jurisdiction to adjudicate the matter.

After the completion of processing at the National Visa Center, the proposed beneficiary must submit an application for a United States visa and subject themselves to a visa interview at the United States Mission with appropriate jurisdiction. At this point, there may be some who might mistakenly point out that as a non-immigrant visa, the L-1 visa applicant will be required to overcome section 214(b) of the United States Immigration and Nationality Act which creates the presumption that the applicant is an undisclosed intending immigrant. This can be a difficult statutory presumption to overcome for most applicants, but it should be noted that the L-1 visa applicant should not be required to overcome the statutory presumption imposed by section 214(b) as the L-1 visa is a dual intent travel document.

The doctrine of dual intent basically allows the visa applicant to simultaneously maintain both immigrant and non-immigrant intent. This means that the applicant for an L-1 visa may maintain the intention to one day apply for United States lawful permanent permanent residence at the time of visa interview, but this fact alone should not act as a barrier to those wishing to receive an L-1 visa as such intent is permitted pursuant to the dual intent doctrine.

As always, those interested in seeking immigration benefits are well advised to conduct as much research as possible in an effort to make an informed decision. Furthermore, those seeking professional assistance with the process should check the credentials of those claiming expertise in United States Immigration law as only a licensed attorney in at least one U.S. jurisdiction is permitted to practice U.S. immigration law.

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