British Expatriate Network

I intend to apply for a L1a visa to move to sunny Fl. I am a company director & want to know if there are any restrictions regarding your stay in the US compared to an "executive or manager".

I'm not sure what an L1a visa is but a L1 visa is normally for a transfer to a US branch of a company, i.e. if your UK company doesn't have a US branch you can't apply for an L1 visa. I'm also a director of a UK company but for my L1 visa I am employed in a separate position in the US parent company. You are supposed to have specialist knowledge or skills but this is quite easy to prove if you have worked by the company for any number of years.

I'm here on an L1, L1a is the manager version, the only difference in the two is how long you can stay, only changes by a year.
Your wife, will be able to get an L2(spouse visa) she will be able to apply for a work permit with an L2 so she can work if she wants to.
What do you mean by restrictions? you will not be able to work for another company expect the sponsor company. You will still need to fill an I-94 when you enter the US each time<sigh>

Thanks for the reply.
I intend to buy a company in the US before applying for the visa. I've seen that as a director of a UK company, you may have to make a commitment to return to the UK after a said period of time.
I believe that there must be a way around it but I'm not sure how.

If you buy a business, aren't you looking at E visas?

No, I'm going to buy a business which will act as the US company into which I'll transfer.

Can you transfer yourself if you own the company though? My husband's company in the US had to sponsor him to be transferred from the UK on an L1.
As far as staying is concerned, you can keep applying for visa extensions or go for a green card, as far as I am aware there is no set limit to staying.

yes there is a limit, you can extend once, for 2 years on an L1 I think it's 3 years for an L1a(don't quote me on that).
But you can apply for a green card during that time, however it's not like an H1 visa, your green card will be a fresh application, and won't be tainted or helped by the L1a.
If you own the the company, as has been said, I think an L1a is not the right one, more to the point, why on earth do you want to come here? lol
The place is full of Americans! lol.

Hubby was on an L1a visa (when we got our visa it was either an L1a or L1b option). He changed from an H over to an L1a. At the time, the L1a was the better option because there was no labor certification process to go through. this may have changed now because this was a few years ago.

As far as we are aware, as a company director you can apply for an L1a. Hubby's boss was going to do this but the company had shares on the stock market so it may not be the same situation as you are. Also, the extentions for the visas was that it could be extended twice to a maximum of 7 years (we think the last two times were one year increments each but we can't remember if your first visa is 4 or 5 years in length).

If you are wanting a greencard and to go for citizenship, you are better off going for the L1a visa rather than the E visa. However, if you are only interested in being here temporarily but for a length of time, you might as well just go for the E visa because this can be renewed many times.

As a newcomer to this forum, I'd like to say that I'm very pleased at getting replies from you all so quickly. grin
However, I'd ideally like to hear from another director (small company) for their views.
Thanks again 8)

The restrictions on your L1a are no different than they would be if you were not a company director. There are no further bands within the visa. Does that answer your question?

Yes, thanks.

I came in on an L1a visa. I am a partner of a company in the UK, a pre-requisite was the UK company had to have traded for 5+ years. After establishing a US company I 'transferred' to the US to fill a management role in the new company. You have to be able to prove you are intrinsic to the success of the US company and will be acting on its behalf in a 'management' role, in other words you are responsible for the growth and management of the business and will be managing others - not just running a 'one man band'. This is very important.

L1 can be extended twice up to a maximum of 6 years as long as the UK company is still in existence. You may get a 1 year Visa, you may get a 3 year Visa - depends if the guy evaluating your case had an argument with his wife that morning...

L1a is a non-resident visa however you are free to reside in the US whilst the visa is valid, it is the easiest visa to transfer to Green Card from.

I'm no expert and the laws change frequently so it's always worth checking. PM me if you think I can help.

Good luck.

Thanks for the info. Sorry I've not been back earlier but what with the festive season etc etc

I'm interested to know more about your experiences with the visa application & how you went about getting somewhere to live, schooling etc

Happy New Year razz razz razz razz

To find somewhere to live you need to hook up with a good realtor. They offer a far better service than a UK estate agent because they are taking a much bigger cut of the sales price. My realtor drove me around for a few days showing me the different areas and they will set up meetings at schools for you.

The visa application is reasonably straight forward but can be a pain getting the correct photos and finding all the documents. I had to get some documents translated from spanish and then notarised which is just time consuming. There are legal companies that offer a service to help fill in the forms correctly. The company application form is very important so it is well worth getting someones opinion on it before it is submitted. The company application form explains why they need you in the states and therefore if it is not done properly will scuper the whole process.

The US embassy web site is pretty helpful but when you eventually go down for the interview be prepared for a long wait, a very long wait. I was in there for hours but the actual interview is only five minutes.

I'm also a UK company director and I am employed by the head office in the US. There are no additional restrictions as a director and I am not obligated to return to the UK reguarly just because I am a director. However there may be some tax implications on your UK company depending on where the money goes to when you have your US company. There are certain situations where a UK company must prove that policies are directed by someone who is based in the UK. Your auditors can advise.