L1A Renewal Denied

L1A-to-L1B

New Member
Hi folks,

I have a Real Sad Situation. I have been running a Company in India for last 7 years, the company is profitable with 20+ Employees. I started a Company here in US last year and got a L1A Approved. I also hired a US employee as a "Independent Contractor" and we together made a turn over of $114,000 in the last 10.5 Months of opeartions in US , We also got over 100+ clients .

I applied for a L1A Extention and my L1A got denied , Reason - I dont have enough staff to relieve me of my Non Managerial duties. How does the USCIS expect us to hire a number of employees for me to Supervise in just 1 years of opeartions ? I mean dont they try to understand the fact that we dont want to expand for sake of expansion , but gradually only as the company expands ? Anyways thats Politics. Coming back to Politics Had I been a Treaty country Applicant , I would have got E Visas which dont need that you have to be a Manager or whatever.

Now My question is , Can I apply as a Specialized worker ( L1B ) ? I mean having run the company for 7 years abroad and 1 Year here , I do know the opeartions , our services and products in and out !

My L1A VISA and petetion Expires on 16th Feb,2006. How soon can I apply for L1B petetion ?

I am really concerned about my Growing US business and this L1A Rejection has set me back.

Also At a later stage if I apply for a L1A and it gets denied ( assuming my L1B was approved ) , will my L1B will get cancelled ? What happens ?

Regards
 
--

1. Get a good attorney (big $$$) to challenge the denial. There is no clause mentioned anywhere about the number of employees to be supervised on L-1a.

2. Parallely check to see how you can get a L-1b or a H-1b. H-1b is of course, a long time away which means you need to get out of the country. But L-1b may happen more quickly using the Premium option.

Your L-1a denial does not affect your future H-1bs or L-1bs. it is just a general trend these days to be lynx-eyed about L-1a.

good luck,
 
Independent Contractor Vs Employee & RFE?

Looking at your situation I am wondering whether having an independent contractor as a vendor had anything to do with the denial. From what I understand Independent contractor would not qualify as an employee you are managing.


Did you get an RFE on the petition or was the petition denied straight away? Did you go through a lawyer?

Good luck....
 
Got the L1A After 3 Years :)

Okay so I posted this in Feb 2006, This is what happened. I applied for L1B goy denied !! --- Business Owners cant be specialized category to just to run a business, had to leave US in hurry. I went back to my home country , took a break for 6 months , applied for a B1/B2 Visa, travelled back and forth few times for short periods 15-20 days .....was pain !, hired managers, managers hired more employees, tooks risk, hire more emloyees in my home country took more risks, paid all taxes for payroll. Increased US employees to 40+ , paid their payroll taxes for 2 years ..... increased the business because it made sense and not just for this VISA.... applied for L1A again with all payroll documents, got approved in 5 days , went back to home country got a visa stamped, with 1 question asked how many US employees, Answered , took a flight and come back here !!!
 
Hey, good to hear that you were finaly able to get your L1A for 3 years. I actually read your post back in 2008 so its good to see an update in 2009!

I am in the similar situation as you are. Owner of an company based at Mumbai, (Outsourcing firm) - currently have b1 and visit USA for 20-30 days every now and then. I need to shift to USA permanently since all of my clients are from here.

Is it really necessary to hire employees here in the USA? Did you get this done through any law firm you could recommend?
Also what would be the further process for you to get a green card?

Thanks
Suvidh
 
Without US Employees ?

Without substantial US Employees on Payroll -where you have to pay all payroll taxes ( not Independent Contractors ) It will be impossible !
 
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