The L-1 lets a business abroad transfer an executive, a manager or a specialist to its US parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate. It also lets a company that has no US office yet send someone over to open one. The US employer files the petition with USCIS on your behalf.
Against the E-2 it has two solid advantages. The process is faster and the evidence is more straightforward to put together. And the L-1 carries dual intent: you may openly intend to stay and pursue a green card while you hold it, without putting your status at risk.
Your passport does not decide the L-1. What decides it is access. You need a business outside the US that is substantial enough to send you, and you need one continuous year of work there within the three years before you enter the US. If you meet both, look at the L-1 before any other route. If you do not, the E-2 is the alternative. That is a question of eligibility, not of difficulty.
Source: USCIS, L-1A and L-1B Intracompany Transferee pages, updated 31 August 2026; 8 CFR 214.2(l)(15)(ii). Read 25 October 2026.
USCIS looks at two businesses and one person. All of this has to hold on the day the petition goes in, and for the companies, for as long as you stay.
For USCIS your working day counts, not your title. A business card that says manager does not make a manager in the sense of the rules.
At home the business is running. In America there may be nothing yet but a signed lease. The L-1 can still take you there. The rules call it a new office: an organization that has been doing business in the United States through a parent, branch, affiliate or subsidiary for less than one year. What counts is when the business started trading, not when the company was registered.
For an executive or manager opening a new office, the employer has to show three things. Sufficient physical premises for the office are secured. You have worked as an executive or manager, not only as a specialist, for one continuous year in the three years before the petition. And the US office will support an executive or managerial position within one year of approval. For a specialist, the premises and the employer's financial ability to pay you and begin doing business in the US are what count.
The early start has a price. A new office petition is approved for one year at most, and then USCIS looks again. To extend, the US company shows that both businesses still qualify, that it has been doing business for the past year, what you did in that year and will do next, its staffing (the number of employees and the types of positions, with evidence of wages paid where you are a manager or executive) and its financial position.
The first approval rests on a plan. The extension rests on numbers. If the first job is advertised in month eleven, there is little to show. So we plan backwards from the extension: hires, payroll, contracts and quarterly figures in place well before the twelfth month, so the extension is assembled from documents that already exist.
A new office is a project with two strands, the company and the visa. They interlock, and the order decides whether everything is there on the day the petition goes in.
Who keeps running the business in Europe, who goes to the US, and does that person have the year as an executive or manager? The business at home has to keep trading for as long as you are in the US, and the petition shows who runs it.
Decide structure and state with the visa in mind, so the ownership gives you the qualifying relationship. Get the tax number and open the US bank account the capital flows into.
Sign the lease before the petition is filed, for space that matches the plan. A sales team with a warehouse needs different premises from an engineering service for two large clients.
An organization chart for the start and one for the end of year one, the hires or service providers with timing and budget, revenue and cost projections that match the investment, your duties now and in a year, and the parent company's accounts showing it can fund all of this.
The US employer files Form I-129 with USCIS. For an additional fee, premium processing is available: USCIS then takes action within 15 business days, either a decision or a request for more evidence.
With the approval notice you apply for the L-1 visa at the US consulate, usually in the country where you live, and attend the interview. Your family applies for L-2 at the same time.
Keep hires, payroll, contracts, invoices and accounts on file as you go, so the extension is built from paperwork that already exists.
An extension can generally only be filed while the original petition is still valid, and you must be physically in the US when it goes in.
If you have a company you can send yourself from, the L-1 is the better route than the E-2: faster, simpler, and you may aim for the green card from the start. Our clients end up on the E-2 when there is no company at home big enough to send them. That is a question of eligibility, not of difficulty.
Your spouse and your unmarried children under 21 can accompany you or follow later in L-2 status, and they are generally granted the same period of stay as you.
Your spouse may work in the US for any employer, incident to L-2 status, without applying for a separate permit. Since 30 January 2022, USCIS and US Customs and Border Protection issue the I-94 record with the code L-2S, which an employer accepts as proof. Your spouse can still apply for an employment authorization card if a physical card is easier. Children in L-2 status do not get that work authorization.
Children count only until their 21st birthday. If one of yours is close to it, plan for it early. The rest of the move, from schools to health insurance and housing, is on moving to the USA.
The L-1 is built for people who may want to stay. The regulations say it plainly: you may come to the US for a temporary period as an L-1 and, at the same time, lawfully seek to become a permanent resident, as long as you intend to leave voluntarily at the end of your authorized stay. A green card petition is no reason to deny your L-1, its extension or your family's L-2.
For executives and managers the green card usually runs through the EB-1C category for multinational executives and managers. The US employer files Form I-140 for you. No labor certification is needed. You need at least one year as an executive or manager with the group abroad in the three years before the petition, or, if you are already in the US with the same group, in the three years before you entered. And the US employer must have been doing business for at least one year.
That last condition matters for a new office. The first year of the US company is not only the probation year for your visa, it is also the waiting period for the green card. What you need for the L-1 extension (staff, wages, revenue and a management role you can document) is also the foundation of the EB-1C petition.
The L-1 has a fixed end: seven years on the L-1A, five on the L-1B, with no further extensions. Plan the green card well before the clock runs out. For L-1B specialists the route to a green card is a different one, and we map it with you.
Both let you live and work in the US with your family, but they follow different logic. The L-1 rests on your company and your role. The E-2 rests on your investment and your passport. If you could do either, take a serious look at the L-1 first.
Seven years in total on the L-1A and five on the L-1B. The first approval is for up to three years, or up to one year for a new office, and each extension adds up to two years.
Executives, managers and specialized knowledge employees who have worked for one continuous year, within the three years before entering the US, for a business abroad that is parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate of the US company. Both businesses must be doing business for the whole of your stay.
Yes, as a new office. Premises have to be secured before the petition, and for an executive or manager the US office must be able to support that role within a year. The first approval lasts one year at most; after that the US company shows it is actually doing business.
Yes. As owner or major stockholder you additionally show that the US assignment is temporary and that you will take up an assignment abroad when it ends. Someone has to keep running the business at home, and the petition shows who.
Yes. The L-1 allows dual intent. For executives and managers the usual route is the EB-1C, once the US employer has been doing business for at least a year.
Yes. Spouses in L-2 status are authorized to work incident to their status, shown by an I-94 with the code L-2S. Children in L-2 status do not have work authorization.
If you meet the requirements, the L-1 is the faster and simpler route. The hurdle is access: a business abroad that can send you and a year of work there. If you do not have that, the E-2 is the alternative.
For a new office the US company has to carry the L-1: premises, money for your salary, and a role that justifies a real management position within a year. Plan the structure with the visa in mind and you build it once.
A European business with a US arm →Who is going, what they will do in the US, and when. We will tell you whether the L-1 is open and what the schedule looks like.
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