1. The Similarities of Eligibility Requirements for L-1A Visa and EB-1C Immigration Petition

The EB1 Multinational Executive and Manager category for employment-based Green Card closely resembles the L-1A visa category. Therefore, many people who qualify for an L-1A visa as an Executive or Manager would also qualify for permanent residency in the United States, without a Labor Certification application. Please note that L-1B employees with "specialized knowledge" are not eligible for this type of Green Card petition, unless they meet the requirements of Multinational Executive or Manager.

L-1A is a nonimmigrant visa category designed for the intra-company transfer of executives and managers in multinational companies to the United States. The L-1A visa is a nonimmigrant visa which gives the visa holder temporary work authorization. However, the employment-based immigrant category of EB1-Multinational Executives and Managers (EB-1C) Green Card petition allows the same group of aliens to apply for a Green Card. It is very common for employers who sponsor their transferees for L-1A visa to later file an EB-1C petition on behalf of their transferees.

The eligibility requirements for both the L-1A visa and EB-1C immigration petition are similar:

1) there must be a qualifying relationship between the U.S. petitioning company where the applicant will work and the foreign company where the applicant has worked; 

2) the transferee must hold a managerial or executive level position before and after being transferred;

3) the transferee must have worked for the foreign entity continuously for at least one of the past three years. 

2. The Differences between EB-1C Immigration Petition and L-1 Visa Application

The nonimmigrant counterpart of the EB-1C immigrant executive or manager is an L-1A intra-company executive or manager. The requirements for L-1A and EB-1C are generally similar. However, several distinct features between EB-1C and L-1A classifications must be noted:

1) Immigrant v. Non-immigrant: EB-1C is a category for immigrant classification, while L-1A is a non-immigrant category for temporary alien workers. 

2) No Blanket Petition for EB-1C: The L-1A may be brought to the United States based on an individual petition or a blanket petition. An immigrant manager or executive may be sponsored only on an individual basis. There is no blanket EB-1C petition available.

3) No " New Office" EB-1C Petition: For an L-1A and L-1B petition, the petitioning U.S. entity may be either a company having been doing business for more than a year, or a "new office" having been established for less than a year. In the case of an EB-1C petition, however, the U.S. employer must have existed and done business for at least one year. 

4) No Counter-Part for L-1B Visa: While an intra-company transferee may be petitioned to work as an L-1B non-immigrant worker performing duties in a specialized knowledge capacity, no such counterpart exists in the EB-1C immigrant category. To qualify as an EB-1C immigrant, the alien worker must perform managerial or executive duties in the U.S. company. 

5) Prior Employment in a Specialized Knowledge Capacity abroad not Sufficient: In the L-1 category, it is possible for an intra-company transferee to have worked abroad in a qualifying organization in a specialized knowledge capacity for a year or more to be admitted to the United States in L-1B status, and eventually be changed to L-1A status after gaining experience in a managerial or executive capacity in the U.S., while this is not possible for an EB-1C beneficiary. 

That is to say, the L-1A manager or executive may have worked previously abroad or in the United States for the employer as a manager, executive, or in a capacity involving specialized knowledge. In the L-1A category, all of the qualifying year of managerial or executive work may be in the United States rather than abroad, and the L-1B worker, with a year of specialized knowledge abroad, may become an L-1A manager or executive with no prior years of experience as a manager or executive abroad. This is not true in the case  for an EB-1 immigrant manager or executive. In the immigrant case, the one year work experience during the last three years before entering the United States must have been as a manager or executive. Specialized knowledge experience of one year or more abroad will not suffice for an immigrant manager or executive, even if the U.S. position is otherwise a qualifying L-1A managerial or executive one.

3. L-1A visa Is Considered to be a Necessary Precursor to Obtaining an EB-1C Approval

The L-1A visa is widely considered to be a necessary precursor to obtain an EB-1C Green Card petition approval. However, it should be emphasized that, while similar, the L-1A and the EB-1C are not directly connected. The L-1A is not exactly a prerequisite for the EB-1C Green Card petition. A multinational company can file an EB-1C Green Card petition directly, provided all EB-1C requirements are met. In fact, the alien beneficiary’s previous visa status is irrelevant to the success of an EB-1C petition, and L-1A holders are not guaranteed an EB-1C approval. 

In practice, a multinational company may choose L-1A visa for a permanent transferee, because of special EB-1C requirements. The EB-1C rules require that the U.S. companies have been in substantial operation for at least one year before being eligible to file EB-1C applications. To be a substantial operation, the petitioner must demonstrate an established, sound corporate structure with a reasonable number of employees and level of revenue legitimating the need for the beneficiary’s high-level managerial or executive position. 

4. EB-1C and EB-5 Are Drastically Different Immigrant Categories

Often, people confuse the EB-1C multinational transferee immigrant visa with the EB-5 entrepreneur immigrant visas, and collectively call them “investment visas.” It is true that in some aspects, EB-1C and EB-5 share similar features: both deal with foreign capital and investment, and often involve the creation of a new business entity in the U.S. However, EB-1C and EB-5 are drastically different categories, and inappropriate application may result in strategic disaster or practical failure of immigration petitions.

EB-1C category allows international companies to transfer overseas high level managers or executives to their U.S. entities to take a permanent high-level manger or executive position. The EB-5 category is for alien individuals who have invested or are in the process of investing capital into a new commercial enterprise in the U.S. The purpose of the EB-1C visa is to allow companies to cross-fertilize and translate business practices and ideas, while the goal of the EB-5 category is to stimulate investment and enhance job creation in the United States.

The nature of the EB-1C and EB-5 visas also differ in that EB-1C is designed for transfer between companies, and the EB-5 is for individuals to come to the United States to invest. This makes the qualification differences and requirement differences in terms of funding source and business design, employee position and role, and individual qualifications.

5. The Business Structure Requirements for EB-1C and EB-5 Petitions

The EB-1C category requires a qualified multinational relationship between the U.S. and foreign business entities. This relationship involves a company investment from one entity to another, and examples of qualifying relationships include parent companies, satellites, and affiliates. It is used for transfer of executives between the related companies.

In EB-1C, the U.S. entity is the petitioner, and the transferee alien is the beneficiary. The U.S. entity must have been substantially operating for at least one year before it can file an EB-1C petition. A temporary L-1A visa may be available for transferee aliens before the immigration EB-1C is filed.

The EB-5 category is designed for an individual alien to invest into a new business in the U.S. The individual does not need to be associated with any corporation overseas. The U.S. investment may be in a variety of different forms. For this type of case, the individual investor is the petitioner and beneficiary.

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