Skip to main content

Does The L-1 Visa Require I Live & Work In The U.S. Full-Time?

By March 19, 2021May 26th, 2021Immigration, L-1 Visa
Multicultural hands in a pile - teamwork

One question that can arise for L-1 applicants is whether they must live and work full-time in the United States. Although full-time employment while physically residing in the U.S. is the most common scenario, part-time employment (or full-time employment while residing outside the U.S.) is also allowed for L-1 employees and this can come up in a few scenarios as described below.

What are the L-1 visa requirements?

First, we will do a brief review of the L-1 requirements and purpose of the L-1 visa. The L-1 visa permits a U.S. employer to transfer an employee with specialized knowledge relating to the organization’s interests or a manager/executive from one of its affiliated foreign offices to one of its offices in the United States.  The foreign company and the U.S. company must have a qualifying relationship, meaning they be related as a parent, subsidiary, affiliate or branch office. The L-1 classification also enables a foreign company which does not yet have a U.S. office to send a specialized knowledge employee or manager/executive to the United States to set up a new office.

Working for the U.S. Company full-time while residing outside the U.S.

It is possible for L-1 employees to work for the U.S. company full-time while also residing outside the U.S. and visiting the U.S. intermittently or occasionally to perform their work. For example, if an L-1 employee primarily lived in Mexico but came to the U.S. to work in an executive or managerial role for a U.S. affiliate or branch office, this would be allowed on the L-1, even if the bulk of the full-time work for the U.S. company was performed outside the U.S.  However, it would not be appropriate for the L-1 employee to live in the U.S. full-time on the L-1 and primarily work for the office in Mexico, while only occasionally doing work in the U.S. for the U.S. company.

Working for the U.S. company part-time while residing outside the U.S.

Another scenario is where an L-1 employee lives outside the U.S. and splits their time working for two branch offices, one located in the U.S. and one in a foreign country where they reside. For L-1 employees who live outside the U.S. and commute to the U.S. only to engage in part-time employment or who only work in the U.S. intermittently (meaning they spend less than 6 months in the U.S.), they are not subject to the five and seven year L-1 limits and may renew their L-1 visas indefinitely as long as they meet one of the exceptions.

An important thing to consider in either scenario is that when the L-1 employee visits the U.S., the primary purpose of the visit must be to perform work for the U.S. company that is consistent with the L-1 role that was described in the L-1 petition.

FREE L-1 Visa Resources

Click on the buttons below in order to claim your free L-1 Visa Guide, sign up for our free L-1 Visa Webinar, or watch our L-1 Visa videos.

Download Our L-1 Visa Guide
Sign Up For Our L-1 Visa Webinar
Watch Our L-1 Visa Videos

Set up L-1 Visa Consultation

For a dedicated one-on-one L-1 Visa consultation with one of our lawyers, click on the button below to schedule your consultation.

Schedule a consultation

This website and blog constitutes attorney advertising. Do not consider anything in this website or blog legal advice and nothing in this website constitutes an attorney-client relationship being formed. Set up a one-hour consultation with us before acting on anything you read here. Past results are no guarantee of future results and prior results do not imply or predict future results. Each case is different and must be judged on its own merits.

Leave a Reply

FREE WEBINARS
GET YOUR FREE
We are happy to offer our L-1 visa guide that describes the L-1 visa requirements, and other advise to assist with your L-1 visa application.
L-1 VISA GUIDE
For more info visit our L-1 visa service Page or schedule a consultation so we can handle your L-1 visa process.