L-1 visa

An L-1 visa is a visa document used to enter the United States for the purpose of work in L-1 status. It is a non-immigrant visa, and is valid for a relatively short amount of time, from three months (for Iran nationals) to five years (India, Japan, Germany), based on a reciprocity schedule.^[1] With extensions, the maximum stay is seven years.^[2]

L-1 visas are available to employees of an international company with offices in both the United States and abroad. The visa allows such foreign workers to relocate to the corporation's US office after having worked abroad for the company for at least one continuous year within the previous three prior to admission in the US. The US and non-US employers must be related in one of four ways: parent and subsidiary; branch and headquarters; sister companies owned by a mutual parent; or "affiliates" owned by the same or people in approximately the same percentages.^[2] One L-1 visa can allow multiple employees entry into the United States.

Spouses of L-1 visa holders are allowed to work without restriction in the US (using an L-2 visa) incident to status,^[3] and the L-1 visa may legally be used as a stepping stone to a green card under the doctrine of dual intent. In 2019, there were 13,839 new work authorizations for L-1 visa spouses to work.^[4]

In 2022, the agency approved 72,958 visas.^[5] The government approves 97% of L-1 visa petitions. Between 1997 and 2019, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) approved 1.5 million L-1 visas.^[6] The number of L-1 visa workers have grown from 140,810 in 1997 to 374,234 foreign visa workers in 2017, a 165.7% increase in two decades.^[7]

In 2019, the largest occupation category for L-1A and L-1B workers were custom computer programming services, with 35.8% and 18.8% of total petitions approved, respectively.^[8]

Since 2000, Indian nationals are the largest receivers of L-1 visas. The number of L-1 visas given to Indian nationals jumped from 4.5 percent in 1997 to 43.8 percent in 2006.^[9] In 2019, Indian nationals received 18,354 L-1 visas, accounting for 23.8% of all L-1 visas issued in 2019.^[7]

According to USCIS data, the largest employers to receive L-1 visas in 2019 were Tata Consultancy with 1,542 approved L-1 visa petitions, Infosys with 517, Amazon with 455, Cognizant with 382, and Deloitte with 305.^[10] Between 2015 and 2019, Tata Consultancy received the greatest number of L-1 visas with 8,206 L-1 visas, followed by Cognizant with 4,774 L-1 visas.^{[11][12][13][14]}