Numerous U.S. businesses and organizations engage professional talent on a global scale, seeking key assets from both in and outside of the United States for a stronger staff. These U.S. businesses recognize their success depends upon the combined skills and expertise of their employees.

Prior to being able to onboard a foreign national, proper U.S. employment authorization must be obtained for that national. We partner with U.S. businesses to secure that employment authorization by assisting with the following:

Visas for short-term U.S. employment authorization are commonly referred to as “nonimmigrant visas.”

They are for temporary employment in the United States that has an established end date and the foreign national is not using such a visa to permanently immigrate to the U.S. Types of short-term U.S. employment authorization include:

Long-term U.S. employment authorization with no established end date requires U.S. permanent residency (widely known as a “green card”). Many U.S. businesses decide to retain global talent for a longer period of time than a temporary visa allows and invest in the valued employee’s future. This requires submitting a request to the U.S. government for permission to classify the employee as an “immigrant” based on the long-term employment and providing the employee the opportunity to become a U.S. permanent resident/green card holder. This may also involve recruiting U.S. workers first, before requesting “immigrant classification”, to show that there are no available and minimally qualified U.S. workers who can assume the job necessitating the long-term employment of the qualified foreign national.

Certain U.S. businesses have an established global presence with affiliates, subsidiaries, or parent companies located abroad. These U.S. businesses may want to transfer executives, managers, or employees with specific skillsets or knowledge from the foreign affiliate to the U.S. entity. Reasons for the international transfer can range from using that executive or manager’s experience to build up the U.S. operation, or applying a foreign-based employee’s specific knowledge to further a project or initiative at the U.S. operation. Regardless of the reason for the international transfer, the L-1 visa for short-term U.S. employment authorization was designed for this purpose. U.S. businesses seeking to transfer foreign-based staff from an affiliate abroad should consider this option.