L1-A New Office in US

Requirements for Filing an L-1A New Office petition Explained

If you’re looking to establish an L-1A New Office in the United States, there are a few additional requirements you need to be aware of. Firstly, you must secure a physical premise to house the new office – a virtual office or mailbox address won’t suffice. Additionally, within one year of petition approval, you’ll need to demonstrate intention to support an executive or managerial position. This includes providing details about the nature and scope of entity, its organizational structure and financial goals, the size of U.S. investment, foreign entity’s financial ability to remunerate the beneficiary, and the organizational structure of foreign entity.

According to USCIS regulations, a new office is defined as an organization that has been doing business in the United States through a parent, branch, affiliate, or subsidiary for less than 1 year. To ensure that L-1A new office petition gets approved by USCIS, it’s important to provide detailed information about the nature of the office, its scope, organizational structure, financial goals, and investment size.

One of the best ways to make a strong case for L-1A new office is by submitting a detailed business plan. While not required by regulation, a business plan can help educate USCIS adjudicators on the business operations and the industry company operate in. The business plan should cover essential information such as company’s objectives, competition, clients, sales strategy, employee background, location, corporate structure, and investment size in the business. It’s also recommended to include a 3-5-year cash flow statement to showcase company’s business’s growth prospects.

Make sure to provide the USCIS with documentation that establishes sufficient physical space for housing the new office, such as a lease agreement or photographs of the office premises. The USCIS may also require documentation that proves the size of the U.S. investment and foreign company’s financial ability to remunerate the beneficiary and begin doing business in the U.S., such as initial wire transfers to the United States entity, bank statement of the United States entity detailing the amounts for the capital contribution, a letter of intent, MOU or other similar documents outlining the details of investment in the United States entity, documents showing foreign organization paid for services to start business in the United States, foreign organization’s tax documents, foreign organization’s audited balance sheets and statements of income and expense showing its financial position, and foreign organization’s business bank statements.