CASE: L-1A petition extension / I-129
PETITIONER: Adventure Travel Company in the Philippines
BENEFICIARY: Filipino President/CEO in Las Vegas, NV
Our client is an adventure travel company in the Philippines. They contacted our office in the middle of September 2014 to seek legal assistance for a possible L-1A “new office” petition to send its executive to the U.S. in order to setup a new office. Our office was retained and his L-1A petition and visa were approved in February and March 2015.
The L-1A nonimmigrant classification enables a U.S. employer to transfer an executive or manager from one of its affiliated foreign offices to one of its offices in the United States. This classification also enables a foreign company which does not yet have an affiliated U.S. office to send an executive or manager to the United States with the purpose of establishing one.
In December 2015, our client contacted our office again for the extension of his L-1A status.
Upon retention, our office prepared and eventually filed the L-1A petition with various supporting documents. The application included a detailed employer support letter, documentation to demonstrate the qualifying corporate relationship between the parent company in the Philippines and the U.S., financial documents, past experience documents, business plan, and physical premises evidence among others. We filed the L-1A extension petition on January 5, 2016.
The USCIS eventually sent a Request for Evidence and requested Petitioner to submit additional evidence to establish ownership and control of the U.S. Entity, physical premises of the U.S. company, and U.S. Entity’s business activities. In response to the RFE, we gathered supporting documents to address all issued and filed the Response to RFE on March 24, 2016.
Eventually, our client’s L-1A application was approved on April 11, 2016. His L-1A status has been extended to March 2018.