Hong Kong Working Visa Renewal Challenges

The L1 visa is one of the most popular vehicles by which the proprietors of outside businesses can obtain permanent status in the United States by expanding operations to the United States. The procedure is carried out in three stages:

To start with, the initial L1 visa is given for a time of one year to set up operations of the new U.S. branch;

Second, the L1 visa must be renewed based (in part) on the main year record of the U.S. branch;

Third, when renewed, for an additional 2 years, the L1 visa holder may apply for permanent residency with the help of the U.S. branch.

It would not be an exaggeration to state that the USCIS often approves the initial L1 visa on a dream – upheld by an all around drafted business plan and a persuading amount regarding cash in the bank. Be that as it may, if getting ones foot in the entryway appears to be easy enough, renewal of the visa frequently ends up being a nightmare for the applicant who – usually – has removed hearth and home with the intention of payroll hk permanently relocating to the United States.

Our firm has checked on the choices in all cases distributed in 2005 by the Administrative Appeals Unit of the Department of Justice in which the USCIS denied a request for L1A visa renewal. In 98% of these cases the reasons for the denial were virtually identical:

  1. The candidate did not establish that the beneficiary will be utilized in a primarily managerial or official capacity;

  1. The candidate did not utilize adequate or sufficient work force.

  1. The candidate did not establish physical offices;

The greatest mistake most applicants and/or their immigration lawyers make is to assume that the same obligations that bolstered the initial visa appeal will be sufficient to help the renewal. This assumption is fatal to a renewal case. This is because the obligations a L1A beneficiary must undertake in the main year to set-up operations must incorporate – by need – non-managerial and non-official essential capacities, for example, administration, marketing, advertising, and human asset management.

The USCIS is careful that such non-qualifying obligations are required to get the new operation off the ground. Be that as it may, the applicable regulations grant a company just a single year to accomplish this. When the renewal appeal must be recorded, these non-managerial and non-official obligations must have been transferred to locally utilized staff, working in actual physical offices working visa renewal hong kong. The size of the staff cannot; just that it be adequate to cover the afore-mentioned essential capacities.