Blanket visa allows you to spend 3 days in St Petersburg without applying for a regular visa. You will be able to pass the customs without any documents except your valid passport, a migration card that you will be given on board and a Sputnik tour ticket. This works for cruise passengers who travel with a group of at least two people.
What is a blanket L-1 visa petition?
It is a single visa petition that eliminates the need to file separate L-1 petitions for each of the qualified employees. Once the L-1 visa blanket petition is approved, each transferring employee may file a petition for an L-1 visa directly at the United States embassy or consulate.
What is the blanket visa for cruise passengers?
The "Blanket Visa" is a very easy and smart way to get the required Visa for Cruise Passengers. Simply put it is a piece of paper that Sputnik sends you by email. You take this paper with your passport and walk through Immigration.
What happens after L-1 blanket is approved?
Once the L-1 Blanket is approved, the company may transfer people to the U.S. on L-1 visa quickly and on short notice without having to file a separate petition for each employee with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). 3. Who may apply for L-1 Blanket?
What is a blanket petition?
The blanket petition is restricted to relatively large international organizations. To this end, the petitioner must provide documented evidence showing that it meets the requirements to file a blanket petition.
What is blanket visa L1B?
The L1B blanket visa allows companies to transfer a number of employees to the US without having to file a separate petition for each worker. It is a way for qualifying companies to move the personnel they need from overseas to a US operation through a less costly and resource-intensive application process.
What is the difference between L1B blanket and individual?
L1 Individual Visa is applicable to transfer a single individual. L1 visa petition can be applied for each individual separately. L1 Blanket Visa is applicable to transfer multiple employees together. An L1 blanket visa petition can be applied for multiple individuals at a time.
How long does it take to get L-1 blanket visa?
Standard L-1 visa processing usually takes between 6 to 12 months. This includes processing of the I-129 petition, which can take up to six months, and consulate processing which can be expected to take up to six months or longer. If the employer is applying under a Blanket L, processing can be reduced to 1-3 weeks.
How do I get an L-1 blanket visa?
To file for an L-1 blanket visa extension for an employee, the organization must file a new I-129S on behalf of the alien employee. The petitioner may also file the extension of stay for an individual employee L-1 and the L-1 blanket visa extension concurrently.
What is the success rate of l1a blanket visa?
The approval rate for L-1 visas has been on the decline (see graphic). In fiscal 2015 (12-month period ended September 30, 2015), as many as 33,454 L-1 visas were approved with a success rate of 84%. The approval rate declined to 72% in fiscal 2019 with only 29,335 approvals being granted.
Who is eligible for L-1 blanket petition?
To be eligible for the L1 Visa, the person applying has to fulfill the following criteria: Have employment in another country that is not the US for at least one year in the past three years. Have specialized knowledge, or have a managerial or executive position.
Which is better l1a individual vs l1a blanket?
L1 Individual Visa is applicable to transfer a single individual. L1 visa petition can be applied for each individual separately. L1 Blanket Visa is applicable to transfer multiple employees together. An L1 blanket visa petition can be applied for multiple individuals at a time.
Why are L-1 visas getting rejected?
Salary standards. Another major reason an l1 visa is denied is when the wages proposed for the visa applicant are significantly more or less than the standards for that industry in the US. Employers should carefully assess the prevailing wages based on industry and state-specific location.
How much does an L1 visa cost?
To apply for your L1 visa, you are required to File a Form DS-160 with the Department of State. The filing fee for a DS-160 for an L1 visa is $190 per applicant. The L1 beneficiary is responsible for paying this fee (L1 worker).
Who is eligible for L1 visa?
Under U.S. immigration law, a worker qualifies for an L-1 visa if the person has been employed outside the U.S. by the sponsoring company for at least one continuous year out of the past three years, and is being transferred to the U.S. to work as a manager, executive, or specialized knowledge worker.
Is it easy to get L1 visa?
However, despite all of these benefits, the L-1 is not the easiest work visa to obtain. This is because the USCIS is becoming stricter with who qualifies as a manager, executive, or employee with specialized knowledge. The L-1A category is for managers and executives.
What is L1B individual?
The L-1B nonimmigrant classification enables a U.S. employer to transfer a professional employee with specialized knowledge relating to the organization's interests from one of its affiliated foreign offices to one of its offices in the United States.
What is l1a individual visa?
L-1A and L-1B visas may be issued when an employer files a petition to obtain authorization for qualified employees to be allowed to work and live in the United States. The L-1A visa is for intracompany transferees who work in managerial or executive positions in a company that is located outside the United States.
What is the rejection rate of L1B visa?
(See this NFAP analysis.) In FY 2015, during the Obama administration, the denial rate for L-1B petitions at USICS was 24.9%, fell to 24.2% in FY 2016, and then rose during the Trump administration to 26.9% in FY 2017, 28% in FY 2018, 34.4% in FY 2019 and 33% in FY 2020.
How long does it take for L1B to get green card?
Once it is processed and approved, you will be an official legal permanent resident, though it could take another 6 months for the USCIS to mail your green card. All said, the best-case scenario has an L-1B to a green card processing time of a year and eight months.
1. What is L-1 visa?
The L-1 work visa is a nonimmigrant visa which allows foreign nationals being transferred by their current employer to enter into the U.S. to man...
2. What is L1 Blanket petition?
The L-1 Blanket petition is a procedure through which a very large company may pre-qualify to transfer its L-1 employees. Once the L-1 Blanket is a...
3. Who may apply for L-1 Blanket?
The L-1 Blanket is suitable for: 1. U.S. companies that are branches, parents, subsidiaries or affiliates of foreign companies that frequently tra...
4. What are the documents required for L1 Blanket petition?
The documents required for L-1 Blanket petition are: 1. Biographical information about the U.S. employer’s business (annual report, web page materi...
5. What privileges do I enjoy on L-1 Blanket visa?
On L-1 Blanket visa, you may: Be transferred to the U.S. and work legally for a U.S. company that is a branch, parents, subsidiary, affiliate or jo...
6. What are the limitations of L-1 Blanket visa?
On L-1 Blanket visa, you may: Work only for the U.S. employer who acted as your L-1 visa sponsor. However, you can transfer between the related c...
7. For how long is the L-1 Blanket petition valid?
The L-1 Blanket approval is initially valid for three years.
8. Can the L-1 Blanket approval be extended?
Yes, the L-1 Blanket approval can be extended indefinitely.
9. What is the visa status given to the dependants of an L-1 Blanket visa holder?
L-2 visa is issued to the dependants of an L-1 visa holder. Dependants include the spouse and unmarried children below 21 years of age.
What is an L-1 visa?
The L-1 visa is tied to a business, i.e., the official applicant is the U.S. company seeking to hire the future employee. Under this visa the foreigner must work exclusively for the U.S. company that submitted the application. The only exception is so-called off-site employment, which allows employees to be deployed to customer sites under certain conditions.
How many steps are there in the L-1 visa process?
The L-1 applications are usually time consuming and expensive application processes, since they are divided into two steps: the initial application to the competent service center of the USCIS supported by extensive documentation and the issuing of the actual visa through the U.S. consulate.
Can an L-1 visa be paid?
Employees who receive an L-1 visa may continue to be paid by the foreign company or the U.S. site. A U.S. employment contract or a U.S. assignment agreement is not mandatory, but possible. The foreign assignment can also be performed under a foreign employment contract.
What is an L-1 Visa Blanket Petition?
It is a single visa petition that eliminates the need to file separate L-1 petitions for each of the qualified employees. Once the L-1 visa blanket petition is approved, each transferring employee may file a petition for an L-1 visa directly at the United States embassy or consulate.
What is the L-1 Blanket Visa Validity Period?
An L-1 blanket petition is granted with an initial validity period of three years with an option to extend the visa if necessary. Requests for an extension of stay may be granted for up to an additional two years until the alien employee has reached the maximum limit of seven years for the L-1A or five years for the L-1B.
What is the L-1 Visa?
The L-1 Intracompany Transferee Visa is a nonimmigrant employment-based classification which allows U.S-based employers to transfer a foreign professional employee from related foreign offices to the United States.
How to get a green card for an alien worker?
To do this, you will need to go through the process for the employment-based green card application. This will require your employer to obtain a Permanent Labor Certification (PERM). Your employer will also need to file an I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, on your behalf. After the I-140 is approved, you can file the I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status.
How long does it take to appeal a denied L-1 visa?
Appealing a denied petition may take several weeks or months.
What is required to transfer an L-1B visa?
For an L-1B, you must demonstrate that you hold a position requiring specialized knowledge in the organization. If you are applying for an L-1A visa, you must prove that you hold a managerial or executive position in the organization. The following USCIS definitions of executive capacity and managerial capacity must be met:
Does the L-1 visa expire?
Every L-1 visa beneficiary is given the same initial three-year validity period even if the validity for the L-1 blanket may expire before the date. If you enter the U.S. on an L-1 blanket visa, and the validity is to expire while you are still in the U.S., your organization (petitioner) will need to request for an extension of the L-1 blanket or file an individual L-1 petition to support your continued stay in the U.S.
What is a blanket L-1 visa?
The L-1 blanket visa may be used for both L-1A intracompany transferee visas (for managerial and executive positions) and L-1B intracompany transferee visas (for professional employees with specialized knowledge)
What are the L-1 Blanket Visa Requirements?
The requirements a company applying for the L-1 blanket visa must meet in order to be eligible for the visa:
Why is a L-1 blanket visa good?
Basically, the L-1 blanket visa makes your life easier. It reduces the processing time for the company because the employer does not need to prove eligibility every time by filing the individual petition. Each employee will have to prove his or her own eligibility at the U.S. consulate abroad, and the USCIS will not have to deal with ...
How long does it take to get a blanket petition?
However, if the company doesn’t apply for an extension or if an application for renewal is denied, the petitioner must wait three years to apply for a new blanket petition.
How many L visas are required for a company?
The company must have had at least 10 individual L visa applications approved in the last twelve months.
L-1 Blanket Visa Requirements
In order to qualify to file for an L-1 blanket visa, there are certain requirements and criteria that must be met by the company, including:
Contact An Experienced Visa Attorney
If your company is looking to transfer employees to the U.S., you may want the help of an experienced immigration attorney. At Serving Immigrants, Inc., we have the experience and the knowledge to guide you through the application process. Contact us online or call us at (305) 907-6151 to schedule a strategy session.
What is blanket visa?
Blanket visa allows you to spend 3 days in St Petersburg without applying for a regular visa. You will be able to pass the customs without any documents except your valid passport, a migration card that you will be given on board and a Sputnik tour ticket.
How long can you stay in St Petersburg without a visa?
What is blanket visa? Blanket visa allows you to spend 3 days in St Petersburg without applying for a regular visa. You will be able to pass the customs without any documents except your valid passport, a migration card that you will be given on board and a Sputnik tour ticket. This works for cruise passengers who travel with a group of at least two people. All the passengers should stay on the ship over night and have a tour program for the day. Please, make sure to order your blanket visa at least one week in advance. How to book? Choose one of our one-day tours. According to visa policy rules you have to be guided by a tour guide and have a prepared tour program. So, let’s choose the guide, arrange a tour program and book it online...
Entry Requirements For An Existing L Blanket Registration
- The L-1 visais tied to a business, i.e., the official applicant is the U.S. company seeking to hire the future employee. Under this visa the foreigner must work exclusively for the U.S. company tha...
- When used for a planned staff assignment, it must be an internal company transfer. The foreign company (where the employee is currently employed) and the U.S. site (were the em…
- The L-1 visais tied to a business, i.e., the official applicant is the U.S. company seeking to hire the future employee. Under this visa the foreigner must work exclusively for the U.S. company tha...
- When used for a planned staff assignment, it must be an internal company transfer. The foreign company (where the employee is currently employed) and the U.S. site (were the employee will be sent t...
- The employee applying to receive an L-1 visa must have been employed at his or her current site within the group (outside the U.S.) for at least 12 months (continuously) during the last three years...
- Only those employees who have worked for one year as a “manager, executive or “specializ…
Visa Validity
- The initial application for an L-1A visa for managers/executives may be granted for a maximum period of three yearsand extended for 2-year increments for a total maximum of seven years. The initial application for L-1B visas for specialists may be granted for a maximum period of three yearsand renewed once for two years for a total maximum of five years.
Application Process
- The L-1 applications are usually time consuming and expensiveapplication processes, since they are divided into two steps: the initial application to the competent service center of the USCIS supported by extensive documentation and the issuing of the actual visa through the U.S. consulate. For multinational corporations, however, the U.S. law allows for a simplified procedur…
Family Members
- Spouses and unmarried children under 21 years of age receive a derivative L-2 visa lasting the same period as the principal applicant’s L-1 visa. Once children reach the American age of majority (21), they must change their non-immigrant visa status or leave the country. A spouse can apply for his or her own work permit (Employment Authorization Document EAD) that is not …