U.S.-Canada Inter-Corporate Transfers The Best Immigration Option

One of the best work visas for managers and executives who want to immigrate to the United States is the L-1 visa. Unlike other country nationals, this is particularly true for Canadians due to the USMCA/NAFTA free trade agreement. Even Mexicans under the same country trade agreement do not enjoy the benefits Americans and Canadians do. Briefly, an L-1 work visa is an inter-corporate transfer work visa. As a model, think FedEx transfers a manager from Toronto to New York – the applicant gets an L-1A visa and the family also comes to the USA on L-2 dependent visas. The spouse gets the right to work as incident to her status on entry to the U.S.

L-1 Applications Do Not Have To Be Filed In Advance

Of special interest and value for Canadians in this regard is that applications do not need to be filed in advance. Canadian citizens can apply for L-1 visa status at a port of entry on the U.S.-Canada land border or at a United States pre-clearance/pre-flight station in Canada. The application must include all of the same documents and filing fees required by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

This is so important because of the lengthy delays that are currently involved because applications by other country nationals must be filed at USCIS immigration processing offices and then with consulates. That can take a lot of time due to the backlogs left by the pandemic and shortages of trained staff. Current processing times for such applications entail two weeks with premium processing at the USCIS followed by six months to one year at U.S. consulates abroad.

At the U.S.-Canada border approvals are normally granted for up to three years, and then renewed until the period of authorized stay has been reached, that is to say, until seven years for managers and executives or five years for workers with specialized knowledge have been met.

The following are the requirements for approval:

The petitioner is the same firm, corporation, or other legal entity, or parent, branch, affiliate, or subsidiary thereof, for whom the beneficiary has been employed abroad;

The beneficiary is a manager, executive, or an employee having specialized knowledge, and is destined to a managerial or executive position or a position requiring specialized knowledge;

The petitioner and beneficiary have the requisite employer-employee relationship;

The petitioner will continue to do business in the United States and at least one other country;

The beneficiary meets the requirement of having been employed abroad for one continuous year within the three years preceding the petitioner’s filing of the initial L-1 petition;

If the beneficiary is destined to a position requiring specialized knowledge, his/her period of stay in the United States in L nonimmigrant status has not exceeded the five-year maximum allowable period of stay;

If the beneficiary is destined to a position requiring managerial or executive capacity, his/her period of stay in the United States in L nonimmigrant status has not exceeded the seven-year maximum allowable period of stay;

If the beneficiary is coming to open, or be employed in, a new office, and the requirements described below are met.

An L-1 visa can be issued for a Canadian coming to start up a new branch office of the company in the United States. Dependents can be brought along, and after a year’s time if all goes well, an L-1 visa holder can apply to renew his or her start-up L-1 visa and also even apply for a green card with all the benefits of permanent residency. In the meanwhile, children can go to school paying domestic tuition rates. A good business plan involving the immigration component is critical. An alternative could involve the Canadian company buying a U.S. subsidiary business and thereby avoiding the more rigorous scrutiny involving start-ups.

For these reasons, the inter-corporate visa is an ideal work visa for Canadians going to the USA.

What About Americans Going Up To Canada?

Virtually all these same criteria apply to American applicants who wish to work in Canada. Dependents get status and spouses get work authorizations in the same way. The only difference is that, unlike the American requirement, Canada requires the applicant to be employed with the U.S. company at the time of the application for immigration. In addition, as a working rule, Canada requires applicants to provide evidence of a significant economic benefit to the country to get an approval of the application. Often this may entail obtaining support from a Canadian third-party organization to show the benefit that will flow to the country from the approval, such as a lot of money being invested, some sort of new innovation that could benefit the country coming in, or jobs for Canadian workers being created. Finally, Canada requires the Canadian employer to register online to pay an employer compliance fee before the applicant applies at the border. This is a reasonably easy matter.

Key Benefit Of Inter-Corporate Applications

The key benefit here again is that Americans can apply for and receive their work permits right at the border and do not have to apply in advance of arrival. While the initial work permit is usually only granted for up to two years, it can be renewed for up to the maximum period of authorized stay of seven years for managers and executives and five years for specialized knowledge workers. By contrast, the posted processing times for so-called ICT (Inter-Corporate Transfer) workers is 15 weeks for the USA, but anyone familiar with the reality of how consulates are working these days knows it can take even much longer.

What Is The Takeaway?

If you are an employer seeking to employ a manager, executive, or specialized worker in your company and you have an affiliate company in the U.S. or Canada as opposed to elsewhere, recruiting from that adjoining country makes a huge difference in terms of avoiding processing times and delays regarding work visas. It would be pure folly not to take advantage of this benefit in your employment strategy.