Recently, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services updated the L1 intracompany visa program requiring the US company and foreign employer to establish a connection to qualify for bringing foreign-born skilled workers to the United States. In short, they need to prove that the same employer owns the two companies. Many US companies use this visa program to bring employees to work on a project basis, and they use L1 visa program because there aren’t enough H1B visas issued annually to fulfill the demand. However, the US government rejected 70 percent of the applications made by Indians, which is absolutely unjust because there isn’t a reason for doing that.
USCIS officials will now assess ownership and control of the business to check if there’s a connection between the foreign enterprise and the American company. They will look into the legal right of possession and right and power to direct operations. At the same time, the two companies will have to submit legal documents proving the same. These documents include legally binding proxy agreements, sworn statement from equity holder, and organizational documents of both the companies. They will also need to submit the legal framework under which the proxy was given.
Validity changes
Even though it is the L1 visa petitioner’s responsibility to prove validity, the USCIS will have the ultimate decision, so the officials are sure that the documents are valid and credible. Previously, business equity holders had the right to reverse a proxy agreement at any given time. If the petitioner is unable to establish proofs, the USCIS will adjudicate the petition.
It means that they are given a chance to amend the L1 visa petition to show a change of ownership or control of a business. However, they will have to amend in terms of the recent visa rule changes.
