H1B to L1A Change of Status

USA L1, L2 Visa
1

Hi,

I have a valid H1B Visa till August 2020, My port of entry to the USA was October 2018 and I have been working here for the past 5 months and I was intended to travel back to India end of 2019. Due to unforeseen circumstances, My employer is willing to convert my H1B to L1A, since I have been doing Manager and Functional activities, along with my technical duties. My employer has promoted me and I have reportees under me in Onshore as well offshore now. The reason behind conversion is client has renewed the contract for the next 5 years and a couple of managers released from this project.

I have 5 years of experience with this current company and 5 months of onsite for the same company.

My questions:

  1. I fulfilled L1 requirement since I worked for the same company for the past 5 years before I entered US(October 2018) but in a purely technical role and it got changed now to the manager or executive role. Am I eligible?

  2. How long it will take for me to do Change of status to L1A if under normal process? ETA of approved petition hard copy.

  3. How long it will take for me to Change of status to L1A if under premium processing? ETA of approved petition hard copy.

  4. My L1 Change of Status is also done for my dependents (Spouse and Kid). They are currently in India, what is the process for them to change from H4 to L2. Do I have to fill the DS-160 again for them and schedule an interview with the consulate?

  5. What are all the documents I need to submit to prove that I am now on a different role (I have organisation chart, Email exchange between Candidates who I recruited for this project)

2
  1. Yes, you fulfilled general L1 requirements from duration standpoint, but you did not had reportees during your stay in India right ? So, you maybe eligibel for L1B as you were technical role based on the profile…Again I don’t know how USCIS will interpret this as it is grey area. Maybe this is something you need to discuss with attorney and factor in as I am not sure, how it would work.
  2. Can take few weeks to few months… It depends on where you file, check USCIS for processing times.
  3. If premium, it will take 15 calendar days for processing and two to three weeks for the hard copy in hand.
  4. If they want to enter US on L2, then they need to go for stamping with your L1 approval. Yes, you need to do that. If they arrive before you submit application for COS, then no need for visa stamping as COS will be approved, if applied for all of them together.
  5. They all would help, but check with your attorney on this as they would be the best one to guide on this as they will be the one crafting your job role and submitting the petition.