Berardi Immigration Law presented eight TN and L-1 petitions to U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) on behalf of our clients in September. We provide highlights of two of these cases below:
• Applying for L-1A status in the U.S. necessitates documentation establishing that the foreign national meets all statutory requirements.
In order to qualify for L-1 status, a foreign national must have worked for the foreign company for at least one out of the previous three years and the foreign national must possess either specialized knowledge or be employed in a managerial or executive position. Establishing the foreign national’s eligibility is as important as establishing the corporate relationship between the foreign national and the U.S. employer.
Our Canadian corporate client hired a foreign national employee as their Senior Vice President in September 2015. The employee attempted to travel to the U.S. in November 2015, at which time Customs and Border Protection informed him that he would need an L-1A visa in order to work in the United States. At that time, we advised the corporate client that the employee was not able to apply for an L-1 visa until he had one full year of employment. One year later, once he had the required time with the employer, we were able to draft an L-1 application on his behalf. Because the employee only had a partial 2015 T4, we included with his petition an Employment Confirmation letter, recent pay stubs, and a payroll register confirming his employment for one full year. He was approved for L-1 status for a full three years.
• TN professions under the NAFTA Treaty are narrowly defined and documentation must be submitted that specifically proves a foreign national’s eligibility for the profession.
There are over 60 NAFTA-approved professions, each with required documentation and qualifications. In applying for TN status, a foreign national must submit enough documentation for the Customs and Border Protection Agent to understand the job offered and that the job is a profession designated under the NAFTA Treaty.
Our clients were scientific technicians coming to the U.S. to support an engineer performing emissions testing on a factory in Detroit, Michigan. We included with their petitions their credentials as well as the credentials of the engineer under which they would be working. Additionally, we included a detailed job description explaining how the work they would be performing fell under the Scientific Technician profession as defined by NAFTA. As Customs and Border Protection closely reviews applications for all professions under NAFTA, it is important to make the foreign national’s qualifications easy for them to understand and approve.
If you are Canadian and are interested applying for an employment-based visa at the Buffalo Peace Bridge, please contact our office to schedule a consultation with one of our attorneys today!
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