Who is the L visa designed to assist?

A: The L-1 is designed to allow a company doing business outside of the U.S. to open or acquire a United States subsidiary and transfer key employees to operate and manage the American subsidiary. The foreign parent company must own at least 51% of the US subsidiary or show some form of common ownership between the organizations. The US subsidiary can be a "start-up" in the United States or it can be an existing US company acquired by the parent company. If all the basic requirements are met, employees of the parent company may come to the United States to manage and operate the United States subsidiary for a period of up to seven years. With proper planning the United States subsidiary of the parent company can serve as the source of a green card for the designated executive or manager at a later date.