Moving your own people
L-1 Intracompany Transfer
The L-1 is the workhorse visa for a European company sending its own people into the United States. If you have an existing entity abroad and a related entity in the U.S., it lets you transfer the executives, managers, and specialists who already know your business.
What it is
A transfer between related entities
The L-1 moves an employee from a qualifying foreign entity to a related U.S. entity — parent, subsidiary, affiliate, or branch. There are two tracks: L-1A for executives and managers, and L-1B for employees with specialized knowledge of the company's products, services, or processes.
Who qualifies
The employee must have worked for the foreign entity for at least one continuous year within the preceding three years, in an executive, managerial, or specialized-knowledge role.
The U.S. and foreign entities must have a qualifying corporate relationship that continues throughout the assignment.
Why European companies use it
There is no annual cap and no lottery, unlike the H-1B. L-1A status can extend up to seven years and maps cleanly onto the EB-1C green-card route for multinational managers, making it a natural path from temporary transfer to permanent leadership in the U.S.
What Privello handles
- Confirming the qualifying relationship and the employee's eligibility
- Structuring L-1A vs. L-1B for the role
- Building the petition evidence — org charts, role descriptions, corporate documents
- Planning the new-office route where you're starting from scratch
- Sequencing the transfer with the data-transfer steps it triggers
Starting from zero? See the new U.S. office route
Common questions
Questions European companies ask
Can we use the L-1 to open our first U.S. office?
Yes. The L-1 “new office” route is designed for exactly that — sending an executive or manager to establish U.S. operations. It carries specific first-year evidence and expectations, which is why structure matters before anyone files.
How long does L-1 status last?
New-office L-1s are typically granted for one year initially, then extended. L-1A managers and executives can extend up to seven years total; L-1B specialized-knowledge employees up to five.
Does moving staff on an L-1 trigger data-protection obligations?
Almost always. The moment HR and operational data moves between your European and U.S. entities, GDPR transfer rules apply on the same timeline. Privello plans both sides together.
Begin
Talk through your move with Privello
Tell us what you're planning. We'll outline the realistic options — and how the immigration and data-protection steps line up — in a first conversation.