tonrob

I'm a UK citizen currently living in the UK and employed by a multinational company. An opportunity has arisen for me to have my role transferred to the US. My employer will make the necessary visa arrangements. I have a partner who could potentially also request a transfer to the U.S. via her employer. Neither of us understand very much about U.S. visas and what rights we may have under them.

There are different options which may be open to me.

1) My employer transfers me onto the payroll of their U.S. subsidiary.
2) I stay on the U.K. payroll and simply get based in the U.S.

Do either of these options provide the start of some sort of route to ultimate permanant residency and right to apply for other jobs in the U.S. if I ever left my current employer?

Do any of these arrangements have a certain time limit before I am forced to leave again?

If my partner and I marry does this make a difference under any circumstances?

I appreciate that I may have unwittingly ommitted certain information that may be required to answer my questions. If so, please let me know.

I am grateful for any help anyone can provide.

Mark Carroll

In article <[email protected]> ,
tonrob <member27938@british_expats.com> wrote:
(snip)
    >2) I stay on the U.K. payroll and simply get based in the U.S.

Are you sure this is legally possible? If this assignment is anything
more than transient, I'd be surprised if it was.

(snip)
    >Do either of these options provide the start of some sort of route to
    >ultimate permanant residency and right to apply for other jobs in the
    >U.S. if I ever left my current employer?
(snip)

It really depends on what visa you're talking about. An L-1, perhaps,
or something like a H-1B?

-- Mark

hjb

Well, I did part of this - so here' my take.

My employer provided me with an L-1 visa (or L1B, no idea what the difference is).

They insisted on option 1 as they're a US company. But I don't see why option 2 would be impossible - people on 1-3mth assignments did that & everywhere else I work in the world (Dubai, Paris, Kuwait, Baghdad, Amman & Ukraine so far) I remain on UK payroll.

My suggestion would be option 1. US payroll tends to be higher & I don't know if you'd get the benefits package if you stayed on UK payroll - medical etc. are v. important in the US. I would suggest if you're going for a while that you consider pensions - I've chosen to keep my UK company pension rather than moving to their US version as the UK one is Final Salary (means I have to work in the UK for tax purposes at least 1 year out of every 10)

As far as permanent residency goes - I haven't done it - I was just starting to think about it when I got transferred to Kuwait/Iraq. But, there are lots of others who were in my situation & decided to go for a Green Card. Since you can only apply from within the country, yes, your job provides a route. In my case my company will basically tell the truth i.e. that I have a job with them, but won't pay for the attorney fees. You might want to check that out. Others on this forum can give much better info than me but it seemed that friends were getting their GC ~3 yrs after starting the process (but I wasn't paying that much attention!)

All visas have a time limit, but most can be extended as I understand it - L1 has a ?7? year final limit - I don't know, but I'd have thought within 4 years you'd know whether you want to stay or not.

No idea about marriage as I'm not married or thinking of becoming so!

From what I've read on these boards, moving with your co. is the best way to go - I was amazed at the length of time it takes for some visa - the possibility of me going was raised in late November & I relocated less than 8 weeks later. Good luck!!

DebraJulia

My family and I have just moved to the USA. Similar situation to you. My husband's factory closed down in the UK, they were a multinational company, and moved all production to the USA. My husband was offered a L1-b visa, for specialist knowledge, which is valid for 3 years, extendable to 5. The L1A & B are for company transfers. The difference between L1A & B is, L1A is for executives, managerial and L1B for specialist knowledge etc, After the visa is expired you are expected to leave the country. However, before my husband signed his new contract we negotiated terms. One of the terms being that his company were to file for his Green Card, through labor certification, and that if the application was denied they would pay all reasonable relocation costs back to the UK. It has been a very long drawn out process, but we've finally made it!!!! We were lucky in the fact that my husband's company has paid for all costs involved. As I am on an L2 visa, and my children, I have applied and received an EAD, which is work authorization. Spouses of an L1A&B visa are able to work. You will find that you can only obtain a SSN (social security number) if you have a valid visa that requires you have a SSN or an EAD. Other than that, like for my children, they are not entitled and we have to apply for ITIN (tax identification number) for them for the tax return forms that have to filled out each year.

I won't say its been easy to get to the USA. Long months of negotiations and waiting for approval from the USA and interview at the USA embassy in London, which actually wasn't too bad. It has been a rollercoaster of emotions, my husband was legally allowed to work in the USA from Jan 04, but the kids and I had to remain in London until June (I was responsible for selling our home and sorted out the finances etc), so thats a long time to be separated. You feel as though u r not in charge of your own lives, other people are determininng your future for you. That can be quite stressful. As I say we are here now, and its been great (so far), the children have settled in really well. We are now going through the Labor Certification Process, this is a very long drawn out process and could take years. Again, our destiny is in the hands of the USA authorities, and that I find difficult to cope with. We have an excellent attorney, but at the moment we have good and bad days in thinking of future, will we be accepted for permanent residencey? What if we don't? We are concerned about the children's education. Really we have taken a huge gamble, and hopefully it will pay off, but with all gambles, some u win, some u loose! So we'll just got to sit tight for a few years and await the final outcome!

Hope my experiences have helped u in some way. If we made it here, then I'm sure you can too!!!!

Best of luck on your decision, if u need any help, reassurances or advice, please contact me!

Doolaly17

I can only give my opinion from what happened with my Dad...if you are
eligable (sp?) for an L1 visa, (much harder to get than H1B) then this
is a much quicker way to get to the US, it also has more benefits I
believe. It is valid for up to 7 years like the other poster
mentioned.

If your partner transferes to the US there is no garentee she'll end
up in your city surely? Also, if your not married and want to stay in
US perminantly, I beleive you would have to file seperate forms, which
could get complicated if there are delays for one of you, or even if
one of you got refused, etc.

"I stay on the U.K. payroll and simply get based in the U.S."...You
have to pay US taxes if your living in the US I think (!)

With an H1B visa you cannot apply for another job with another
employer for several years, this will also be the case for L1 (but it
may be a shorter amount of time?).

If perminant residency is something you are seriously considering, you
should definately speak to an immigration lawyer before making any
decisions.

With either H1B/L1 you are able to take your spouce (but obviously
only if you are married).

DebraJulia

Isn't it true though, that a spouse of a H1b holder is not entitled to work, only the spouse of a L1a/b visa is entitled to apply for work authorization? The L1a applicant can stay for up to 7 years, but an L1b is only allowed to extend to 5 years, i think?

J. J. Farrell

DebraJulia <member27873@british_expats.com> wrote in message news:<[email protected] om>...
    >
    > I know there is a way for an english national to work in the usa and get
    > paid in the UK, for the life of me I can't think of what u call it, its
    > something along the lines of expariate or something like that. I
    > believe you don't have to pay tax either, u stand to make a lot of
    > money, but by the same token u cannot apply to become a permanent
    > resident. Please don't quote me but i'm sure there is something, as my
    > husband's colleague was looking into it.

It sounds like it's probably called "illegal". If you work in
the USA then you need work authorisation in all but a very few
cases. It doesn't matter where you get paid or if you get paid
at all. One exception is when you are not paid, and can prove
that people are never paid to do that job in that situation.