SecondRow

Hi,

I picked up my passport this morning with L1B visa inside and I noticed the expiry date is set to 5 years from now.

I was under the impression that it should be 3 years and then I can apply to extend it for a further 2 while a L1A would have been 5 years with the option to extend to 7?

Has there been a mistake or is this normal and I would still have to apply for the extension despite what the visa says?

Cheers

S Folinsky

It is a common error to conflate "visa" with "status." The L-1B status [and the underlying visa petition] is as you note, generally for 3 + 2. [There are circumstances where it can be quite a bit longer -- e.g. L-1B for multiple short sojourns in the US].

That said, the actual "visa" is subject to the "Reciprocity Tables" of the Department of State. For the UK, the validity of an L-1 is for five years.

crg

Is there a separate petition validity date? The I-94 at entry is limited to 3 years max at each entry, but not for longer than the petition is valid. The validity of the visa isn't as important as long as it is valid when seeking entry.

Owen778

That's interesting. My L1-B validity is only for three years.

Orangepants

I believe it has been quite common since 2012 to stamp for the potential validity of the petition - see this link:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012.../2012-3455.htm