Sophie Alcorn, legal professional, writer and founding father of Alcorn Immigration Regulation in Silicon Valley, California, is an award-winning Licensed Specialist Lawyer in Immigration and Nationality Regulation by the State Bar Board of Authorized Specialization. Sophie is enthusiastic about transcending borders, increasing alternative, and connecting the world by training compassionate, visionary, and professional immigration legislation. Join with Sophie on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Expensive Sophie,

For the previous 5 years, I’ve been working the Boston-based biotech startup I co-founded whereas dwelling in Pakistan whereas my co-founder has been dwelling in Boston. Now I need to transfer to the U.S. to increase our enterprise. What choices can be found to me?

— Plucky Pakistani

Expensive Plucky,

I’m appreciative of all of the worldwide founders such as you who come to the U.S. to innovate, create jobs, and contribute to the financial system! And kudos to you! It feels like your biotech has hit the candy spot to sponsor you for a visa in addition to a inexperienced card if you wish to keep within the U.S. completely.

Make sure you work with an immigration lawyer, who can information you and your startup by way of this course of and arrange your startup for fulfillment in sponsoring worldwide expertise. An immigration lawyer may put together you for an in-person interview on the embassy or a consulate in Pakistan if you’re required to have one. You might be able to get an interview waiver for the visa choices beneath should you apply earlier than the tip of the yr. Till then, consular officers have the discretion to waive the visa interview requirement for sure work visas should you had been beforehand issued a visa and have by no means been denied one.

Now, let’s dive into your greatest choices.

L-1A visa

The L-1A visa for intracompany transferee executives and managers is a good possibility for startup founders who’re both seeking to arrange a brand new workplace within the U.S. or — such as you — need to transfer to the U.S. to work from an already present workplace.

Your startup should meet sure necessities to sponsor you for the L-1A. Your organization will want a bodily workplace location within the U.S. if it doesn’t have one already. In contrast to different visas, for an L-1A petition it’s really required and may function proof of enterprise viability. Your organization will probably additionally must submit enterprise plans, progress fashions, and group charts.

For the L-1A, you have to have been working to your startup in Pakistan for at the least one steady yr throughout the previous three years for a associated firm, have an govt or managerial place at your startup’s U.S. workplace, and make choices and supervise workers.

If the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers (USCIS) accepted you for an L-1A, it will likely be good for 3 years initially. You possibly can renew your L-1A twice for 2 years every, which will provide you with a most keep of seven years as an govt within the U.S.