L1-A Visa to Green Card

[GeorgeR]

I am a Canadian in Canada that has recently been offered a transfer to the US and I'm eligible for a L1-A visa that I am just starting the paperwork on. I have been told that once I get the L1-A that the process to greencard for my family shouldn't take more than 8 - 14 months. Is this accurate?

[Reba]

um...no, not even close.

You yourself would have to adjust status from the L visa to a green card (permanent resident status) before you could even petition to sponsor your family for green cards. An adjustment of status from a work visa takes about 2 to 5 years, and then sponsorship of family after you get Your green card can take another 5 or so years.

You can however get your spouse and minor children L2 visas, which are derivative of your L1 visa, and they can get it at the same time you get yours.

I have no idea where you got the green card info, but it is completely incorrect.

[GeorgeR]

Hi Reba,

Thank you for the quick reply! I got the information through a telephone consultation at the website: www.usadimmigration.com

These guys seemed to know thier stuff and I was assured that they are very experienced in these matters. Where do you get your information?

[Reba]

From United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. The horse's mouth so to speak.

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis

You cannot sponsor family members for a green card if you yourself do not even have a green card. One must be a legal permanent resident, or a US citizen in order to sponsor family for permanent resident status.

However, as I said before, if you have L1 visa status, your spouse and minor children are eligible for derivative L2 status.

[GeorgeR]

Thank you again Reba!

You certainly seem to know your stuff. I looked up the processing dates for the I-140 (transferred Executive) and it looks like it took 14 months. I can't find the processing dates for the I-130 that my wife & children will need to obtain "green cards". I know that my wife will be able to work with her L2 but it looks like I will need to file a I-130 for the children then a I-765 so they can work while thier I-130 is being processed. Is that right?

[Steven]

I am a Canadian in Canada that has recently been offered a transfer to the US and I'm eligible for a L1-A visa that I am just starting the paperwork on. I have been told that once I get the L1-A that the process to greencard for my family shouldn't take more than 8 - 14 months. Is this accurate?

Depends on which category you fall into when your employer files the I-140 for you. Most people in your position fall into EB-3 Skilled Worker which currently takes about 3.5 years to get a visa number and then about a year to adjust status to LPR. If you're lucky you may fall into EB-2, which is much faster as visa numbers are usually immediately available and that would be 8-14 months from start to finish.

Have a look www.uscis.gov at the requirements for EB-2 and EB-3 Skilled Worker and see which one you fit into.

One of my relatives did AOS from L-1B by getting EB-2 and he doesn't have a degree, although he does have some relatively unusual skills which is how he managed to get EB-2.

Either way I wouldn't get too worried, L-1A can be renewed up to seven years, the only real advantage of EB-2 would be that you can change jobs sooner and don't have to worry about getting booted out of the country quite as much.

[Steven]

I can't find the processing dates for the I-130 that my wife & children will need to obtain "green cards".

You don't need to file I-130, your dependents are included in your AOS application when your visa number comes up. You would only need to file I-130 if one of your children is over 21 at the time, for them.

[GeorgeR]

Thank you Steven,

I don't see a problem getting an LPR for me and I know that my wife and children will get dirivative visas from my L1-A. My concern is how soon I can get an LPR for my children or at the very least a work permit as they are now in high school with college very soon. An LPR would mean no out of country tuition fees and the work permits would at least lessen the blow.

When looking at the processing dates on the Texas site I did not see any I-130 processing for 2008 which I thought unusual.