L1 Visas

An L-1 visa allows firms, which have subsidiaries abroad, to transfer from foreign countries to the US as intra-company transferees, subject to them having been employed with the company for at least six months. Nearly one-third of all employees of Indian infotech companies working for clients in the US are on L1 visa. The difference between H1-B and L1 is that  those working in the US on H1 visas have to be paid what US workers with similar skill sets get paid, L1 has no wage parity stipulation. So, an infotech professional working with an Indian company in India, gets one-tenth the wage that his or her US counterpart gets. Importantly, L1 visa is easier and quicker to obtain than H1 visa, due to the stringent authentication involved in issuing H1 visas. 

Copyright(c) 2004 Fred L. Valentine, Jr. All rights reserved.
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