WORKING FOR A BRITISH COMPANY FROM THE US

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

4 hours ago, ameriwork7 said:

can we just register our business in the US but not actually have an office there/be based there?

No, in fact one of the things they do is check whether the physical office /factory /store/whatever’s size, location, facilities etc tallies with the stated purpose of the business.  As I said before, there are a bunch of requirements to meet, otherwise every Tom ####### and Harry  would just register a business and get an L visa! People obviously try to game the system, so the denial rate is fairly significant,  hence why I said before you need a competent attorney overseeing it. The process will not be particularly fast and will not be cheap. What does your boss think about the idea?

 

edit:

Er LOL VJ for blanking out the shortened form of the name Richard in a well known phrase 😂

Edited March 29, 2018 by SusieQQQ

[Unidentified 2,930]

22 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

No, in fact one of the things they do is check whether the physical office /factory /store/whatever’s size, location, facilities etc tallies with the stated purpose of the business.  As I said before, there are a bunch of requirements to meet, otherwise every Tom ####### and Harry  would just register a business and get an L visa! People obviously try to game the system, so the denial rate is fairly significant,  hence why I said before you need a competent attorney overseeing it. The process will not be particularly fast and will not be cheap. What does your boss think about the idea?

 

edit:

Er LOL VJ for blanking out the shortened form of the name Richard in a well known phrase 😂

4

Well VJ des have a language filter  

[Boiler 45,898]

Try slang for cigarette

 

**.

[geowrian 22,338]

8 hours ago, ameriwork7 said:

the obvious reason for me is that my main country for trade is the US. I have numerous business contacts in the US and it's much easier for me to meet them in person than constantly have phone calls. we want to set up an office in the US eventually and that would be my main base but for right now I just need to travel back and forth to have meetings

You'll need to keep traveling back and forth for now, being sure to avoid behavior that would cause CBP to believe you have or will abuse privileges (i.e. actually living/residing in the US). If they want to conduct long-term business operations with US companies via that level of in-person meetings where visits are insufficient, either a US office or US-based authorized worker will be needed. Once they have a US-based office setup, they can look at sponsoring a work visa (L-1 would be the one that appears to be best suited for this case off-hand).

 

8 hours ago, ameriwork7 said:

can we just register our business in the US but not actually have an office there/be based there?

I believe that would be a question for the company's lawyers to address, and based on the individual state's laws.

Would said registration only qualify for sponsoring a work visa? Likely not.

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

5 hours ago, geowrian said:

 

Would said registration only qualify for sponsoring a work visa? Likely not.

At least for an L, the answer is definitely no. There very specifically has to be either an existing office or a new one set up with a distinct timeframe of a year to become operative, failing which L1 renewal in a year also fails..

https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/l-1a-intracompany-transferee-executive-or-manager

 

i know someone who jumped through all the hoops on this process  and ended up being denied (I might add correctly as they basically were intending to use it as a backdoor to immigrating, so that bit’s not necessarily applicable here) but the bottom line is that there needs to be a physical office or appropriate premises for the business and uscis do inspect it...