How I successfully obtained an L-1A work visa as a startup CEO without a lawyer during the visa ban

Yesterday, I crossed the border into the United States. After about 20 minutes of processing, I entered the United States with a 3-year L-1A visa in hand from an application that I’d prepared almost entirely myself.

I want to share my experience to help others who may be in a similar position. There aren’t a lot of quality resources available on L-1s, especially if preparing the majority of the application without a lawyer. In my experience seeking legal advice on this process, I was consistently deterred from the L-1. I was also given advice that turned out to be flat wrong.

There’s also a lot of misinformation online, and hopefully this will help some folks avoid the same rabbit holes I went down.

To be clear, it is absolutely is possible to do an L-1 application without paying $10,000+ in legal fees, provided you have time and access to the necessary documents. If you’re a small company, most of what you’d be paying for would be a lawyer to tell you go find documents, and then have them put into a package — it’s not that complicated.

Below is my experience, and some of the things I learned along the way. I won’t spend much time on the basic requirements of an L-1, so if you’re unfamiliar, start here.

Also, if you’re just looking for an example list of the documents I included, jump to the bottom of this article. I found it hard to find a good checklist anywhere, aside from paid resources, so hopefully this can be useful.

A brief background on me

I am a Canadian-born citizen, working as CEO for small software startup (20 people) that has offices in both Canada and the US. Both entities have been established for several years, and I’ve worked for the Canadian entity for over two years in an executive capacity.

The US company owns the Canadian parent, so a qualifying relationship exists between the two.

I wanted to relocate to our US office for strategic reasons, and to help us grow the company in the US more effectively.

I have held executive (COO/CEO) level positions since 2018, which, in combination with the above, meant I met all of the requirements for an L-1.

Personally, my partner was/is living in the US, and I had historically been worried about violating a tourism or business (B1/B2) visa by working or overstaying. I didn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize me being able to return.

Years prior, when I first joined the company, I had applied for and held a TN visa for two years as a Management Consultant. At the time, we had qualifying client work that made it possible for me to meet the TN requirements. That visa had expired in 2019, and, not having additional consulting work, another TN was not a valid option.

A note on TNs…

When I got my first TN, I was initially turned back because they wanted to see much more specific documentation. Another person applying for a TN at the same time as me — who was very clearly a salesperson trying to squeeze into a TN — was told he was not permitted to re-enter the United States for a period of two years. Even though the work I was doing very much qualified, the second time around was still tough.

The TN is a great visa option, as long as you work in one of the qualifying NAFTA professions. The problem, however, is that a lot of immigration firms and attorneys will point you in this direction, even though you don’t actually work in a qualifying role.

The “Management Consultant” profession is the one lawyers like to bend to fit a role that otherwise shouldn’t qualify. Salesperson? Marketing manager? Product manager? We’ll just call you a Management Consultant, right?

Wrong. Management Consulting has a very specific definition. Consultants work for companies like McKinsey or Bain, travelling from client to client advising senior executives on business problems or opportunities within their firms. They have specific education and experience to do what they do.

Border agents know this. They are constantly looking for people trying to cheat this. The Management Consulting classification is by far the most scrutinized of the TN professions. Intentionally lying or misrepresenting yourself to a border agent is a terrible idea — the risk is not worth it.

The other negative of the TN is that you have to be prepared every time you cross the border. If an agent suspects you are entering for a purpose other than the work you a permitted to do under your TN, they can re-adjudicate your application at any time. So unless you are staying for the entire period, there’s still added stress every time you cross.

Nonetheless, I had multiple lawyers try to steer me back into a TN because it is easier and takes less time than the L-1. Honestly, I think it’s because the TN application is a breeze for lawyers to prepare; the L-1, on the other hand, is a lot of work.

Anyway, I genuinely felt the L-1 was the better option for me. It didn’t require me to bend the truth, and offered a much more solid long-term option for me to stay in the US. Your situation may differ, but don’t discount that L-1 just because it’s more work or too expensive.

The ban that wasn’t a ban…

I applied during a time when there was an Executive Order banning new L-1 visas, along with a number of other visa classes such as the H1-B, until the end of the 2020 calendar year.

When in was announced, the wording of the Order seemed pretty clear. Everything remotely official that I could find reinforced this. I even had immigration lawyers and services tell me this was the case. I had basically given up on the idea of applying until the ban expired.

That was until I stumbled upon the r/immigration subreddit, and found people saying they had obtained a new L-1 visa during the ban.

Wait, what!?

Turns out, there was a most likely intentional loophole for Canadians and certain others in the ban:

[The] suspension and limitation on entry pursuant to section 2 of this proclamation shall apply only to any alien who:

(i) is outside the United States on the effective date of this proclamation;

(ii) does not have a nonimmigrant visa that is valid on the effective date of this proclamation…

The second item applies to all Canadians. Under NAFTA, Canadians with a valid passport already hold a valid nonimmigrant visa. Canadians can cross the border for tourism or business travel without additional paperwork or a visa application. Thus, they should be exempt.

Digging further, some additional sources confirmed this, although I couldn’t find anything official from a USCIS or another US agency. So I called the Port of Entry that I was going to apply to, and asked. They confirmed they were indeed processing new L-1 applications for Canadians.

The game was back on!

The lesson here: visa restrictions are complicated, and whether you’re reading this during the current ban (valid until end of 2020), or during a time with further restrictions, it’s always worth digging further before you rule anything out.

How I approached the L-1 application

Though not a perfectly identical situation, I found a great write-up from a startup founder, Peter Hudson, who had applied for an L-1 himself. It’s a few years old, but still mostly relevant. I’d recommend reading it thoroughly.

I used the same thinking for my application. Basically, “if I was a border agent, what would I be looking for?” They see hundreds or thousands of people every day. They have no idea who you are, who your company is or what they do (if you’re a small company), and what you’re really coming in for. So you want to tell a coherent story that walks them through these steps and doesn’t jump all over the place.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this, and making sure there weren’t any gaps in information I put together. Broadly, for an L-1A, you need 5 components:

• Your petition (I-129), supporting supplement, and support letter from the company.
• Information about you, as the beneficiary. Your background, qualifications, work/employment history, proof of pay.
• Information about the US entity. Financials, official filings, payroll records, office lease, org chart.
• Information about the foreign entity. Financials, official filings, payroll records, office lease, org chart.
• Documentation establishing the relationship between the two entities.

This ends up being a lot of documentation, but most of the work is just the scavenger hunt to get things together. It will end up being 100+ pages, but the majority will already be prepared. Part 1 is where you’ll invest most of your time.

Though I didn’t want to use a lawyer, I thought it would be helpful to have someone assist in preparing the forms. The last thing you want to happen is that you get turned away because you filled out a box incorrectly. Plus, it can feel a little overwhelming to be doing it by yourself, and I didn’t want to procrastinate more and draw out the process for months.

So I went to Upwork, and posted for help from a paralegal or legal assistant. I interviewed a few folks, until I found an awesome Upworker named Karen, a paralegal with significant experience handling L-1s.

Karen prepared the Form I-129, Supplement, and a draft Support Letter for me. She also got me started with a list of documents I needed to wrangle together, and was kind enough to answer a number of tiny detail questions that I had about the process. I spent under $500 in total for this help, and it was well worth it.

Once I got all the documents together, all that was left to do was print them all out (3 copies), organize them, and apply!

Why I applied at a Port of Entry (Canadian citizen)

There is some confusing and conflicting information out there, but if you are Canadian citizen, you can absolutely apply for a new L-1 visa at a Port of Entry, just as you would a TN (at least as of writing this).

You do not need to file with USCIS ahead of time and wait in the queue for months. You can show up at a designated Port of Entry and have your visa processed on the spot.

Why is this better? Well for one, unless you pay an extra thousand bucks for faster processing, be prepared to wait 2+ months for an initial response from USCIS. It’s also very common to have USCIS come back with an RFE (Request for Evidence) on an initial application. Some speculate that USCIS does this just to clear backlog, as a portion will give up after an RFE. Many immigration lawyers report receiving RFE’s for information that was already in the initial application. Whatever the case, this drags the process out for months.

If you’re a Canadian, my personal recommendation is to apply at a POE. You’ll be face to face with an agent, and be able to answer questions on the spot. I suspect this helps especially if you have put together your application yourself.

This is more of a personal hunch, but I think agents may be a little more forgiving if they see you’ve done an application yourself. Based on my experience with immigration attorneys, I suspect agents see a lot of attorney-represented folks showing up with questionable applications, and an inability to answer questions about them.

What I included in my L-1A application

Here is what I included in my package — with a reminder that this was an L-1A (Executive) as a Canadian citizen applying at a Port of Entry:

Summary of Contents

• Form I-129 Petition
• L Classification Supplement for Form I-129
• Passport Biographical Data for Beneficiary (myself)
• L-1 Support Letter for me on behalf of my company, including a detailed job description and % time allocation of different duties, emphasize executive-level functions

HigherMe Supporting Materials

• Company brochure and marketing material
• Company standard client pitch slide deck
• Company current client contract example: client contract for well known brand

US Company Supporting Documents

• Company FEIN Notice
• Company Federal Unemployment Tax Returns — 2018, 2019, Q3 2019
• Lease for US Office
• Office floor plan
• Company Organizational Chart colour-coded by Country of Residence

Documents for Beneficiary Derek Williamson

• 2019 and 2018 T4 (personal tax notice) for me from Canadian entity
• Copy of educational certificate
• Current Resume (printed from LinkedIn)

Canadian Company Supporting Documents

• Letters from two different law firms detailing the parent-subsidiary relationship between the two companies. Specifically showed US entity as the sole shareholder of the Canadian entity.
• 2019 Company T4 Summary for Canadian company
• 2018 Company T4 Summary for Canadian company
• Certificate of Registration for Canadian company
• Ontario Registered Corporation Number for Canadian company
• CRA Federal Business Number letter for Canadian company
• Letter from the co-working space we occupied in Canada confirming our tenancy (we did not have a long-term lease)

My experience crossing and final suggestions

I crossed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when travel was restricted to essential travel only (which includes work). I went to Peace Bridge in Buffalo/Fort Erie on a Friday afternoon.

There were no cars at the gate — I went right up. I stated my intention to apply for an L-1, and was guided to park and head into the screening area. There was no one else in the room.

After about 5 minutes, the agent came into the room and called me up to the counter. He took two copies of my application.

I was briefly asked why the work I was doing was different from when I had the TN. I explained that I had taken over as the CEO of the company, and that seemed acceptable.

He flipped through the pages of my application, and asked some clarifying questions along the way. He reached the end after maybe 5 minutes, and told me the application and fraud fee was $966.00. I provided a personal credit card — he advised this was fine, even though the I-129 is on behalf of the company — and he left the room again.

I prepared for more questions. Instead, he came back about 5 minutes later with my receipt and stamped passport, and told me I was all set. That was it.

The entire process took maybe 20 minutes. My only regret was that I hadn’t gotten things together and done this sooner. The prep work did take probably 20-30 hours, but a lot of it was fairly easy file searching and review work.

I’ve written this up as a resource to hopefully help others who might be in a similar position, looking for answers. If you still have questions after reading this, feel free to reach to me on Twitter. I cannot give legal advice, and I am not a lawyer, but I am happy to share my experience if it is helpful!