Tweet
Hubby worked for a large multinational for 14 years before taking a redundancy 18 months ago. At the same time a number of colleagues (and family) moved to the US on L1B visas to work for the parent company. More than half of those have since successfully moved on to Green Cards with the support of the parent company.
In January hubby was approached by the US/parent entity to work in a specialist capacity in the US - the exact same job he held here and which they had been unable to fill. We decided to accept, on the basis that he would still qualify for an L1B visa having worked for 12 months of the last 3 years for the local company. This was all approved by the US entity, and took from early Jan to late March to confirm with their legal team that the L1B visa was doable.
We signed the employment contract at the end of March, at which time we were handed off to a Relocation Services firm. They in turn handed off all our documentation to a local US Immigration Attorney who this week advised us that he had 'made the decision to apply for an E3 visa as strategically it makes more sense'. His words.
Strategically for us it does not make sense. We have a 15 year old daughter who we want to avoid impacting too negatively - she plans to go to university. There is a clear path from an L1B visa to Greencard, however not from an E3.
Why would the immigration lawyer recommend an E3 over an L1B?
Essentially the move is a 'one-way ticket'. They will pay for us to move to the US, but not home again. So we have concerns about packing our entire life up to move on the E3 visa with no clear path.
In January hubby was approached by the US/parent entity to work in a specialist capacity in the US - the exact same job he held here and which they had been unable to fill. We decided to accept, on the basis that he would still qualify for an L1B visa having worked for 12 months of the last 3 years for the local company. This was all approved by the US entity, and took from early Jan to late March to confirm with their legal team that the L1B visa was doable.
We signed the employment contract at the end of March, at which time we were handed off to a Relocation Services firm. They in turn handed off all our documentation to a local US Immigration Attorney who this week advised us that he had 'made the decision to apply for an E3 visa as strategically it makes more sense'. His words.
Strategically for us it does not make sense. We have a 15 year old daughter who we want to avoid impacting too negatively - she plans to go to university. There is a clear path from an L1B visa to Greencard, however not from an E3.
Why would the immigration lawyer recommend an E3 over an L1B?
Essentially the move is a 'one-way ticket'. They will pay for us to move to the US, but not home again. So we have concerns about packing our entire life up to move on the E3 visa with no clear path.
