visa validity new office L1

[Javs52]

Hi
I just got my visa today from the consulate

its a new office L1A

the petition end date mentioned on the visa is 31/01/2016

but the visa is valid till feb2020 ?

what does that mean?

1.does it mean that I dont need a visa for the next 5 years and can travel on it?

2. whats the purpose of the petition date on the visa?

3. also it mentions i have to carry valid i797, at Point of Entry? does that mean all the time or only first time

thanks for your assistance

[Javs52]

friends, any valuable input on this? i understand new L1 visas are valid only for 1 year initially, but how I have got 5 yrs and what are the implications?

[me_shaan]

In general L1A visa is initially provided for 3 years with 2 subsequent renewals of 2 years each (total of 7 years).

If you have been given 5 years visa, its good for you. You can travel for 5 years.

You will have to check the annotation on your visa to see if they asked you to carry 797 or 129S at point of entry. Its generally required only during the first entry, to get it regsitered in INS system. But its advisable that you keep enough copies with you and carry them on every subsequent entries with the same visa.

PED is the date till which your US employer has agreed to sponsor you, you will have to get it extended later on some months before its expiry. If your visa is valid beyond your PED, you can do an "in country" extension done.

[Javs52]

In general L1A visa is initially provided for 3 years with 2 subsequent renewals of 2 years each (total of 7 years).

If you have been given 5 years visa, its good for you. You can travel for 5 years.

You will have to check the annotation on your visa to see if they asked you to carry 797 or 129S at point of entry. Its generally required only during the first entry, to get it regsitered in INS system. But its advisable that you keep enough copies with you and carry them on every subsequent entries with the same visa.

PED is the date till which your US employer has agreed to sponsor you, you will have to get it extended later on some months before its expiry. If your visa is valid beyond your PED, you can do an "in country" extension done.

the only person i thought that would reply me_shaan and I got a response!!

I remind you that this is a new office L1, so should have been 1 year,

so I understand I dont need to apply for the next 5 years, but does it also mean they can stay for 5 yrs??? or it depends on the I94 on arrival?

so I still need to get an extension!!?!!? coz even if I didnt I could still travel on it for the next 5 yrs?

also, its a tricky situation because my wife and son got 5 yrs same as me...but my daughter got visa until the end of petition date....

[raghvi]

Generally Petition end date, Visa end date, and I-94 end date should remain in sync. But as they all are issued by different Govt bodies, with no centralized database there are bound to be discrepancies. What I believe is that one should be conservative and always try to go by the earliest expiry date, be it passport, visa, i-94, or petition.

So in your case, even if visa is valid til 2020, you would need to apply for petition extension by 31/01/2016, which in any case you would have to do , due to the tricky situation for your daughter. And when you do that you would need to provide justification of having utilized the one year to grow the office, the turnover, employee count etc.

This is my opinion not legal advice.